The second to last chance for the sprinters to take a stage win. All eyes are on Gerald Ciolek, who managed to win the last 2 stages that ended in a sprint. Looking past Degenkolb and Matthews isn’t the smartest thing to do however as they both also won a stage.




Even despite it being one of the last changes of the sprinters, a lot of teams have put riders into today’s breakaway. Clement (Belkin), Vandborg (Cannondale), Fraile (Caja Rural), Lloyd (Lampre), Dennis (Garmin), De la Cruz (NetApp), Duggan (Saxo Bank) and Chérel (AG2R) made it breakaway. Louis Meintjes also was in the breakaway today, completing the easy goal for MTN. they got 7 minutes


a goal completed in today’s breakaway

Just before the arc of 20 kilometers to go, the peloton shatters into 3 groups. Almost the complete top 10 is in the first group except Van den Broeck (6th). However Majka, König, Fuglsang and Sánchez aren’t save as well. They are at the back of the first peloton


the pace is huge

Euskaltel has taken charge of the peloton. They have four riders in front of the peloton, getting ready for making a train. Argos already are in train position with Ghita in front of Degenkolb. Ciolek is also in front of the peloton. The breakaway is only 44 seconds in front of the peloton with 9 km to go.


the sprint preparation

The Euskaltel train is leading the peloton. Next to the is a train from Orica and a Sky train for Froome. The Argos train is behind Euskaltel with Ciolek and Rodriguez also in front. The breakaway is still in front of the peloton



Clement has made the first move in the breakaway, nobody in the breakaway reactes. Meanwhile in the peloton Euskaltel has made it apparent that they want the stage win. Izagirre has pushed the speed up a notch and has taken Lobato with him. Cristobal Riquelme was the fastest to react to this and is the first in Lobato’s wheel.



Clement is still leading the race but Chérel is in hot pursuit. In the peloton the acceleration that Izagiire made was too soon and he was crushed when Orica came back with their train. Matthews was launched perfectly and was a gap to Cristobal Riquelme and Degenkolb. Can Matthews keep up the speed.



Matthews, Cristobal Riquelme and Degenkolb up are easily picking up the other riders from the breakaway one by one. Only Chérel, Dennis and Clement are left standing.



Clement holds on and wins in Burgos. Belkin got close a few times but now they finally have their stage win and a season goal in their pocket.



Dennis and Chérel both hold on to second and third place respectively but it’s extremely close between Chérel, Matthews and Degenkolb. Cristobal Riquelme is 6th. Valverde is 7th. Meintjes and Fraile from the breakaway hold on to 8th and 10th while Urán is between the two.



The riders that lose time today are limited to Van den Broeck, Bouet and Majka from the top 19th. Van den Broeck drops to 7th. Bouet drops to 14th. Majka drops to 16th.

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Stef Clement	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	4h07'22
2	Rohan Dennis	Garmin - Sharp	s.t.
3	Mikaël Chérel	AG2R La Mondiale	s.t.
4	Michael Matthews	Orica - GreenEdge	s.t.
5	John Degenkolb	Team Argos - Shimano	s.t.
6	Jorge Cristobal Riquelme	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	s.t.
7	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	s.t.
8	Louis Meintjes	MTN - Qhubeka	s.t.
9	Rigoberto Urán	Sky Procycling	s.t.
10	Omar Fraile	Caja Rural - Seguros RGA	s.t.

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Chris Froome	Sky Procycling	66h36'47
2	Joaquím Rodríguez	Katusha Team	+ 2'24
3	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	+ 7'28
4	Rigoberto Urán	Sky Procycling	+ 12'32
5	Chris Horner	RadioShack - Leopard	+ 13'31
6	Daniel Martin	Garmin - Sharp	+ 18'56
7	Jurgen Van den Broeck	Lotto Belisol	+ 22'25
8	Leopold König	Team NetApp - Endura	+ 23'00
9	Jakob Fuglsang	Astana Pro Team	+ 23'31
10	Samuel Sánchez	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 24'02

Rank	Name	Team	Points	General
1	Joaquím Rodríguez	Katusha Team	1	163
2	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	9	154
3	Chris Froome	Sky Procycling	5	128
4	Rigoberto Urán	Sky Procycling	7	102
5	Gerald Ciolek	MTN - Qhubeka	3	84

Rank	Name	Team	Mountain	General
1	Maxime Bouet	AG2R La Mondiale	0	38
2	Ion Izagirre	Euskaltel - Euskadi	0	37
3	Ivan Santaromita	BMC Racing Team	0	24
4	Luis León Sánchez	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	0	24
5	Moreno Moser	Cannondale Pro Cycling	0	22

Rank	Team	Time	General Time
1	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	12h22'06	+ 57'35 (10)
2	Garmin - Sharp	s.t.	+ 40'55 (5)
3	Sky Procycling	s.t.	199h35'11 (1)
4	MTN - Qhubeka	s.t.	+ 1h43'28 (15)
5	Orica - GreenEdge	s.t.	+ 2h43'09 (19)

Rank	Name	Team	Time	General Time
1	Rohan Dennis	Garmin - Sharp	+ 4h07'22	+ 23'31 (8)
2	Michael Matthews	Orica - GreenEdge	s.t.	+ 1h14'55 (19)
3	John Degenkolb	Team Argos - Shimano	s.t.	+ 1h17'44 (20)
4	Jorge Cristobal Riquelme	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	s.t.	+ 18'42 (6)
5	Louis Meintjes	MTN - Qhubeka	s.t.	+ 1h41'40 (27)

We now came into the area where race leader Chris Froome is weaker than his opposition. Can main competitor Rodríguez overthrow the 2’24� gap to Froome in two stages enough to stay in the lead after the Angliru stage.




