Stage 3 is here, and with the mountainous climb up to Mont Megantic, this is undoubtedly one of the key stages in the race. Kessiakoff has a nice advantage as race leader and will look to consolidate that by avoiding time loss on his 2 main rivals - Cobo and Larsson.
Ethan Weiss starts the moves today and will take the 1st sprint - just holding on against 3 men who have joined him: Florencio, Atapuma and Pinot
The last to attack was Canadian Rollin, and after a bit of a chase, he makes it a break of 5
If you look at the profile, youll see that before the day's KoMs comes a short fairly steep section. It's too much for Rollin, and off the back he goes. Weiss was also dropped, but worked his way back. When we do get to the first KoM, Atapuma takes full points.
The Colombian passes a chance to double his tally though moving over just before the top of the 2nd - so this time Pinot crosses 1st
And the 3rd KoM sees a 3rd winner, Florencio this time
In the meantime in the peloton, Le Lay attacked with 58km to go. He is caught with 44km to go, and the chase - led by Santander and Ikea - is certainly on!
The sprint passes, Florencio wins, but theres not long to wait for the first meaningful attacks. De Greef goes with 25km to go
Peterson, Noval and Grabovski counter - as Rollin is caught
And up front Florencio puts on the pressure, and soon finds himself alone
Noval and Grabovski do best of the attacks, and soon have Weiss in their sights
The climb is on, but already its just 10km to go. Florencio leads, 1 minute 30 later are Grabovski and an uncooperative Noval, with the pack at 2 minutes 45, close to De Greef and Peterson
And here we go. Kessiakoff leads the attacks, Larsson and Raisin quickly follow
Cobo also makes his move and joins a group of 9 thats formed - De Greef and Peterson are there, as well as Pinot and Atapuma, plus the attackers - leaving just Florencio and Grabovski down the road
Another Telenor attacker is Guldhammer, but Kessiakoff isnt waiting. Putting the pressure on while Cobo is still recovering from his attack, only De Greef and Larsson follow
Cobo quickly gets back though, as does Raisin. Peterson aswell comes close to getting back - with Noval and Guldhammer tucked in - and so Kessiakoff attacks again
But the attack does nothing much, Kessiakoff, Larsson, Cobo, De Greef and Raisin remain together, and with 5km to go, Florencio still leads, with Grabovski still chasing - the Ukrainian's problem is while being fresher, he isnt actually as good on the mountains as Florencio - but still, credit to Grabovski, he still remains clear of the Kessiakoff group
De Greef now starts to be tailed off though, as behind Mercedes bring support for Peterson. No attacks by Stetina and Colex, simply riding tempo. Also there are Ruijgh, Rohregger, Garate and Hernandez Gutierrez
And still Florencio leads, just over 3km to go - can he hold on for the stage win, or even take the race lead from his teammate?
Kessiakoff certainly isnt relenting. Raisin is dropped aswell now, as Grabovski is caught
And soon it seems only Cobo can follow the Swede
Behind them, De Greef and Raisin are caught by Ruijgh, Stetina, Hernandez Gutierrez, Noval and Rohregger. On paper, Stetina actually has the best mountain stat in the race - and is now a minute ahead of the suffering Peterson - but still shows no signs of attacking
We reach the final kilometre now, and Florencio is holding on!
Kessiakoff does seem likely to keep the race lead, so will be wary of pushing too much - can Cobo spoil the Telenor party?
Larsson and Grabovski still remain close, but Florencio isnt going down without a fight
And there we go, he's done it. A remarkable stage victory for Xavier Florencio. 2nd for Cobo before Kessiakoff - with a slight gap awarded to Larsson, and a further one to Grabovski. Good news for Cobo and Kessiakoff, as both Larsson and Grabovski are stronger against the clock
The 3 non-attackers are next, Stetina, Ruijgh and Rohregger - before a gap to De Greef, Raisin, Noval and Hernandez Gutierrez
Peterson comes in 2 and a half minutes down, he had nothing left to give after his initial attack failed
The rest of the field now continue to trail in - the biggest groups being no larger than 4 riders.
