Nibali really put the hammer down yesterday with gaps opening up between some of the favourites. Stage four looks even tougher and is certainly one in which could be described as a 'medium mountain' stage. We have EIGHT categorised climbs on the menu and four in the last 75kms.
Spilak was on the defensive yesterday, but certainly rescued a lot of time with a determined ride. Martin and Taaramae were impressive as was Brambilla.
With several other favoured riders losing time it may be time already for them to fight back none more so than home favourite Sicard, whose team will be somewhat disappointed with how things are going thus far.
It is also possible that we could get a truce for today with two tough mountain top finishes to come in the next few days also. A great chance for the breakaway then to rack up KoM points at least.
The first move sticks - it could be a rewarding one but it is daunting with todays parcours and all five here are decent enough climbers.
Westra will be well known for those cycling geeks following the smaller C2 category races where he had success for his upwardly mobile squad here as a wildcard.
Brutt is known as a real toughman, though a climbing stage such as today is not perhaps his best habitat.
Morizot and Lebas carry the French flag. Both could be described as 'journeymen' riders unlikely to win much in the protour but certainly dangerous breakaway types.
Finally the man in blue is panzerwagon Martin who is a fine rouler.
Indeed Martin is the man who manages to rack up the most King of the Mountain points from the first three climbs.
KoM 1(Cat 3): Martin - - > Lebas - - > Morizot
KoM 2(Cat 3): Martin - - > Lebas - - > Morizot
Kom 3(Cat 1): Morizot - - > Martin - - > Lebas - - > Westra - - > Brutt.
The pack have let the break drift well clear but at the category one climb, a former Paris Nice Champion attacks.
Sella lost time yesterday (though thanks to hard work avoided complete disaster). Here he is going for a long solo one - it will be a hard chase for him.
100km to go:
Lead 5 - - - > Sella at 6.20 - - - > Pack at 7.40
It should be noted and much to the frustration of the breakaway is that Tony Martin is not actually doing much work with the chase being led by his own team along with ING - Pro Cycling Team
NOt that this is stopping Martin from gobbling up the mountain points and on the next second category climb he wins it to draw level with current KoM leader Steensen who has not bothered sprinting for minor points today.
KoM 4: Martin - - > Westra - - > Morizot - - > Lebas - - > Brutt
Still behind the lead group we have Sella chasing solo and ING/Bouygues leading the pack.
75km to go:
5 - - - > Sella at 3.25 - - - > Pack at 5.36
Worth noting in the pack that Team Vueling Airlines are very attentive with Dekker right at the front following his fairly weak showing yesterday.
We go over the next climb with Martin again nabbing the top prize despite contributing none of the pace.
KoM 5: Martin (up to 50) - - > Lebas (up to 34) - - > Morizot (up to 36) - - > Brutt - - -> Westra (up to 22).
50km to go:
lead 5 - - - > Sella at 1.43 - - - > pack at 3.36
Tony Martin looks good for the King of the Mountains jersey come the end of the day, however things don't go his own way at the 6th categorised climb with Lebas taking the points.
KoM 6: Lebas (up to 44) - - - > Morizot (up to 44) - - > Westra (up to 28) - - - > Martin (up to 54) with Brutt now completely uninterested in battling for climbimng points.
What of Sella?
His long chase managed to get the break down to just under a minute's lead on him, but he finds that last climb difficult to nail down the break as they attacked away to get the climbing points. He looks over his shoulder and see's the Swisscom - UBS led pack bearing down on him.
Swisscom - UBS have taken over the pace as the breaks lead has got down under two minutes - they control things at that gap down the descent allowing the break to sweep up the sprint bonifications.
Sprint: Brutt - - - > Lebas - - - > Westra
The truce in the pack does not last long as secondary leaders start to test the waters on the hard penultimate categorised climb.
Grivko and Lopez Garcia are first to go.
Followed by...
Extradonarily Sella and also Gusev.
The group I will term 'Shyte-pack' is completed by Gomez Marchante
32km to go:
Lead 5 - - - > Shyte pack at 56 seconds - - - > pack at 1.24
Five kilometres from the top of this climb we some big moves with Taaramae and Dekker.
This simply brings back the shyte pack, however another big favourite senses his chances.
Spilak drifts away and no-one is ready or capable of going with the Slovak.
