A nearly 150 km mountain stage is in the cards, and with only one more day in the mountains, any rider who can pull a big gap will be in solid position to win the race. An intermediate sprint sits on the road before the climb, with the descent running to a short flat before the finish:
As usual, we have an early break. It is composed of Li (Ernst and Young), Pacheco (Nespresso), Barrio (Wii), Guerao (Santander), Radolcha (Lego), Speirs (Kenda), Striska (Ultra), and Cunha (Energie). Li won the uncontested sprint:
As soon as we hit the climb the action starts with an attack by Gustov (Lego) and Stubbe (Olympus):
They were followed shortly after by teammates Osella (Olympus) and Vantornout (Lego).
Next up were Gonzalo (Santander) and Riblon (Wii):
And they were followed by our first attacks by the big dogs, with Gil (Lego), Valjavec (Ernst and Young), and race leader Efimkin (Starbucks) attacking:
Obviously this got a response, and Astarloza (NVidia) attacked, followed by Evans (Olympus) and a few others:
Throughout all of this the riders from the break were being caught, dropped, and picked up by the pack. Li looked set to take the KOM points and the lead in that competition, but he was passed by Efimkin and then caught by another group of riders. Efimkin won the KOM sprint, with Arvesen keeping the lead in that competition:
And had a 15" gap to a group of 8 riders, composed of Li, Valjavec, Barrio, Evans, Riblon, Gil, Astarloza, and Vasquez (Nespresso). There were presently 42 km to go.
Efimkin would seriously increase his gap on the descent, to nearly 2'00" minutes. Over the 10 km from the end of the descent to the 10 km to go sign, pretty much every rider from the break attacked, along with certain select riders (Raisin, Carrara, etc.) from the pack, and they were getting closer and closer to Efimkin.
With 10 km to go, Efimkin was still in the lead:
And here was the situation:
E1: Efimkin
E2 (+28): Gil, Riblon, Evans
E3 (+23): Valjavec
E4 (+18): Vasquez
E5 (+25): Astarloza, Barrio, Siblia Romero (Starbucks), Pacheco, Li, Carrara (Olympus)
E6 (+32): van der Hugenhaben (Jack Wolfskin), Gonzalo, Raisin (Ernst and Young), De Ketele (Kenda), Bagot (Energie), and Savodelli (Wii)
P (44): 21 riders
Efimkin fought hard, and in the end had plenty of time to celebrate his stage win, and what looks like his race win:
Riblon out sprinted Evans and Gil, in that order, for second:
While Vasquez moved passed Valjavec to take fourth in front of the Slovenian in fifth.
Results (sorry):
The final mountain stage is next, followed by a finishing crit.
Edited by Roman on 18-10-2016 04:10
