The last of four consecutive mountain stages on the menu today: 135km in total, the profil may be the toughest of all here. Three categorized climbs prior to the final climb up "Cerro El Cristo Rey", which ain't too long (7km) but quite steep on it's final kilometres.
La Vie's Maillet succesfully defended his race-lead so far and still sits comfortably ahead of the best climbers, who either failed to create gaps or showed some surprisingly passive racing (Eastman in particular) so far. Those climbers definitely have to do better today, even though Maillet's lead looks quite safe at the moment.
3 riders went early and are allowed to go for a huge gap quickly - 6'35" with 111km to go:
Terciado (4th in KoM-rankings with 14 points - 9 less than Lloyd) Dyadichkin (as best-placed in GC with + 5.40 on Maillet) Kimeli
The trio doesn't challenge for today's only Intermediate Sprint, but here's the result:
Sprint #1
Dyadichkin
Kimeli
Terciado
The peloton - mostly led by Bacardi and Nutresa - started to chase once we enter the first climb and the gap is down to less than 5 minutes with now 62km to go. And we also see the first notable attacks:
Orozco (GC's 36th, + 4.31) and Morton (24th, + 3.40) on the move!
Only a few moments later, those two are followed by Berhane (GC's 16th, + 3.38)! So Jaguar obviously has a certain plan for today's stage. Berhande is one of the more aggressive GC-contenders so far, but didn't benefit from his attempts so far.
More riders try to join his move..
Sarmiento, Efimkin, Briceno and Rudaskov jump behind Berhane! Still more than 60km to go and this may become a quite dangerous group, if they work well together..
In the meantime, Terciado took the first KoM-sprint and will be real threat for KoM-leader Lloyd (he actually already takes the provisional lead that way):
KoM #1 (Cat2)
Terciado
Dyadichkin
Kimeli
48km remaining and the attacking riders in between the break and the bunch join each other to build a strong looking 7-men-group! They're 2'04" behind the leading trio and 1'08" ahead of the bunch by now.
Jaguar with Morton/Berhane as the most interesting tactics here, but also Repsol or Boeing with a tactical move to send a good climber into this group.
Today's second mountain-sprint is again won by Terciado, who grows his provisional lead (34pts, Lloyd 23pts):
KoM #2 (Cat2)
Terciado
Dyadichkin
Kimeli
It started to rain in the meantime and the long descent into the final 20km of the race causes it's first victim:
Nazaret (GC's 4th) crashed on the slicky road 30km before finish! This is horrible news for the team and definitely the worst moment to hit the turf, as the peloton is already pacing quite hard in order to keep group Berhane in control!
The premium climber is later supported by teammate Simon, who now has to help his captain to fight his way back to the bunch (facing more than 2 minutes though)!
10kms later, the drama for Barcelona becomes more and more reality though: you notice the Barce-duo in the background, desperately fighting to limit the losses..
..but it won't happen, as the gap grows to 3'25" with La Vie in full chasing-mode now:
E1/ Terciado, Dyadichkin, Kimeli
E2/ Group Berhande/Efimkin/Orozco at 0.40
P/ 81 riders including GC-favorites at 0.59
A1/ Nazaret at 4.05
So group Berhane is soon to be caught by the bunch, and also the early escapees may not survive the stage til the finish. Nazaret's race is more or less destroyed, unless anything special happens today or tomorrow.
It seems like the GC-favorites will wait for the final climb to try an (or another) attack, or La Vie's pace is simply too brutal right now.
Anyway, group Berhane is reeled in. The early escapees managed to hold on to a small gap until today's last KoM-sprint, but are swallowed by the peloton with now 10km to go!
KoM #3 (Cat4)
Dyadichkin
Kimeli
Terciado
It's now a race made for the GC-contenders to shine.. will we finally see some notable gaps? 6 riders at least try with less than 6kms to go:
Navarro Briceno Jaramillo De la Fuente Samwel Maillet
So not the biggest guns, really. But De la Fuente puts pressure on Maillet, who once again looks totally focussed and quickly jumped behind the maybe biggest contender left in the mix!
The group enters the final 5km with a 21"-advantage on the bunch, where Berhane now tries to bridge this gap! Not on the attack, but showing themselves at the front of the bunch: Eastman, Pedraza and Kashechkin.
De la Fuente (GC's 2nd + 1.10) keeps pushing and launches another move just as Berhane caught up to the leading group!
Samwel and GC-leader Maillet again manage to hang on though. This may become a thrilling battle between Maillet and De la Fuente, while GC's 3rd Brandt may have to support Eastman today.
Or will we see yet another stop-and-go by the favorites? The bunch of favorites quickly pulled the leading trio back, so it's an all open race again!
