It is the first of our two mountain stages in Portugal with the final climb up the Senhora da Graca being our big battleground. This comes after the softening up on the Barragau do Alvao both climbs averaging over 7% and last roughly 10km.
Serpa, Kohl and Pellizotti are listed as the top favourites, but you can be sure that Lopez Garcia, Samwel, Delgado, Siutsou, Rohregger, Bosisio, Eltink and virtually the whole Benfica squad will make their presence felt!
As is usual on a mountain stage we saw a bigger breakaway than usual, Vespa leading the way with Bettini and Cassidy representing both the teams sponsors. Also here were Delage (Intesa), Laverde (Red Bull), Galdos (Santander), Wilman (Telenor), Mach (Quiksilver), Rajala (Falcon) and Stoltz (Cillit Bang).
Early break look to build a lead before the climbs
At the first sprint it was predictably Galdos who took the honours ahead of Delage and Bettini. Behind it was once again Youtube setting the pace with Pirelli lending a helping hand. It was bizarre yesterday to see Pirelli on the front helping Youtube out but maybe today Serpa can strike back.
Youtube and Pirelli look to limit breakaway
With 65km to go the break had just six minutes as they started the first climb a relatively shallow 4% average over the 7km. Delage a favourite on the hillier stages had gained some KOM points previously and added to his tally here by attacking away.
Delage attacks to take first KOM prime
This moves him up to 17 points, but still some way behind Pellizotti who leads the way with 32 points. Behind him Rajala and Laverde took second and third, these two look the best mountain climbers in the break, Mach took the last point in 4th.
The sprint on the downhill was won again by Galdos, ahead of Mach and Bettini. Back in the pack Terciedo and Ortega tried a long range move, perhaps this is a preview for what Benfica have planned for later?
Two riders try to sneak away with 50km to go
As we move onto the second climb the Barraga do Alvao a 9km climb averaging 7%, Youtube show their utter control by easily reeling the two men in.
Velits polices this move and paces the peleton.
Up front Rajala and Laverde doubleteamed to rid themselves of all the other breakaways including the KOM battler Delage.
Rajala and Laverde rider the rest of the breakaway off of their wheels.
Rajala takes the climb to move to 18 KOM points ahead of Laverde (16 KOM points) and then Delage is third (28 KOM points) with Mach holding ahead of the peleton for 4th (10 KOM points).
In the peleton it is Benfica who are active again as Van den Broeck attacks with the ever antsy Lopez Garcia and the game Eltink following mopping up the minor placings.
Vdb takes 5th on the climb
The KOM competition after this climb still has Pellizotti (32) ahead of Eltink (31), Delage (28), Lopez Garcia (25) and Grau (21). Though to be honest the King of the Mountains is the last thing on Jordi Grau's mind as the GC leader has been dropped by the Youtube pace on the last climb. In fact the best placed man left is Daniel Moreno of Benfica.
Grau among the many dropped on this climb
The lead two are still clear but the rest of the breakaway have been mopped up by this dual Prielli and Youtube pace. Laverde and Rajala are still clear with a one minute 30 second lead, the roll through the last sprint as does the now 38 man peleton.
Pirelli and Youtube are making this tough
The last climb then is the Senhora da Graca a 10km nasty one which averages 8%, with decent TTers like Jurgen Van den Broeck and Thomas Rohregger it is no surprise to see Samwel (Bimbo Nutella) attack at the bottom. However it does raise eyebrows to see Pellizotti, Siutsou and Serpa go with him.
Big favourites go early here
This seems to have caught a few riders unawares, clearly this is a planned move by the crafty Bimbo squad to steal a march on some of the favourites. Camano now goes as the gutsy Eltink leads the next wave with Yeison Delgado. Thomas Rohregger sees big men up the road and goes with this.
Four others realise they better make a move
Finally even the tactically naive Bosisio tries to escape the peleton, speaking of tactics it seems as if the powerful Benfica squad have changed tactics and are now pacing. This move worked for them at times in Columbia and elsewhere but it is dangerous with such a lot of good riders up the road.
Bosisio escapes the Benfica led peleton too
Theo Eltink once again producing a very good cliumb bridges to the lead four, however we can see that Serpa and Pellizotti are beginning to move clear and go man to man.
Two favourites move clear here
Siutsou has something extra to kick away from Samwel and Eltink and now looks to Pellizotti who is just beginning to lose Serpa's wheel. Is this the moment for Serpa to put the boot into the Italian?
Siutsou looks to bridge to Pellizotti who seems to be fading
Eltink seems to crack a bit now as Delgado, Rohregger and Camano go past him and Bosisio reaches his wheel. Meanwhile Lopez Garcia and Kohl finally make their moves with 6km to go.
Kohl and Lopez Garcia perhaps have timed their moves well
5km left now and Serpa is edging away from a battling Pellizotti, remember the Italian does have over a minute on the Columbian from previous stages.
Serpa
Pellizotti a 12
Siutsou at 26 seconds.
Serpa looks to keep the pressure on in last 5km
There are six riders Samwel, Delgado, Eltink, Rohregger, Camano, Laverde at 1.02
Then Kohl , Lopez Garcia and Bosision at 1.28
Then the Benfica led peleton at 2.16 (what are they doing - looking after Daniel Moreno?)
Sadly Theo Eltink drops back with unsurprisingly Laverde who has clung on well here. As they drop back Kohl and Lopez Garcia once again move up to the Samwel/Rohregger group.
Eltink keeps having bad in the red moments
Benfica finally begin to give up on their quest of getting Moreno into the yellow jersey, Terciado is left with him as Nazaret, Marquez and Van den Broeck move on trying to pick their way through the rest.
Benfica now split up to reduce their losses
Not sure what they have been doing today, but we have seen them tear up races in the latter days before. Up front though Serpa continues to grind out second after second on Pellizotti, by the finish he has taken 42 seconds which is a pretty good effort, you can add eight more for time bonuses too.
Serpa takes a big bite out of Pellizotti today
The Italian has had to battle every inch of his way up this climb but he will take the yellow jersey today.
Pellizotti lost the battle today but is still well placed in the war
Very very good ride from Siutsou, he is just about caught by Samwel and Kohl on the line. The four riders who attacked at the bottom have been rewarded today, Kohl really missed out from being where he should arguably be battling out front.
Siutsou holds on for third ahead of Samwel and Kohl
Lopez Garcia had looked to be a big top five candidate he will need to do better than this on the next mountain stage. He finishes 6th on the day only 14 seconds ahead of Rohregger - who will maybe feel he had an okay day out there.
Lopez Garcia and Rohregger finish 6th and 7th
Making up the top nine is the Benfica pair of Van den Broeck and Marquez who have overtaken Delgado, Eltink, Bosisio and Camano.
Benfica were a little too defensive today
Eltink and Bosisio faded badly towards the end and only just finish ahead of Moreno about three minutes back from Serpa. Former leader Jordi Grau is five minutes back with Valjavec and Ortega their honeymoon is over!
