The Rettenbachferner dominates proceedings today, its a constant steep gradient at the end of the stage - and the final mountains of the 2011 ProTour season. The top favourites here are Sella, Fothen and Dekker. Sella really needs time, he is already down, and the time trial later in the race will not help him. Fothen is probably best placed, but both he and Dekker will be keen to gain a comfortably advantage prior to the time trial - the likes of Pluchkin, Uran, Popovych, Nibali and Karpets are all both strong climbers and time trialers as well after all. And then theres Carlos Castano, the Festina rider having arguably his best ever season - that included 5th in the Giro - who holds the race lead.


Attacks came on the first climb, many hoping to get in the days breakaway. Suaza leads over with Jaramillo, while Vasquez, Bontenackels, Sprick and Rangel are at 40 seconds.


Curiously, 8th, 9th and 10th over are mini-attacks from Caruso, Pozzovivvo and Pluchkin - surely they should be saving energy?

The 6 already mentioned attackers are joined by Taberlay, and will be indefinately chased (thus without success) by Vaugrenard, Giraldo and Sestili. Rangel takes the sprint, not that he, or the rest of the break, noticed - and goes on to be 2nd at the KoM - Solis taking the points here aswell.


Again no interest in the second sprint, so we skip too soon before the 3rd. 17km to go, roughly 5 to the start of the climb, Vladimir Efimkin launches an attack. Pozzovivvo, Karpets, Gomez Marchante and Meier counter (meanwhile Jaramillo has taken Sprint 3).


They leave Efimkin behind, and are roughly 2 minutes behind the break as the climb begins, and the 2 strongest climbers in there - Suaza and Vasquez - attack away. There is only 10km to go, and these 2 can climb, can they climb well enough to hold off the rest?


Karpets, Pozzovivvo and Gomez Marchante home in on the rest of the break. Its an ambitious move by these 3 - all of teams towards the bottom end of the table - and would be very lucrative if they pull it off. They move straight to the front of the break, still 2 minutes behind the lead 2, with 9km to go.


Sella attacks! He gets about 50 seconds before his attack ends, still just behind the break which Efimkin has now latched on to. He is highlighted nicely below by his own Graffiti, as Pluchkin, Pedraza and Veloso also attack - the latter Spaniard not getting anywhere though


Pedraza fails aswell as Fothen, Popovych and Castano go


Caruso tries to go, but along with Efimkin, Popovych and notably Castano, cant get away. Uran does though - linking up with Fothen - as Dekker now makes his effort


5km to go. Suaza and Vasquez lead by 1 minute - over Pozzovivo, Gomez Marchante, Karpets, Pluchkin, Sella and Fothen. 27 seconds later are Uran, Dekker and Efimkin


Those 3 catch up, as Nazaret makes his move - with Nicacio also now up there inbetween


But this group of attackers then falters. Theyre brought back by the peloton - allowing Suaza and Vasquez to extend their lead to 1'40 - and now Pluchkin goes again then. Uran immediately countering


Other moves then of course follow, as Pluchkin moves away from Uran and up to Suaza and Vasquez


Pluchkin moves clear, as Sella allso follows up - with Fothen, Uran, Dekker, Pozzovivvo and Gomez Marchante all also moving up. Game over for Suaza and Vasquez now really, and still just under 4km to go


Gomez Marchante and Pozzovivvo fall back though, as Popovych too cant get away of the ever-reducingly sized chase group. Sl Benfica has a good presence here, but Castano is isolated - yet still fighting on.


This isnt an ideal situation for Sella, to be in a group with many strong time trialists - aswell as Suaza still holding on - but he is getting on with it and trying to ride away. Pluchkin keeps close


Popovych tries to attack now, closing on Vasquez who is falling back. Castano is finding himself some allies, Menchov, Krasnoperov and Marquez are relaying - with their own teammates Caruso and Nazaret in this group - as well as Pedraza, Pozzovivvo, Gomez Marchante and Nibali


The front group is starting to split under the Sella pressure. Pluchkin still up there, Dekker and Uran battling - Fothen too - as Popovych joins the group, Suaza starting now to fall back


The group behind is splitting, Marquez and Krasnoperov seem to have done the damage, and Castano is keeping up. Pozzovivvo and Gomez Marchante perhaps regretting having gone early now and its not looking so good for them


Pluchkin takes it on from Sella to continue to apply the pressure. Uran in particular now seems to really be digging deep to hold on - as Marquez moves clear of Castano and Krasnoperov


In the large group of 20 - including the likes of Rogers - behind Pozzovivvo and Gomez Marchante - Nibali makes his first attack of the day, Caruso trying to follow


Moving into the final kilometre, and Pluchkin has broken through and gone solo.


