Schleck made em suffer yesterday with a tremendous show of determined climbing. This has moved him to the top of the GC standings and with another Mountain Top Finish today he will feel confident of pushing his current lead further.
Taaramae and Martin have ridden impressively and cleverly so far in the race. Their managers will be pleased with the current state of play and hoping for continued street smarts against the danger presented by the likes of Spilak, Nibali and Sicard who all pre race would have targetted a podium place. Not to mention the likes of Dekker, Fothen and Sella who also cannot be 100% happy with their current GC.
On the face of it you may believe today is a simple ___________/ style day but actually it is a rather lumpy one with numerous small grippy climbs before the days main course the Montagne de Lure a long pyreneen style climb.
The break of the day got clear pretty much from the gun.
Clement, Vysna and Hivert are here to arrest their teams disappointments in this race currently. We also have Morobito and Weening whose teams are probably happy with almost non stop breakaway attempts.
None of these really are threats on GC, Morobito the best more than 15 minutes back, and none have much in the terms of King of the MOuntains points.
They build a nice lead before we get a mid stage attack from three riders.
It's this reporters favourite whipping boy Gomez Marchante, who has attacked with other low ranking climbers Frank and Moschella.
Both Gomez Marchante (16th at 6.57) and Frank (17th at 7.11) have decent GC hopes, this is a bit of a gamble. If allowed breathing space it really could pay off, but of course if the pack race this hard then they could bonk big style at the finale.
Vesuvio - Accumalux are non plussed by this so allow Becherovka - Kiwibank and Tinkoff Credit Systems Bank to monitor the move.
50km to go:
Lead 5 - - > chase 3 at 1.40 - - > Pack at 3.30
This looks well under control, the break are largely rolling over the King of the Mountains. Morobito is snatching the lions share of the points placing him on the outskirts of ranking points chances in that whilst the other points are being shared amongst the breakaway.
We get another small move by outside climbers with Costagli and Lopez Garcia.
These two are quite quickly brought back into the pack however with Prio - Porto now doing the pace.
It feels as if several riders still have aspirations for making gains on GC or the very least having a crack at todays stage. Not least Spilak who launches a surprise move with 40km to go.
As you can see Schleck is immediately on this. It seems a little early to be marking Spilak has he no confidence in his teammates?
Pendleton's logically come to the front quickly to control this very dangerous situation.
35km to go:
Lead 5 - - > Chase 3 at 1.02 - - > Spilak/Schleck at 2.05 - - > pack at 2.49
Schleck is not coming through and doing any turns, Spilak annoyed at this decides to sit up and perhaps save something for later. The pack nuetralises this before we get to the 30km to go marker.
The pace continues to be fairly high and the gaps to the two breaks is coming down and now it is the turn of the chase trio to ease up. None of the three are the greatest roulers and it seems a fruitless chase from them.
25km to go:
Lead 5 - - > Chase 3 at 1.24 - - > pack at 1.52
We go over the last of our smaller climbs before today's main ascent and as the trio of chasers are reeled in Schleck launches a suprise attack of his own.
This is a very early and aggressive move with well over 20km to go, then again let's recall yesterday when Schleck launches at the bottom of the Laffrey forcing a selection early. He must feel superstrong - Gomez Marchante of the former chasers being just passed tries to go with the race leader.
This aggression brings the gap to our leading pair down to just under a minute, for Schleck he hasn't really got any of the other favourites to go with him and is caught with 15km to go.
Festina-Canal+ launch young gun Lecuisinier up the road. Grivko joins the French youngster.
This is used as a launch pad for Spilak who goes once again this tim on the lower slopes of this final 14km climb.
As you can see once again Schleck is right on his wheel. We are going to be all uphill until stage end now so this really is the business end of the race - the GC men are getting busy.
Gomez Marchante Velits Martin Sella Taaramae Sicard
all respond quickly.
Fothen analyses the situation for a moment and then gets out of his saddle to make a move. Nibali though is holding firm behind his teammates.
Having been forced to the front numerous times yesterday the Italian is thinking this can be pulled back. There are a few shall we say reluctant workers who have been exposed in the race so far who attack up to favourites and sit.
Having sat behind teammate Lecuisinier for about a kilometer, Spilak hits the afterburners again.
It is a vicious attack but as you can see Schleck, Martin and Sella are up to it with Sicard and Taaramae scrambling behind.
It is all action then on the lower slopes of this last mountain top finish, Spilak knows he simply must make up time today. The final day chrono is too short to make the ground he has lost. For our breakaway it is no joy again you think. Vysna and Morobito push on hoping for a truce behind.
