From the shortest stage your likely to see to one of the longest a 230km mainly flat route to Catalo Branca. It looks as if it will be a fairly tricky finale with some tricky little climbs and one of those late intermediate sprint points.
The favourites amongst the sprinters are Richeze (UBS) and Van Avermart(Bimbo Nutella), though how having Olman in the leader's jersey will affect the latters chances who knows.
There is plenty of time early on for a break to sort itself out and it duly does with six riders going clear.
Break of the day
It is an interesting make up of riders, as 3rd on GC Veikkenan (Telenor) and 5th on GC (3rd in youth though wearing youth jersey) Hacecky (Cillit Bang) are here. Also Unicredit have got two men in Quaade and strongman Jordi Grau, with Cimolai (Vespa) and Nizzola (Quiksilver) making up the numbers.
They are followed by a chase group of four riders...
Two Santanders in the chase group
These riders being Gallego Martin + Galparsoro (Santander), Kunitski (Intesa) and Brandle (Unicredit). This could be very good for Unicredit if Brandle makes it across to get three in the breakaway.
At the first sprint the six riders are clear of the chasing four, it could have been the chance for Hacecky or Veikkanan to move forward in the GC. However Nizzola had other ideas and took the sprint ahead of Cimolai and Quaade.
Nizzola wins the sprint
This moved Quaade up to equal time with Hacecky (one second down on Veikkanan), Nizzola to 4 seconds behind Veikkanan and Cimolai to 5 seconds behind Veikkanan. Veikkanan incidentally was two seconds behind Miles Olman, whose Bimbo Nutella team is in control today.
Bimbo control the gaps ahead - for Olman and Van Avermart
With 75km to go then the lead 6 had three minutes to the four chasers and four and a half minutes to the peleton. As we got to the sprint we started the interesting hilly section of the stage, first though we had more of a shuffle on classification due to the time bonuses.
It was Veikkanan who took the sprint ahead of Nizzola and Cimolai and so the Telenor man became the break leader in a way.
Veikkanan takes the second sprint
However on the climb it was time for Unicredit to make their move with Jordi Grau attacking for the King of the mountains points.
Grau attacks and takes the KOM prime
It is Veikkanan who leads the rest over, Nizzola and Cimolai following him to open their KOM point accounts. Meanwhile the other Unicredit rider Quaade is dropped from the break and the four other chasers are caught by the peleton.
At the second KOM prime there is a longer draining climb, Grau sets the tempi this time and Veikkanan joins him, the other riders dropping back.
Grau and Veikkanan ride away from the three others.
The Unicredit man grinds the Finn off of his wheels and takes the second KOM prime of the day to secure his position as KOM leader. Veikkanan is dropped by the top but takes second ahead of Nizzola and Hacecky this time. The peleton which seems hesitant, mainly because Bimbo Nutella are protecting Olman and begins to look like they have misjudged the pacing.
With 30km to go here is the situation:
Grau
Veikkanan a 51
Nizzola, Hacecky, Cimolai at 2.26
Quaade at 4.22
Peleton at 5.36
The question is can Grau convert this into a stage win and therefore move into the race lead?
Grau is having a very nice day
With 20km to go it is clear the peleton is closing the gap though not really quick enough.
Grau
Veikkanan at 1.27
Nizzola, Hacekcky, Cimolai at 4.02
Peleton at 4.29
Grau rolls over the sprint prime ahead of a fading Veikkanan who may just hold on for second. Behind them Red Bull's sprint train sets up CJ Sutton well for the last two points and bonus seconds.
Sutton takes the third place at the last sprint point
With 5km to go - we have a peculiar situation the group of sprinters and lead outs have kept going catching Veikkanan and closing on Grau. The Unicredit man still has 1.30 at the 5km to go point a group of 10 riders have about a minute on the peleton.
Grau has 90 seconds with 5km to go
The sprinters/lead out group is Sutton + Jelloul (Red Bull), Guerao + Galdos (Santander), Manan (Cillit Bang), Garbelli + Gatto (Vespa), Zahner (UBS), Moreno (Benfica) and Borrajo (Unicredit). No Van Avermart as Bimbo Nutella seem intent on trying to bring Olman to the line, not sure what Richeze excuse is. The dangerman though is Moreno for Benfica who can climb pretty well.
These riders resort to type in the finale and it is the Vespa train that seems to be functioning the best!
Sprint group are well clear and look set for a big gap
The sprinters begin sprinting and close right up on Grau but he holds on to win and take the leaders jersey.
Grau takes a fantastic victory
Behind the sprinters duke it out as Gatto takes second ahead of Guerao and Sutton.
Gatto takes second and moves to second on GC
There is a two minute gap between the sprinters group of ten and the peleton. That is a bit of a gap to close on Grau and Moreno who are both pretty decent climbers.