Fothen leads the pursuit - and with Uran falling off the race lead is a real possibility


And Uran is detached from this 4 man group - and now not far behind him is Castano! He has sensibly conserved as much as possible and is riding to limit his losses about as well as he could have hoped


Pluchkin is clearly the strongest here, although big gains are unlikely as whenever he gets given a gap in game he stops sprinting. But all the matters for now is the win, and he takes it!


Fothen and Popovych 2nd and 3rd at 11 seconds. Sella ends up at 19 seconds, Dekker at 30. Uran and Castano together at 44


The SL Benfica duo, Krasnoperov and Marquez - riding to impress for new teams next year maybe - are just over 1 minute down. Then at 1'38 is Gomez Marchante and Pozzovivvo


A dissapointing day for Nibali, never really getting going, as he finishes with Suaza, Pedraza, Caruso and Duarte to lead in a 20 man group that includes Karpets, Efimkin and Rogers. The gap to Pluchkin is 2 minutes.

1	Aleksandr Pluchkin	Team B&O	4h14'23
2	Markus Fothen	Pearl Adidas	+ 11
3	Jaroslav Popovych	Carmeuse Cyclisme	s.t.
4	Emanuele Sella	Lipton Ice Tea	+ 19
5	Thomas Dekker	Philips - TDC	+ 30
6	Rigoberto Úran	Vesuvio-Accumalux	+ 44
7	Carlos Castaño	Festina - Corona	s.t.
8	Florentino Marquez	Sport Lisboa e Benfica	+ 1'02
9	Mikayil Krasnoperov	Sport Lisboa e Benfica	s.t.
10	José Angel Gomez Marchante	Café de Colombia	+ 1'38
11	Domenico Pozzovivo	Energie - Diesel	s.t.
12	Vincenzo Nibali	Domina Vacanze	+ 2'01
13	Jaime Suaza	Carmeuse Cyclisme	s.t.
14	Gianpaolo Caruso	Lafarge	s.t.
15	Walter Pedraza	Sony Ericsson	s.t.
16	Fabio Duarte	Café de Colombia	s.t.
17	Vladimir Karpets	Team Nespresso	s.t.
18	Denis Menchov	Lafarge	s.t.
19	Magno Nazaret	Sport Lisboa e Benfica	s.t.
20	Michael Rogers	La Gazzetta dello Sport	s.t.
21	Vladimir Efimkin	Team Starbucks-RadioShack	s.t.
22	Óscar Solis	Carmeuse Cyclisme	s.t.
23	Angel Madrazo	Festina - Corona	s.t.
24	Tom Danielson	Lipton Ice Tea	s.t.
25	Patrik Sinkewitz	Auber 93 - Look	s.t.
26	Pedro Nicácio	Energie - Diesel	s.t.
27	Jurgen Van den Broeck	Sport Lisboa e Benfica	s.t.
28	Wilmer Vasquez	La Gazzetta dello Sport	s.t.
29	Daniel Moreno	Sport Lisboa e Benfica	s.t.
30	Jairo Agudelo	La Gazzetta dello Sport	s.t.
31	Francisco Colorado	Sport Lisboa e Benfica	s.t.
32	Jackson Rodríguez	Pearl Adidas	+ 3'00
33	Gustavo Veloso	Energie - Diesel	+ 3'45
34	Sid Taberlay	Domina Vacanze	s.t.
35	Francisco Mancebo	Jack Wolfskin	+ 3'57
36	Robert Kiserlovski	Team Starbucks-RadioShack	+ 5'50
37	Trent Lowe	Team Starbucks-RadioShack	s.t.
