Stage 7, and the 3rd mountain stage. The climb looks to be the hardest of the race so far - except, its 28km from the finish - so how will this one play out?
Attacking as soon as possible is Julian Rodas. Joined CSC-Orbea along with Parra Bustamente from Red Bull, not having built himself a great reputation. He climbed well on the first mountain stage here though, and after Parra won yesterday, he seems determined to prove himself
Joining Rodas are the enigmatic Amets Txurruka - attacking and losing time seem to be his goals in the race so far, and Victor Hugo Orozco, at last deciding to get in the break on a stage that suits him
Nelson Oliveira and Ricardo Martins of Cerne, plus Ferrari's Daniele Pietropolli, also made their way into their breakaway, with Txurruka taking the intermediate sprint from Oliveira and Martins
The break moves on to the early uncategorised climb, just before the 2nd sprint, and its too much for the Cerne riders. Martins had no chance, while Oliviera was just gapped over the top
In the peloton behind, Aker seem keen to further stamp themselves onto the race, really stretching things out
To the sprint then. Not usual an intermediate sprint is at such a steep 17% slope. Rodas takes it from Txurruka and Pietropolli
Pirelli now take control of the peloton, and the likes of Ochoa Quintero, Krasnoperov, Carrara, Niemiec, and Jeannesson
And up front, Pietropolli has lost contact with the other 3 in the break
Those dropped dragged themself back into the peloton, but Niemiec does seem to be having a bad day, or at least, a bad climb
Txurruka, Orozco and Rodas have reached the top of the climb. All are after the 10 KoM points, but it is Rodas who struck first and leads over the top
But it doesnt stop there! Rodas is pressing on, Txurruka doing his best to keep up. Rodas was the best placed in GC, despite his disastrous Stage 6, 6'43 down. And with less than 30km to go, whats the gap to the peloton? 8'39!
And the Colombian is now pulling out a gap on Txurruka, who in turn has a good gap on the other Colombian, Orozco
The gap to a 32 man peloton is still going up!! 9'39 now - and it seemed like Pirelli and Aker were doing a good job, Rodas and co up front must be doing better. There have been casualties in the peloton afterall, this 5 man group with last years winner Ochoa Quintero, teammates Monsalve, Lewis, Saldarriaga and 6th overall Jeannesson!
Crash in the peloton! And while his teammates shine, the CSC team leader is not going so well, Coloradi is down
This now puts Colorado over 11 minutes behind teammate Rodas, who is going stronger and stronger, gap to Txurruka pushed up to 1 minute
And Rodas simply isnt going to be stopped today
He takes the win! 2 in a row for CSC-Orbea
1'33 later, Txurruka is 2nd
A minute later, Orozco takes 3rd
Just under 6 minutes after Orozco, Pietropolli takes 4th. Not much longer before its confirmed that Orozco takes the GC lead
And the clock does tick by! Yellow for Rodas. The clock is at 8 minutes and Alarcon leads the peloton at 1km to go, and sad news for Nelson Oliveira, who is just caught now, no 5th place for him
5th for Alarcon then, ahead of Astarloza. 9'10 down, so Rodas picks up a 2'53 GC lead! Thats a massive risk from Aker and the rest of the GC contenders - Rodas has 4 minutes on the now 3rd overall Ratiy.
Ochoa Quintero and Jeannesson have lost exactly 2 minutes. Jeannesson falls 14 spots to 20th overall, while last year's winner Ochoa Quintero is now down in 26th place, well below expectations
He at least remains ahead of Colorado, who falls to 28th overall, having finished at 12'10 to Rodas (exactly 3 minutes to the peloton), he has certainly lost his team leadership role here now
The result today is also good news for Bruno Santos. He retains the Points jersey, as 5th for Alarcon only brings the Venezuelan to 62 points, 3 points behind Santos. It seems inevitable that Alarcon will take the jersey eventually, but keeping it a little longer is a boost for Cerne
