It is a hilly day at altitude today with 3 climbs of the Alto de la Ceja before a final drag up into La Union.
Koldo Gil put his stamp on the Vuelta a Columbia yesterday, though he still only has a 19 second lead on Jurgen Van den Broeck. It would appear that Yas Martinez and Ryder Hesjedal are outside bets for this, but this race is proving anything but predictable.
Another break goes away and in this race they may have high hopes of a stage win. One of the riders Victor Orozco has hopes of picking up mountain points.
Break on the climb
Orozco would take two of the four point maximiums on the Alto de la Ceja climbs, with second on another. His rival in this breakaway is Pirelli’s Tiralongo who wins the other ascent but finishes second and third on the other two taking 9 points. This puts Orozco on a total of 31 points and Tiralongo on a total of 30 points. They are some way behind the current polkadot jersey holder Jose Chacon, who has 50 points.
Also in the breakaway is Quiksilvers young Columbian Carlos Betencourt, Bimbo Nutella’s game Hofland and also up here briefly is Youtube’s de Romijn and Evan Oliphant. However following the second ascent of the Alto de la Ceja the latter three riders lose touch.
Three riders push on hoping for stage glory
The sprint points are becoming less relavent there are three primes on todays stage and for the record at the first Betencourt takes it over Oliphant (Youtube) and then Tiralongo. At the second Betencourt takes it again this time over Hofland and Tiralongo, Betencourt can only take second at the third behind Tiralongo but ahead of Orozco.
With just over 50km to go again the GC men are restless with the pace of the peleton.
Hesjedal tries a long range attack
It seems like a good move by Hesjedal as they approach the final uphill drag with 50km to go this is the time gaps situation.
e1 Orozco, Betencourt and Tiralongo e2 Oliphant at 49 seconds e3Hofland at 1.10 e4Hesjedal at 3.54 e5Valjevec at 4.03 e6de Romijn and Seledkov at 4.39 Peleton at 5.21
Up front the three riders are beginning drift away from each other, Quiksilvers Betencourt is seizing his opportunity here putting pressure on Orozco and Tiralongo.
Columbian youngster pushing on
Back in the peleton as we approach the final drag more GC favourites are making attacks, one rider probably has no choice but to go for broke.
Rodrigues goes for it
He is joined by Montenegro (Yamaha), Ortega (Unicredit) and Santaromita (Pirelli) and this move is some distance before the final drag up to the last KOM point and the finish. With 25 to go Betencourt still has Tiralongo stubbornly on his tail wit Orozco at 35 seconds and Hesjedal at 2.27, the peleton though is at 4 minutes with riders like Rodrigues and Montenegro somewhere in between.
Columbian finally ridsTiralongo for good
Betencourt ditches Tiralonga as they reach the uphill and with a 1.48 gap on Hesjedal he could well take the stage win. But behind hesjadal’s move is being hunted down as the big GC men make their move.
Koldo Gil stompts on his pedals
He attacks hard with about 13.5km to go, Van den Broeck again is forced to respond. But another rider also makes a move here showing he is a serious player here in Columbia.
The only way is up for Yas Martinez
So with 2.5km to go on the climb we have Betencourt who has 33 seconds on Tiralongo and 1.22 on Hesjedal who has caught Orozco. VdB, Gil and Y Martinez are at 2.12, though the peleton themselves are only at 2.37. Betencourt though is finding a lot of encouragement on the side of the road, this guy is a future star perhaps for Columbian cycling.
Bet on this guy becoming something
Behind the chasers are swelling to about seven riders, Schwab, Zaugg, Parra Busta and Damian Martinez bridging across.
The easing slopes means today will not be a super decisive one
Even Ryder Hesjedal is reeled in as they go over the top of the climb, meaning a lot of effort for not a lot for the Pirelli man.
Ryder’s attack for nought
However one man up front has enough of a lead to take the win ... just about!
Remember this youngsters name
Behind Van den broeck wins the sprint for second over Koldo Gil as those two drift further away from everyone else. You have to say Lego controlled things today.
Vdb - > Gil
Tomorrow we have the Santa Elena Mountain Time Trial, should be a cracker!