38	Alexis Castro Rodriguez	Warner Brothers - Carrefour	s.t.
39	Andreas Klöden	Café de Colombia	s.t.
40	Phillip Thuaux	Lafarge	s.t.
41	Tim Dees	Festina - Corona	s.t.
42	Johann Tschopp	Team Starbucks-RadioShack	s.t.
43	Carlos Barredo	Warner Brothers - Carrefour	s.t.
44	Branislav Samoilev	Pearl Adidas	s.t.
45	Remberto Jaramillo	Team Starbucks-RadioShack	s.t.
46	Óscar Pereiro Sio	Café de Colombia	s.t.
47	Tanel Kangert	Pearl Adidas	s.t.
48	Matea Kvasina	Vesuvio-Accumalux	s.t.
49	Francisco José Terciado	Sport Lisboa e Benfica	s.t.
50	Sergio Ghisalberti	Lipton Ice Tea	s.t.
51	Markus Eibegger	Domina Vacanze	s.t.
52	Massimiliano Maisto	La Gazzetta dello Sport	s.t.
53	Thomas Bontenackels	Lipton Ice Tea	+ 6'46
54	Domenik Klemme	Team B&O	+ 7'20
55	Christian Meier	Wikipedia	s.t.
56	Nico Keinath	Team B&O	s.t.
57	David Zabriskie	Wikipedia	s.t.
58	Lars Boom	Auber 93 - Look	s.t.
59	Matthieu Sprick	Wikipedia	s.t.
60	Pierre Rolland	Auber 93 - Look	s.t.
61	Francisco Matamoros	Lipton Ice Tea	s.t.
62	Remmert Wielinga	La Gazzetta dello Sport	s.t.
63	Kai Reus	Auber 93 - Look	s.t.
64	Jurgen Van Goolen	Festina - Corona	s.t.
65	Florian Morizot	Auber 93 - Look	s.t.
66	Kristjan Fajt	Team Starbucks-RadioShack	s.t.
67	Pedro Sibila Romero	Team Starbucks-RadioShack	s.t.
68	Matthew Lloyd	Sport Lisboa e Benfica	s.t.
69	Egoi Martínez de Esteban	Philips - TDC	s.t.
70	Andrei Grivko	Team B&O	s.t.
71	Jakub Danacik	Sony Ericsson	s.t.
72	Stefan Cohnen	Philips - TDC	+ 8'06
73	Mauro Facci	Warner Brothers - Carrefour	+ 8'14
74	Edvald Boasson Hagen	Team B&O	s.t.
75	Héctor Hugo Rangel	Lafarge	+ 8'30
76	Angel Vicioso	Energie - Diesel	+ 9'02
77	Jakob Fuglsang	Philips - TDC	s.t.
78	Thomas Faiers	Vesuvio-Accumalux	+ 9'26
79	Kenny De Ketele	Warner Brothers - Carrefour	+ 9'34
80	William Ford	Auber 93 - Look	+ 9'58
81	Jean-François Camier	Carmeuse Cyclisme	+ 10'06
82	Tony Martin	Domina Vacanze	+ 10'14
83	Roman Kreuziger	Team B&O	+ 11'02
84	Maarten Tjallingii	Philips - TDC	s.t.
85	Michael Van Stayen	Jack Wolfskin	+ 11'10
86	Ben Gastauer	Vesuvio-Accumalux	+ 11'34
87	Björn Schröder	Domina Vacanze	+ 11'42
88	Lars Ytting Bak	Philips - TDC	+ 12'06
89	Mauro Santambrogio	La Gazzetta dello Sport	+ 13'03
90	Assan Bazajev	Sony Ericsson	+ 13'11
91	Sebastian Lang	Sony Ericsson	+ 13'27
92	William Walker	Pearl Adidas	+ 13'35
93	Romain Vanderbiest	Pearl Adidas	+ 13'43
94	Muhammet Eyüp Karagobek	Warner Brothers - Carrefour	s.t.
95	Yoann Offredo	Pearl Adidas	+ 14'07
96	Martijn Keizer	Team Nespresso	+ 14'31
97	Jose Mendes	Team Nespresso	+ 15'27
98	Luigi Sestili	Lafarge	+ 15'35
99	Jason Donald	Jack Wolfskin	+ 15'43