We had a four man breakaway today. Hernández (Saxo Bank) was alone for a few kilometers but was soon joined by Nerz (BMC), Brambilla (Omega Pharma) and Vande Velde (Garmin).


some unusual teams in the breakaway

They didn’t had an easy time getting the maximum gap of 6 minutes as on the peloton, especially when Brambilla and Nerz crashed.


almost symbolic for the BMC season so far

Brambilla was the only one in the breakaway that had points for the mountain ranking and to ensure that he got more he attacked at every mountain sprint, with varying results. Thanks to these attacks he was the first to be picked up by the peloton. The others still had 3 minutes on the peloton.


the first to be picked up


At the bottom of the final climb, the Peña Cabarga, the gap is only 2’20� the breakaway might be able to stay clear but it will be close. Nerz was the first of the breakaway that made a attack where Vande Velde and Hernández couldn’t react to. What must be discouraging is if he looked to the left he would see that Horner has attacked as well with Froome, Rodriguez and Uran in his wheel.


don’t look to the left

Vande Velde digged a little deeper and went over Nerz and is now leading the race. Meanwhile Martin has bridged the gap to the group of Froome and are now starting to get time on the peloton. Riders missed the initial bridge are trying to forge a new one. König, Valverde, Ghita and Roche are in pursuit.



Rodríguez tries to drop the other punchers to get an easier time at the stage win. Only Horner and Froome were able to follow him and they caught Hernández. Next up is Nerz.



The awaited attack from Rodriguez came and Froome and Horner can’t follow. They have caught Nerz and Rodriguez should be able to catch Vande Velde as well. Valverde, Ghita and König are now caught up with Urán and Martin. Sánchez and Roche are just behind them. Van den Broeck, Fuglsang and Santaromita have been to late with leaving the peloton and are now over 2 minutes behind Sánchez and Roche.



Vande Velde dares to celebrate early, quite daring considering that Rodriguez isn’t far behind.



Vande Vlede isn’t wrong in celebrating early as Rodriguez isn’t able to go past the Garmin rider. Rodriguez does get second place however. Horner beats Froome for second place.



Urán finishes 5th while Martin, Valverde, Ghita and König make up places 6th to 9th while Nerz has enough left to finish 10th. Holding off Sánchez and Roche.



However we do need to report on a rider abandoning. Joseph Dombrowski (Sky) came with an sudden injury has needed to pull out



Rodriguez gains 11 seconds on Froome today, limiting his gap to 2’07�. But the biggest droppers today was Van den Broeck, who drops from 7th to 9th. Fuglsang goes along with Van den Broeck and is now 10th. König and Sánchez take advantage and are now 7th and 8th. The top 6 stays Froome – Rodriguez – Valverde – Urán – Horner - Martin

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Christian Vande Velde	Garmin - Sharp	4h42'30
2	Joaquím Rodríguez	Katusha Team	+ 27
3	Chris Horner	RadioShack - Leopard	+ 38
4	Chris Froome	Sky Procycling	s.t.
5	Rigoberto Urán	Sky Procycling	+ 1'04
6	Daniel Martin	Garmin - Sharp	+ 1'23
7	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	s.t.
8	Oreste Ghita	Team Argos - Shimano	s.t.
9	Leopold König	Team NetApp - Endura	s.t.
10	Dominik Nerz	BMC Racing Team	+ 2'05

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Chris Froome	Sky Procycling	71h19'55
2	Joaquím Rodríguez	Katusha Team	+ 2'07
3	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	+ 8'13
4	Rigoberto Urán	Sky Procycling	+ 12'58
5	Chris Horner	RadioShack - Leopard	+ 13'27
6	Daniel Martin	Garmin - Sharp	+ 19'41
7	Leopold König	Team NetApp - Endura	+ 23'45
8	Samuel Sánchez	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 25'41
9	Jurgen Van den Broeck	Lotto Belisol	+ 25'59
10	Jakob Fuglsang	Astana Pro Team	+ 27'23

Rank	Name	Team	Points	General
1	Joaquím Rodríguez	Katusha Team	20	183
2	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	9	163
3	Chris Froome	Sky Procycling	14	142
4	Rigoberto Urán	Sky Procycling	12	114
5	Gerald Ciolek	MTN - Qhubeka	0	84

Rank	Name	Team	Mountain	General
1	Maxime Bouet	AG2R La Mondiale	0	38
2	Ion Izagirre	Euskaltel - Euskadi	0	37
3	Ivan Santaromita	BMC Racing Team	0	24
4	Luis León Sánchez	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	0	24
5	Moreno Moser	Cannondale Pro Cycling	0	22

Rank	Team	Time	General Time
1	Garmin - Sharp	14h14'35	+ 40'36 (5)
2	Sky Procycling	+ 19	213h50'05 (1)
3	Team Saxo - Tinkoff	+ 2'55	+ 1h12'00 (11)
4	Katusha Team	+ 4'46	+ 46'15 (6)
5	RadioShack - Leopard	+ 4'57	+ 51'16 (7)

Rank	Name	Team	Time	General Time
1	Oreste Ghita	Team Argos - Shimano	+ 4h43'53	71h49'12 (1)
2	Dominik Nerz	BMC Racing Team	+ 4h44'35	+ 24'38 (7)
3	Rafal Majka	Team Saxo - Tinkoff	+ 4h47'30	+ 4'45 (2)
4	George Bennett	RadioShack - Leopard	+ 4h48'12	+ 1h18'22 (17)
5	Ion Izagirre	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.	+ 12'16 (3)