3.8km to go and now Briceno launches another attack! Does Kashechkin have bad legs or is it just a very late tactical move? We also see more riders on the move again..
So it's a very short-lived attempt by Briceno, who's swallowed by an attacking bunch of GC-favorites 3km before finish!
Pedraza, Maillet, De la Fuente, Samwel and also Kashechkin on the move now!
But it's even some more riders joining those attacks and a group of 11 riders establishes a 36"-gap quickly, now entering the steepest final 2.7km of the climb:
Pedraza Maillet De la Fuente Samwel Kashechkin Schwab Marzano Nerz Panayotov Briceno Pardilla
So no Berhane, Eastman or Brandt yet... will Eastman continue to be almost invisible here?
Next in line to attack the peloton is Topchanyuk (GC's 11th), who apparently took over the team's leading-role with Efimkin failing with his mid-race attacks.
The Ukrainian road champion caught up to the leading group, which is 39" ahead of the bunch with now only 1.8km to go!
Heineken now tries to bridge the gap, with Eastman and also Brandt as the maybe biggest names missing a maybe crucial move here. same goes for Berhane, of course.
The gap remains at 37" with now 1.3km to go.. no more attacks so far, as Kashechkin, Marzano and Pedraza keep pacing at the front of the leading group.
The climb now features slopes around 10% and the bunch goes into pieces, with two bigger groups of GC-contenders entering the final kilometre.. it ain't exactly looking good for Eastman:
E1
< 0.59 >
E2
< 0.41 >
P
Kashechkin
Eastman
Morton
Marzano
Brandt
Lloyd
Pedraza
Stetina
Serpa
Panayotov
Ochoa Quintero
Jaramillo
Maillet
Berhane
Niyonshuti
Nerz
Briceno
Feillu
Samwel
Elissonde
Zurita
Pardilla
Ndbri
Esquivel
De la Fuente
Sarmiento
Rudaskov
Topchanyuk
Efimkin
Moyano
Schwab
Heider
Navarro
Crash-victim Nazaret is already more than 9 minutes in arrears, so totally chanceless.
700metres to go and Kashechkin attacks the leading group! The veteran climber (+ 2.52) tries to gain time on Maillet, who's only a few bike lenghts behind though!
400metres remaining and the groups go into further pieces as we now enter slopes with 12%! Kashechkin opened up a 13"-gap on Pedraza in the meantime:
Kashechkin
Pedraza at 0.13
Marzano, Panayotov, Maillet, Nerz, Samwel at 0.22
Pardilla, De la Fuente, Topchanyuk, Schwab at 0.42
Eastman at 1.05
Group Brandt, Ochoa Quintero, Berhane at 1.16
So Maillet dropped De la Fuente, which may be crucial as for the final GC with one hilly stage left.. and Eastman finally at least accelerated, still facing quite a gap to close on those final metres..
At the very front, Kashechkin may only fear Pedraza to challenge for today's stage-win... the gap on group Maillet is too big.
Kasheckin takes out the last mountain stage! Again no huge gaps - so good news for Maillet - but at least some selection on this final climb. Of course a well deserved win thanks to a well timed attack.
Pedraza comes in 2nd with 16" in arrears.. with another gap behind him, the two will definitely gain some valuable seconds for the podium-fight at least.
Group Maillet loses 34", with Marzano completing the stage-podium. This will be also good seconds for the likes of Panayotov, Samwel and Nerz, who all finished within the same time.
59" behind Kashechkin, an once again disappointing Eastman crosses the line as today's 8th. So he actually had a huge finish here, but went far too late. De la Fuente in this group, too. The GC's 2nd loses more than 20 seconds on Maillet, but did quite well to hang on with the better climbers. His hopes will remain though, as he should be amongst the strongest tomorrow!
Crossing the line with 1'52" on Kasheckin is group Brandt/ Berhane/ Quintero/ Heider! While Heineken's GC's 3rd (prior to the stage) wasn't expected to finish with the best, it's quite a disaster for Berhane. The African maybe went for the wrong tactics to attack quite early today. At least he tried.
Some notable changes in the GC today: Maillet stays in yellow and De la Fuente defended his 2nd place.. Kashechkin jumps onto 3rd with now less than 2 minutes behind Maillet. Pedraza 4th with Brandt dropping onto 5th. Still a huge achievement so far, especially as Eastman only sits on 12th place so far. Some more big names like Samwel (11th), Schwab (13th) or Berhane (16th) would definitely had hoped for more. Will tomorrow's hilly circuit be a chance for some more GC-changes?
Biggest loser today - due to his crash: Nazaret. Yesterday's stage-winner loses all GC-hopes by finishing 9'53" behind Kasheckin. This is a horrible way to lose so many points, as he might have been a podium-contender at least.
