You may have heard that this Columbian stage race is not for the faint hearted, todays stage really launches straight into it. The long mid stage climb of the Caseron should give the riders plenty of taste of things to come later in the race. However near the finish there is a nasty steep little wall that may well discomfort some riders who are well placed from yesterdays short time trial.
Gil, Van den Broek, Hesjedal and Rodrigues are listed as the favourites for the stage and lets be honest these riders are expected to be challenging for overall honours at the end of the race.
However their teams will have to control things, lots of teams have sent some useful leiutenents here and six pretty good riders went in todays break of the day.
Useful little six pack here
The riders here then are Bragazzi (Unicredit), Bajadali (Yamaha), Hofland (Bimbo Nutella), Ndbri (Pirelli), de Romijn (Youtube) and Saldarriago (Benfica). Both the Pirelli and Benfica men are very useful climbers so this is a dangerous move. With 100km to go there is a 6.52 gap to the bunch and some argument about who is going to control this. In the meantime the riders up front battle it out for the first sprint points of this years Vuelta a Columbia.
Hofland - > Bajadali - > Bragazzi
Eventually Sport Lisboa Benfica launch a half hearted chase attempt with GC positions 1st and 2nd, it is Rui Costa who is doing the brunt of the workload on the front of the peleton.
Rui Costa raises the pace of the peleton
This means that their man in the breakaway will not do any work which could mean that he is bit stronger later on or perhaps more use to one of their leaders bridging up to this move. The gap is coming down but quite slowly with 75km to go the time gap back is 5.46. The breakaway prepare themselves for the next sprint prime.
Hofland - > Bragazzi - > Bajadali
Before the main climb of the Caseron, there is smallish climb to get over. This gives us an indication of which riders are looking for KOM points from todays escape.
Ndbri ->Hofland - > Bragazzi
Meanwhile Lego are helping Sport Lisboa do the chasing, they do not really want decent climbers gaining easy time on Koldo Gil this early in proceedings. But the breakaway are getting some nice juicy time bonuses from the sprint primes.
Ndbri - > Bajadali - > Hofland
Ignoring the current time back to the peleton the current GC position combined with yesterdays TT of the breakaway men is:
Bajadali at 17 seconds, Bragazzi at 23 seconds, Hofland at 23 seconds, Ndbri at 27 seconds, Saldarriago at 28 seconds and de Romijn at 33 seconds.
The gap with 50 to go is 4.16 though so it is looking a bit touch and go for this break especially with two big climbs to come. The first long climb of the Caseron sees the break work well together (apart from Saldarriago) and the come over the top with Bragazzi taking the 10 points, but Ndbri takes second here meaning the Pirelli man is the KOM leader.
Bragazzi - > Ndbri - > de Romijn
Back in the peleton things are beginning to heat up as decent GC hope Ryder Hesjedal goes on the attack with 30km to go.
Canadian all rounder looking to gain time today
It is a good move on a downhill but as the road flattens out he is reeled in by the peleton, who slow down which encourages more attacks. So begins a little pattern of moves which does bring the peleton nearer the breakaway – eventually a different Pirelli rider gets away in the form of Iban Mayo. He bridges to the breakaway and him and Ndbri launch a very good move.
Two Pirelli men duo away from the break
Ndbri having secured the KOM jersey leads for a bit before Mayo pushes on, on the final climb.
Mayo on his way it seems
Behind though on this last selection riders are finding the energy to bridge up to the breakaway such as Rodrigues, Gil and Y.Martinez, but the Green jersey of Jurgen Van den Broeck is labouring a little.
VdB losing his TT advantage here
But the joint Pirelli moves have given them a nice foothold in the race as Iban Mayo wins and takes the leaders jersey.
Mayo takes a fine win for Pirelli
Behind the next group on the round some 30 seconds back contains a mixture of GC men (Rodrigues, Gil, Y.Martinez) and remnents from the breakaway (Bajadeli, Salderriago). It is the impressive Bajadeli who crosses the line in 2nd place ahead of Rodrigues, this should move him well up the GC.
Bajadali takes a fine second
VdB’s group is next which loses a further 30 seconds, not decisive but not great for the Benfica favourite. Parra Bustamante (Red Bull) is in a group another 30 seconds back, with Hesjedal making the day slightly bittersweet for Pirelli finishing even further down. The Yellow jersey would finish two and half minutes behind Mayo on this surprisingly split up day.
