Despite the fact that there's one stage after this one, the race will be decided today. Four mountains make the route and, therefore, Caruso needs to perform to keep his jersey. Can he make it?
The first ascent starts and more attacks happen. Garbelli, Speirs and Khalilikhosroshani try to break away.
Signorini takes the KOM sprint in front of Jeannesson and Kirsch. Costa and Hruska are also in this group as the other riders were dropped in the climb.
Cardoso, Gabrovski and Pires escape from the pack. Cardoso quickly gains an advantage over the other two.
Same group in the front and Signorini also takes the second mountain sprint. Signorini is also the first in the last intermediate sprint which is placed in the descent of the mountain. The peloton is at 4 minutes.
In the summit of the third climb, Nazaret attacks and he is countered by Pedraza. The early break riders are being caught one by one.
Nazaret is the first in the KOM sprint while Kirsch is third, taking the virtual lead of the mountain classification. Pedraza is at 10 points which means that the mountain classification isn't secured yet for Kirsch. Basso joins these three riders and they form a group during the descent.
Nazaret let the peloton catch him so Pedraza starts the last climb in the head of the race.
Taaramäe attacks.
And so does Colom Mas. Ortega counters him, shortly after.
Nazaret also goes (passing Basso) and Caruso follows him.
After all the attacks, Pedraza is still leading. Caruso can see him but almost 50 seconds separate them.
Over the top, Pedraza still leads but the margin is lower, 25 seconds now. Nazaret is the third after leaving Taaramae, Colom Mas and Ortega behind. 18 km to go.
In the downhill, Osella and Fernández Oliveira fall.
With 5 km to go, Caruso catches Pedraza. This means that the second place in this stage is enough for Caruso to keep his overall lead.
They enter in the last kilometer side by side. Not a single sprint move among them, so far.
With 500m to the line, Pedraza has a small advantage.
And he can hold Caruso off! Second win in a row for the Colombian. Not enough, though, to get the overall lead.
Nazaret is the third but Taaramäe is very close, meaning that the IKEA rider is third in the GC at the end of the day.
Stage Classification:
1
Walter Pedraza
Sony Ericsson
4h40'36
2
Gianpaolo Caruso
Nvidia Intel
s.t.
3
Magno Nazaret
Sport Lisboa e Benfica - Michelin
+ 47
4
Rein Taaramäe
Team IKEA - Bianchi
+ 1'00
5
Mauricio Ortega
Team Olympus AirAsia - Presented by Petronas
+ 1'24
6
Antonio Colom Mas
Team Energie - Diesel
s.t.
7
Ivan Basso
Vespa-Caffrey's
+ 1'50
8
Sergio Pardilla
Team Energie - Diesel
+ 2'31
9
Aleksandr Efimkin
Kenda Pro Cycling P/B Spinergy
s.t.
10
Jose Alarcon
Team IKEA - Bianchi
s.t.
11
Sergio Ghisalberti
Sony Ericsson
s.t.
12
Mikel Astarloza
Nvidia Intel
s.t.
13
Alex Diniz
Nvidia Intel
s.t.
14
Diego Gallego
Sport Lisboa e Benfica - Michelin
s.t.
15
Francis De Greef
Molteni
s.t.
16
Dmitri Medvedev
Sony Ericsson
s.t.
17
Jonas Bjelkmark
Sony Ericsson
s.t.
18
Jorge Nogaledo
Team Energie - Diesel
s.t.
19
Julián Becerra
Wii Racing
s.t.
20
Christian Pfannberger
Nvidia Intel
s.t.
21
Marco Osella
Team Olympus AirAsia - Presented by Petronas
+ 5'06
22
Carlo Kirsch
Team Olympus AirAsia - Presented by Petronas
+ 5'16
23
Luis Fernández Oliveira
Sony Ericsson
+ 5'28
24
Danail Petrov
Sport Lisboa e Benfica - Michelin
+ 5'54
25
Zdenek Stybar
Team IKEA - Bianchi
s.t.
26
Damian MartÃnez
Acqua & Sapone
s.t.
27
Jorge Ferrio
Acqua & Sapone
s.t.
28
Gian Piero Signorini
Wii Racing
s.t.
29
Gert Rajala
Team Ultimate
s.t.
30
Milton Ramos Gamez
Team Olympus AirAsia - Presented by Petronas
+ 6'26
31
Anthony Colby
Team Olympus AirAsia - Presented by Petronas
+ 6'39
32
Eddy Ratti
Acqua & Sapone
s.t.
33
Stian Remme
Wii Racing
+ 7'38
34
Kuan Hua Lai
Team Olympus AirAsia - Presented by Petronas
+ 8'21
35
Arnold Jeannesson
Team Ultimate
s.t.
36
Rui Costa
Sport Lisboa e Benfica - Michelin
s.t.
37
Jan Hruska
Molteni
+ 9'46
38
Tareq Esmaeli
Team Olympus AirAsia - Presented by Petronas
s.t.
39
Bert De Waele
Molteni
+ 10'03
40
Florian Stalder
Nvidia Intel
s.t.
41
Nicolas Vogondy
Molteni
s.t.
42
Ludvig Lundberg
Team IKEA - Bianchi
s.t.
43
Wang-yip Tang
Team Ultra Adventure Pro Cycling - Sponsored by Hello Kitty