10km to go:
Vysna, Morobito lead
Weening/Hivert/Clement at 25 seconds
Schleck/Spilak/Taaramae/Velits/Martin/Grivko/Fothen/Sicard/Sella at 46 seconds
Dekker/Kolesnikov/VdB/Keinath/Gomez M at 1.15
Pack at 1.30 (including Nibali, Rujano, Brambilli, Pinot)
As you can see Nibali really is waiting and waiting, is he suffering?
This is a long but steady climb and this midsection sees a regrouping up front with the first four groups merging to create a large front group.
There are a few names missing though, here first are the riders in this front group:
Schleck Spilak Velits Taaramae Sicard Dekker Martin Fothen Sella Kolesnikov
Along with the days BotD riders Morobito, Hivert, Weening and Vysna (Clement having been dropped)
Grivko has dropped back to help his leader Keinath who is with Van Den Broeck, this type of climb is not quite to his tastes.
Nibali is showing nothing still as now Project 1t4i is pacing what is left of the pack.
We reach 8km to go and we seem to have reached a truce in attacking for the moment.
Lead 14 - - > Grivko/VdB/Keinath at 42 seconds - - > Pack at 1.06
The gaps are not quite critical for those left in the pack but you'd say the stage winner looks more likely to come from our leaders today. That said with such a large group there none of the favourites is coming through leaving it to teammates Hivert and Vysna to do the pacing.
Morobito has no teammates with GC pretentions and decides to try for a bit of breathing space.
It doesn't really go anywhere as Vysna and Hivert are equal to the task, however VdB abd Keinath make it across.
Hope perhaps for Brambilli and Nibali who are now working together to try and pull things back together.
They are not pulling away from the pack though with the likes of Rujano, Gomez Marchante, Pinot, Lopez Garcia, Faiers and Dombrowski amongst others right on their tails.
Up front the kilometres are ticking down with 6km to go Sicard moves to the front.
This injection of pace puts VdB and Keinath under pressure along with Morobito... Martin seems also to be struggling.
Meanwhile finally something from Nibali who has attacked solo from the grinding pace of the pack.
5km to go:
Lead group - - > Nibali at 30 seconds - - > Pack at 1.03
VdB manages to cling on at the back as just Morobito, Vysna and Keinath are dropped from Sicard's steady pacing. The young Frenchman is just left to do all the work here.
This really is beginning to look strange nothing from Spilak and Schleck who seem paralysed or somewhat out of puff. Schleck is sitting dangerously at the back possibly monitoring Martin and Taaramae or maybe suffering? Has the brutal pace of this race caught up with them?
Sicard decides he has had enough of this wheel sucking and gets out of his saddle and accelerates.
No response from anyone! They just sit behind Dekkers teammate Hivert.
It is a superb job from him, but really disappointing from the other riders really. That said it could be that Sicard is just super strong today?
More likely the GC guys are just completely spent - Nibali now makes it to the back of this favourites shelter group.
Schleck is sitting still at the back, which is a very bad place to be with Sicard loose and Taaramae, Spilak near the front.
Sicard meanwhile now has just 2km left, this race has been disappointing by him but today he looks awesome a real coming of age.
Taaramae though has been brilliant throughout the race and now see's a big chance to snatch the race lead with Schleck still right at the back of the group he attacks.
Dekker, Velits, Martin and Fothen respond to this.
Spilak cannot and neither can Schleck, these two looked really up for this earlier today but they seem to have underestimated the sapping of this long climb.
Sicard now seems spent, under the kite and heartbreakingly for him the others are gaining rapidly on him. They are led by Dan Martin who looks by far the fastest.
The Irishman had looked in trouble at one point but has conserved his energy really well once again following the right wheels at the right time.
He looks good to get time gaps on Schleck also as we scan back there is a visable gap between the attackers and the rest.
Kolesnikov is amazing everyone with his climbers and is leading the sprint with Schleck now a bit further forward ahead of Spilak who is really sucking.
Martin draws alongside Sicard he has a gap on Taaramae, the race lead could well be his.
Sicard has found a second wind but Martin just about has enough.
Taaramae holds for third over Dekker, Velits and Fothen. These guys have lost 15 seconds on Sicard and Martin.
Kolesnikov leads the rest over - Schleck, Nibali and Spilak included. Hard to explain those three riders tactics today - tired legs could be the answer.
They lost 46 seconds on Martin/Sicard. It lookos very difficult for Schleck now who is 53 seconds back on Martin on GC with Taaramae seperating them.