100	Jurgen Roelandts	Carmeuse Cyclisme	s.t.
101	José Joaquin Rojas Gil	Energie - Diesel	+ 15'51
102	Maxime Bouet	Auber 93 - Look	+ 16'15
103	Andrew Tennant	Café de Colombia	+ 16'23
104	Jacob Fiedler	Team Nespresso	s.t.
105	Michael Schär	Team Nespresso	+ 16'55
106	Kristjan Koren	Team Starbucks-RadioShack	+ 23'03
107	Alexander Giraldo	Warner Brothers - Carrefour	+ 23'11
108	Blake Caldwell	Wikipedia	+ 23'19
109	Marco Alexandre Ferreira Cunha	Energie - Diesel	s.t.
110	Paul Martens	Jack Wolfskin	s.t.
111	Marco Pinotti	Café de Colombia	+ 23'27
112	Kevin Hulsmans	Warner Brothers - Carrefour	s.t.
113	Morgan Kneisky	Carmeuse Cyclisme	+ 23'35
114	Michael Faerk Christensen	Team B&O	+ 23'43
115	Elia Viviani	Energie - Diesel	+ 23'51
116	André Steensen	Team B&O	+ 23'59
117	Nick Nuyens	Domina Vacanze	+ 24'31
118	Jos Van Emden	Jack Wolfskin	+ 24'55
119	Tyler Farrar	Wikipedia	+ 25'11
120	Enrico Franzoi	Pearl Adidas	+ 25'27
121	William Germán Rodríguez Parra	Café de Colombia	s.t.
122	Martin Mortensen	Sony Ericsson	s.t.
123	Paul Healion	Café de Colombia	+ 25'43
124	Adrian Laidler	Lafarge	s.t.
125	Lluis Mas	Lipton Ice Tea	+ 25'51
126	Kristof Vandewalle	La Gazzetta dello Sport	+ 25'59
127	William Bonnet	Lafarge	s.t.
128	Cameron Meyer	Sony Ericsson	+ 26'07
129	Thurakit Boonratanathanakorn	Team 1	+ 26'15
130	Héctor Fabian Aguilar	Team Nespresso	s.t.
131	Willem Van Den Eynde	Carmeuse Cyclisme	+ 26'23
132	Fabien Taillefour	Lafarge	+ 26'31
133	Viktor Renäng	Sony Ericsson	s.t.
134	Baden Cooke	Domina Vacanze	+ 26'39
135	Hugues Mottin	Team Nespresso	s.t.
136	Ivano Lo Cicero	Team Nespresso	s.t.
137	Jesus Tendero	Energie - Diesel	+ 27'11
138	Koen De Kort	Jack Wolfskin	s.t.
139	Freddy Johansson	Sony Ericsson	+ 27'19
140	Mathieu Bernaudeau	Festina - Corona	+ 27'35
141	Patrick Gretsch	Festina - Corona	+ 27'51
142	Rick Flens	La Gazzetta dello Sport	s.t.
143	Benoît Vaugrenard	Jack Wolfskin	+ 27'59
144	Kristof Goddaert	Festina - Corona	s.t.
145	Adam Petrie-Armstrong	Lipton Ice Tea	+ 28'07
146	Isaac Speirs	Domina Vacanze	+ 28'39
147	Marcel Sieberg	Jack Wolfskin	s.t.
148	Lucas Schädlich	Festina - Corona	+ 28'47
149	Nick Clesen	Vesuvio-Accumalux	s.t.
150	Greg De Winde	Warner Brothers - Carrefour	+ 29'19
151	Pim Ligthart	Auber 93 - Look	s.t.
152	Niels Scheunemann	Philips - TDC	+ 29'35
153	Marcel Kittel	Vesuvio-Accumalux	+ 29'43
154	Gregor Gazvoda	Lipton Ice Tea	+ 29'51
155	Ivan Kovalev	Wikipedia	s.t.
156	Olivier Kaisen	Wikipedia	s.t.
157	Marcel Barth	Vesuvio-Accumalux	+ 29'59
158	Andrew Fenn	Carmeuse Cyclisme	+ 30'47
159	Jens Mouris	Philips - TDC	+ 31'03
160	Michael Ford	Vesuvio-Accumalux	+ 35'03

