Last stage in Norway today and the riders have a tricky test today which will give us our final sort out. The parcours consist of a long flat section followed by two circuits the first takes us over the Vintervelen climb five times, where as the last takes us over the little Riperbahlen climb five times.
There has been a lot of swapping about behind Taaramae on GC, but in second Carrara made a dramatic late bridging move to take him now 35 seconds clear of Paulinho who moved up yesterday to third. But his lead is tight on Eltunk, Bosisio and Kohl who are between six and twenty two seconds down.
Early on today we get a break of three riders.
Three fairly unfamiliar names go for it today
Balloni is the Vespa man, Boeckmans is up there for Highroad and Falcon sprinter Guarnieri is riding in this break too. In fact the final rider is the best place on GC at 15.11 back on the yellow jersey. None are a threat in the KOM competition either, so this is allowed a lot of leeway.
So much in fact that with 75km to go the lead is 11.20, though we have seen that the Norwegian conditions can make breakaways drop dramitic amounts of time in the finale. Over the sprint point it is hardly surprising to see Guarnieri take the win over Boeckmans and Ballioni. Over the first of two 4 point KOM primes on the second Vintervelen ascent...
Boeckmans - > Ballioni - > Guarnieri
With 50km to go the gap is still a whopping 13 minutes, the peleton are really waiting for the finale today. This lethargy is good news for Bbox's David Vielleux, as with only two points left for the pack to battle for he has won the KOM over Telenor's Wilman and Santander's Duran.
Back in the pack, Vespa's GC man Bosision decides to attack on the final ascent of the Vintervelen.
Bosisio determined not to lose more places on GC
Not wanting to take any chances today, Rein Taaramae responds fairly quickly.
Not taking any chances today
This perhaps indicates that todays shorter climbs do not really suit Taaramae as well, with the GC leader up the road plenty of other riders go in the attack.
Hoogerland, Pagato, Allonca and Kusters join Bosision and Taaramae at the front
Also going up the road here is GC 2nd place Carrara and Tinkoff GC man Kritskiy. Three of this front group begin to push ahead.
Front group of three forms
Taaramae, Carrara and Hoogerland it seems as if Falcon have the wrong man forward here! Bososio has missed this and now him and his teammate Pagato form a chase group with yesterdays stage winner Flugal and yesterdays big GC mover Paulinho on their wheels.
Chase group
Up at the front the break still have more than enough to look good for the stage, Highroad's Boeckmans is the strongest on hills and so leaves his breakaway companions behind.
Tom Tom man maps out a route to victory
With 10km to go the lead rider has over eight minutes on the lead chase group that has now swelled to 10 riders.
Chase group led by Ikea duo
The riders here are :
Taaramae, Flugal (Ikea)
Hoogerland, Eltink (Falcon)
Pagato, Bososio (Vespa)
Paulinho (Bbox)
Carrara (Petronas)
Kohl (UBS)
Kritskiy (Tinkoff)
No Evans or Noval will disappoint Yamaha and Telenor.
Up the penultimate climb and four riders go clear here with Tinkoff's Kritskiy looking in fine form today.
Kritskiy leads a useful group of four here
Carrara has marked the move, the other two riders here are Kohl and Flugal. No sign of Taaramae which is making Carrara look a danger. Flugal is just sitting on and on the last climb two more riders bridge.
Falcon duo make an excellent junctionp
Hoogerland and Eltink make a very good move on the last ascent, this should secure Eltink's top five place. But this group of six have a good 30 second gap on the four remaining riders (Vespa duo, Paulinho and Taaramae) and this is increasing. Could Taaramae lose yellow?
Up at the front...
Boeckmans takes the stage win for Highroad
Great win for Highroad who are beginning to build some momentum in recent weeks. Behind him Guarnieri takes second ahead of Ballioni. Good job for Taaramae that these three took the bonifications, as Carrara really pushes things on splitting the three man group behind so that only Kritskiy and Kohl could follow.
Kohl, Kritskiy and Carrara cross 5.46 later
They put 15 seconds into the Falcon duo and Flugal who surely should have dropped back to help his teammate. Speaking of his teammate he cross last of the group of four that are timed at 6.35 back from Boeckmans.
It is close but Taaramae keeps the yellow by 13 seconds
The big mover from these moves was Kohl who followed the right wheels to 4th on the day and moves up to that position on GC with Paulinho and Bosisio moving downwards. Theo Eltink sneaks onto the podium by one second!
