Taaramae look very solid in first place in GC, but whilst he has a nice little buffer the squabbling for the other placings is pretty intense. Falcon have not had a lot of joy this season, but will certainly be ecstatic with Theo Eltink moving up to second place yesterday over Bosisio. The Italian will want to try and make amends over todays technical finale, but behind him Petronas’ Italian stallion Carrara will be also looking to move up.
The last climb today is a bit of a tough one which tops out with 10km to go. Pundits point out that Paulinho of Bbox will be one too watch today and classics specialist Alex Flugal should also enjoy the parcours though he should really be helping his team leader.
The early break of four contains two riders well poised in the king of the mountains competition. David Veilliex of Bbox should develop into a fine sprinter, but he has a useful ability over hills too, he is here as is Duran of Santander.
Our break of four
Duran, Wilman, Kusters and Veilleux is our break of four for today and the two riders high up on the KOM competition will be looking at the relevant primes with interest.
Vielleux - > Wilman - > Kusters - > Duran
This moves the Canadian to 34 points and Duran to 32 points, not so good for the Spaniard today. The break rolls over the sprint prime, perhaps Duran gets confused as he wins this one over Wilman and Kusters. With 75km to go the gap is about eight minutes, but behind the big guns get tetchy and one contender is going for a long one at 55km to go.
Cadel Evans (Yamaha) takes a few riders with him
The Australian has done this a few times, this season it doesn’t seem to work that often but the cranky rider is a stubborn mule! Zahner (UBS), Klimov (Tinkoff) and Stubbe (Petronas) join him on this one. The attack though seems a bit hasty as they go over the penultimate climb of the day.
Kusters - > Vielleux - > Wilman - > Duran
Strange really looks like Vielleux is going to stumble into the KOM win! He now has four points over Duran and these two are way clear of everyone else with Duran’s previous co leader Klimov in the chasing group on 31 points. The chasing group are led over the climb by Evans.
Cadel got the bit between his teeth
Only Zahner can live with the attacking (!) Australian out of the chasing group. Meanwhile another decent GC candidate Benjamin Noval (Telenor) who happens to be on the same time as Evans 2.08 behind Taaramae. They are in 8th and 9th place and this is begin to become dangerous.
Noval perhaps the surprise main candidate for Telenor
Klimov and Stubbe fall back to the peleton, but now other riders are bridging across to the three man chase group.
three men about to become seven
Santander have sent Castroviejo up here, the other three are 2nd and 3rd GC placed Eltink and Bosisio and also the labelled dangerman Paulinho currently 6th place in GC. It is bedlam though for the next 5km, Hoogerland joins his team-mate for sure also animated here is Kritskiy, Bogdan, Moreno and Zingle. But up front the four man break are breaking up, with Wilman moving away.
Telenor looking for a special moment for their phone adverts
Meanwhile Kohl, Carrara and Flugal bridge across to the front group – Taaramae is choosing to keep his powder dry. As they go up this last climb, it is Flugel the most attacking it seems from that front group.
Alex Flugal putting in a hard move
You may ask that this seems risky with Taaramae still behind, but Ikea seem to be toying with the opposition here as their GC leader easily bridged across to the now bloated lead group.
Estonian not having a bad day perhaps
He gets across to the group of favourites, that I maybe mistakenly called front group. They have not caught Wilman yet who goes over the KOM point alone ahead of Paulinho and Flugel who are leading the attacks in the group behind.
Let’s will him on to the stage win
As I said behind him Flugel and Paulinho are leading the attacks from the favourites group. They are joined by another rider, Ikea’s Rein Taaramae!
So impressive by Ikea
They catch the Telenor rider with just 2.5km to go, it is between Wilman and those three riders now.
Two Ikeas, a Bbox and a Telenor
Behind these our second group has formed down the final descent, it is Carrara, Bososio and Kohl. These three are desperately trying to limit their losses to Paulinho.
Chasing group
Up front Paulinho cannot seem to suss out how to beat the Ikea duo, so he simply doesn’t bother. Wilman is shattered and the Flugal is on one side with Taaramae the other.
Which furniture do you choose?
In the sprint between team mates, it is the classics specialist Flugal who takes it.
One who Flu the cuckoos nest
Behind Carrara puts in a great final spurt to latch onto the fading Wilman to get the same time as the leaders and gap on those behind him.
Final burst gets Petronas man moving on GC
Carrara and Paulinho move into the top 3 with their performances today, meanwhile Hoogerland got Eltink back to the Bosisio/Kohl group.