Nibali sits behind his domestique Frank.
Taaramae, Sella, Schleck look on. They are taking a gamble perhaps that UBS can control this.
Up front as Spilak begins to mop up the early morning breakaway Lebas battles on to try and seal maximum mountain points.
Meanwhile with Frank exhausted Nibali has got the other favourites to work with him to limit losses on Spilak going up this climb. They are all here: Schleck, Taaramae, Dekker, Nibali, Van Den Broeck, Martin and Sicard.
Spilak though is really putting on his best show of winter training and leads the race over the climb having dispatched the morning breakaway including Lebas.
KoM7: Spilak - - - > Lebas (up to 56) - - - > Westra (up to 38) - - - > Morizot (up to 52) - - - > New KoM leader Martin (up to 60).
So Spilak has made his move, he is however completely solo with all his rivals together behind. As they mop up the breakaway Dan Martin attacks on the descent.
Sicard, Taaramae, Dekker, Schleck, Sella and Monfort go with this.
This forces Nibali to have to close this down.
The Italian is a good descender and manages to close the gap but he is under extreme pressure here as he just has the tired Frank for company.
20km to go:
Spilak - - - > 29 riders at 36 seconds - - - > Rujano, Faiers group at 1.57 - - - > Steensen group at 5.25.
Some groups are sitting up now and here is a list of the chosen ones in the group of 29:
Taaramae, Tekliehaimont, Martin Weening, Monfort, Westra Lebas, Dekker Nibali, Frank Talanskiy, Pinot Brutt, Kolesnikov Grivko, Keinath Vandevelde, Brambilla Gusev, Martin Vysna, Velits Gomez Marchante Sicard Van Den Broeck Schleck Sella Fothen Lopez Garcia
The big question here is can this group work together enough to catch Spilak?
Onto the 3rd category climb before the finish and they have cut down his lead to 25 seconds.
On the climb though we get a slight lull, Monfort attacks.
He can only manage to get halfway between Spilak and the chasers.
It is impressive stuff from Spilak as he holds them off, with 1km to go Dan Martin puts in a dig as Monfort is reeled in.
Spilak summits first but Martin manages to latch onto him on the descent.
The active Monfort looks to be aggressive on the descent but slips off his bike on a long sweeping bend.
Unfortunate for the Gazelle rider who has been really active thus far he will see the favourites ride away of course, the racing is well and truly on.
Onto that flat run in and Spilak is getting some welcome help from Martin here as the gap is maintained at 25 seconds with 8.5km left.
But 1km later both have come to a disagreement and have both sat up, neither perhaps wanting to allow the other a stage victory?
The road continues to descend into today's finish which is no flat run in, it will be a full throttle descent. The game of cat and mouse has ended between Spilak and Martin as they start to sprint.
However as we can see the other favourites are upon them with surpisingly Schleck leading the line.
A crest fallen Spilak fades back, how much energy has he wasted here? Meanwhile Martin senses a chance, but the hulking form of stage 2 winner Kolesnikov is on Andy Schlecks wheel. Van Den Broeck, Keinath and Taaramae are also in the frame.
To the overhead with 1200m to go:
Martin
Schleck Spilak Kolesnikov Van Den Breock Keinath Taaramae Dekker Pinot
Under the kite and Martin fades back, with Schleck still holding strong.
Keinath is moving closer as we approach final bend, Schleck not perhaps in the best place.
Velits and Brambilla have moved closer with PInot and Taarame sensing time bonus chances also.
As the riders grit their teeth for the final push, one rider has not quite go that last acceleration.
Andy Schleck sinks back into the pack as Kolesnikov nudges forward.
This time he celebrates the win, possibly a surprise to some he survived the climbs today.
Taaramae takes second place, once again he rode quite defensively but strongly to nab more time bonus. Keinath rode well for third over Pinot, Brambilla and Velits. Schleck ended up 7th over perhaps the slightly disappointed Van Den Broeck who usually does better in small group finishes.
Nibali finishes safely in ninth place.
His lead buffer has been cut by Taaramae and he looked under pressure today after yesterdays storming ride - he still has many tests to come.
Faiers, Rujuno, Monfort lost 2.48 today in that fast finale the GC gaps are really open already to make for what should be two exciting Mountain top finishes in the next two days.