GC

1	Markus Fothen	Pearl Adidas	18h48'47
2	Carlos Castaño	Festina - Corona	+ 23
3	Rigoberto Úran	Vesuvio-Accumalux	+ 36
4	Aleksandr Pluchkin	Team B&O	+ 39
5	Thomas Dekker	Philips - TDC	+ 1'08
6	Emanuele Sella	Lipton Ice Tea	s.t.
7	Jaroslav Popovych	Carmeuse Cyclisme	+ 1'35
8	Florentino Marquez	Sport Lisboa e Benfica	+ 1'52
9	Walter Pedraza	Sony Ericsson	+ 1'58
10	Domenico Pozzovivo	Energie - Diesel	+ 2'04
11	Patrik Sinkewitz	Auber 93 - Look	+ 2'05
12	Gianpaolo Caruso	Lafarge	+ 2'09
13	José Angel Gomez Marchante	Café de Colombia	+ 2'15
14	Vladimir Karpets	Team Nespresso	+ 2'33
15	Vincenzo Nibali	Domina Vacanze	+ 2'35
16	Michael Rogers	La Gazzetta dello Sport	+ 2'47
17	Jurgen Van den Broeck	Sport Lisboa e Benfica	+ 2'51
18	Vladimir Efimkin	Team Starbucks-RadioShack	+ 3'01
19	Angel Madrazo	Festina - Corona	+ 3'39
20	Pedro Nicácio	Energie - Diesel	+ 4'06
21	Fabio Duarte	Café de Colombia	+ 4'17
22	Daniel Moreno	Sport Lisboa e Benfica	+ 4'30
23	Magno Nazaret	Sport Lisboa e Benfica	s.t.
24	Francisco Colorado	Sport Lisboa e Benfica	+ 4'31
25	Tom Danielson	Lipton Ice Tea	+ 4'37
26	Matea Kvasina	Vesuvio-Accumalux	+ 5'43
27	Gustavo Veloso	Energie - Diesel	+ 5'50
28	Francisco Mancebo	Jack Wolfskin	+ 6'00
29	Jairo Agudelo	La Gazzetta dello Sport	+ 7'00
30	Mikayil Krasnoperov	Sport Lisboa e Benfica	+ 7'07
31	Florian Morizot	Auber 93 - Look	+ 7'27
32	Tim Dees	Festina - Corona	+ 7'28
33	Branislav Samoilev	Pearl Adidas	+ 7'42
34	Tanel Kangert	Pearl Adidas	+ 7'43
35	Phillip Thuaux	Lafarge	+ 7'45
36	Markus Eibegger	Domina Vacanze	+ 8'03
37	Óscar Pereiro Sio	Café de Colombia	+ 8'06
38	Andreas Klöden	Café de Colombia	s.t.
39	Nico Keinath	Team B&O	+ 8'19
40	Francisco José Terciado	Sport Lisboa e Benfica	+ 8'22
41	Domenik Klemme	Team B&O	+ 8'25
42	Andrei Grivko	Team B&O	+ 8'26
43	Sergio Ghisalberti	Lipton Ice Tea	s.t.
44	Robert Kiserlovski	Team Starbucks-RadioShack	+ 8'29
45	Trent Lowe	Team Starbucks-RadioShack	s.t.
46	Lars Boom	Auber 93 - Look	+ 8'51
47	Denis Menchov	Lafarge	s.t.
48	Jakub Danacik	Sony Ericsson	+ 8'56
49	Jurgen Van Goolen	Festina - Corona	+ 8'58
50	Kai Reus	Auber 93 - Look	+ 9'03

Points

1	Carlos Castaño	Festina - Corona	57
2	Thomas Dekker	Philips - TDC	57
3	Rigoberto Úran	Vesuvio-Accumalux	49
4	Gianpaolo Caruso	Lafarge	48
5	Markus Fothen	Pearl Adidas	47
6	Jaroslav Popovych	Carmeuse Cyclisme	47
7	Emanuele Sella	Lipton Ice Tea	46
8	Aleksandr Pluchkin	Team B&O	44
9	Domenico Pozzovivo	Energie - Diesel	40
10	Jurgen Roelandts	Carmeuse Cyclisme	36

KoM

1	Johann Tschopp	Team Starbucks-RadioShack	58
2	Mauro Santambrogio	La Gazzetta dello Sport	54
3	Aleksandr Pluchkin	Team B&O	49
4	Christian Meier	Wikipedia	45
5	Emanuele Sella	Lipton Ice Tea	39
6	Markus Fothen	Pearl Adidas	36
7	Francisco Matamoros	Lipton Ice Tea	35
8	Nick Nuyens	Domina Vacanze	32
9	Jaroslav Popovych	Carmeuse Cyclisme	32
10	Carlos Castaño	Festina - Corona	31

Young

1	Rigoberto Úran	Vesuvio-Accumalux	18h49'23 (1)
2	Aleksandr Pluchkin	Team B&O	+ 3 (2)
3	Florentino Marquez	Sport Lisboa e Benfica	+ 1'16 (3)
4	Angel Madrazo	Festina - Corona	+ 3'03 (4)
5	Fabio Duarte	Café de Colombia	+ 3'41 (5)
6	Magno Nazaret	Sport Lisboa e Benfica	+ 3'54 (6)
7	Jairo Agudelo	La Gazzetta dello Sport	+ 6'24 (7)
8	Mikayil Krasnoperov	Sport Lisboa e Benfica	+ 6'31 (8)
9	Tim Dees	Festina - Corona	+ 6'52 (9)
10	Tanel Kangert	Pearl Adidas	+ 7'07 (10)

Team

1	Sport Lisboa e Benfica	54h39'07 (1)
2	La Gazzetta dello Sport	+ 1'54 (2)
3	Energie - Diesel	+ 4'34 (3)
4	Festina - Corona	+ 5'18 (4)
5	Lipton Ice Tea	+ 5'51 (5)
6	Pearl Adidas	+ 5'58 (6)
7	Café de Colombia	+ 6'50 (7)
8	Domina Vacanze	+ 7'16 (8)
9	Carmeuse Cyclisme	+ 7'24 (9)
10	Lafarge	+ 9'23 (10)