Brouzes once again goes for the break. With double points on the finish line available, if Iglinski continues his form of late, our control of the King of the Mountains jersey could be under threat.
After a struggle, and a tonne of fighting, Brouzes manages to get away solo up the first mountain. He has a two minute gap as he takes full points.
But with one kilometre to the top, Menchov, di Gregorio and Cunego all attack for points, they succeed in splitting the pack into climbers and sprinters and manage to join up with Brouzes up front.
This obviously isn't percieved as good by a lot of teams, and so the pace goes up to catch the break. As Brouzes is caught, another break forms.
After this break a couple of other attacks halfway through the stage goes off too. After all the dust settles after the penultimate climb, Kuschynski is helping Belkov still, after he's spent the day in the care of Sobal, Kiryienka, Mederel and Mespoulede.
As the peloton hits the final climb, Rodriguez is once more brought in as the final survivor of late attackers, and the peloton is down to about 40 riders.
Belkov is sitting pretty, marking Iglinski well. Soon enough though, the attacks start off. And once more, after all is said and done, 5 riders are off the front. Menchov, Cunego, Di Luca being the most dangerous to Iglinski who is solo behind them.
Just behind him are Vandevelde and Visconti, who are hovering 30 seconds ahead of the French-led pack, with Gregorio and Joly leading the charge. Belkov is again sitting right up there as, one by one, riders like Gasparotto, Petrov and Rebellin are all dropped, or crack.
And so it stays, as Iglinski comes into the final kilometre he knows he's lost the jersey, but to who?
Just behind him, Belkov is following di Gregorio up the slopes of the climb, and crosses just behind him.
A really great ride by Belkov to finish in 10th place. He's really hitting his form now, and should be able to climb over some of the weaker stage racers soon.
The KoM still remains in our hands, and Brouzes confirms he will strive to fight for it.
1 Niels Brouzes AUBER - BELTELECOM 39
2 Danilo Di Luca LIQUIGAS 30
3 Iban Mayoz EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI 29
4 Maxim Iglinskiy SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR 18
5 Joaquim RodrÃguez CAISSE D'EPARGNE 17
A flat stage, perfect for the breakaway as its a transition stage between yesterday's mountain stage and the next 3 days of pure mountains! Possibly the last chance for the pure sprinters in case they don't manage to get over the climbs, and a good chance for that break.
Malacarne is our choice for the day, but he can't manage to get in a break. We eventually get Kuschyinski in one.
It's all over with 15km to go though, and Kiryienka and Malacarne are feeling good enough to get Ciolek up there!
They draw level and suddenly CSC manage to get some extra power and pull away a bit. As the sprint starts, Scognamiglio takes off, and thats pretty much it.
Ciolek gets boxed in, but CLEARLY takes 5th place, and is awarded 6th.
Stage 13 is the first of three back to back days of pure pain. I'm sure, by the end of these 3 days there won't be as many sprinters still in the pack!
Brouzes does as he promises, and escapes away over the first climb. By the peak he has 2 minutes on the pack, and has been joined by 3rd placed in the KoM.
He battled for that win, but extends his lead by another 4 points over his companion.
By the next climb, he is near to exhaustion already! And so sits on for a while, before attacking when his companion blows. That way he takes full points again!
The usual happens however, and more attacking from the peloton means by the next climb he'll be overtaken once he's bonked!
Pity, as can be seen, the pack wasn't chasing hard, and the gaps would be enough for a flat stage.
Onto the penultimate climb, the second breakaway is still away by 10minutes! which can't be closed in 20km! And Ricco and Piepoli both shred the pack.
Brouzes is gobbled up, and both Liquigas and Saunier Duval both muck up the chasing when they go too hard and snap the pack. Belkov saw this, and the second time it happened, he put the hammer down, and got a gap!
By the top of the climb, Cunego, who slipped away has a minute on Belkov, and a further 30secs back is the pack.
The gaps are maintained by the start of the final 4km climb, where Di Luca and all the favourites attack. Only Di Luca and Simoni get across to Belkov though.
Cunego leads the favourites under the 1K to go banner, and Belkov follows Simoni up the slope. Will he hold off "the Killer?"
Yes he does! And so yet more time is gained on most of the field!
I may have some bad news, when i turned on 07 today, it was set to normal, so yesterdays Giro stage may have been on Normal setting We shall see later.
Volta Stage 6
Mazzanti would be the longest survivor of the break, and took the win by a couple of minutes.
Tronet is getting in form and took a good top 15 place.
1 Luca Mazzanti TEAM MILRAM 4h10'42
2 Christophe Mengin FRANÇAISE DES JEUX + 1'15
3 Leonardo Moser UNIBET.COM + 2'23
4 Floren Márquez FUERTEVENTURA - CANARIAS TEAM s.t.
5 Tom Boonen QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
6 Fran Ventoso SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
7 Vicente Reynès CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
8 Baden Cooke UNIBET.COM s.t.
9 Javier BenÃtez TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
10 Sebastian Siedler TEAM MILRAM s.t.
11 Tom Veelers COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
12 Danilo Wyss LIQUIGAS s.t.
13 Steven Tronet AUBER - BELTELECOM s.t.
14 Mikhail Timochine LIQUIGAS s.t.
15 Yaroslav Popovych SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
Again, more KoM points on the offer, so Brouzes is off once more.
Leading once more over the top, he waits for 3 others to join up.
Another win, and more points. It looks like the break would go all the way, as by the bottom of the final climb the break of 4 has 19minutes gap. Just one HUGE climb to get over.
After 1km up, the break splits as Brouzes runs out of energy just before Rigotto, whom he later overtakes to take 2nd at the top of the climb.
Remi Di Gregorio is the fire starter in the pack, as after 2 km of the climb when the pack reaches it, he shoots out the intact pack.
All of the favourites respond, and so Belkov goes too just ahead of Di Luca. Whilst Di Luca gets past the other favourites to unite with Cunego, just behind Simoni, Belkov closes the gaps to join a strong group on the road.
Not only that, but he sits in, then attacks again. Getting a 30 second gap by the top.
It's not to be however, and he is caught in the downhill. Passing the early break 10km before the finish line.
As we come to the finish, Simoni wins the stage, and the lead! As the next group still has a kilometre to go.
Belkov does well to finish in his group. Will he move up any places?
because I have no aims for the overall.
We shall see later.
