Following yesterdays windy mountain top finish at Kitzbuhler Horn we have another really tough day in the saddle headlined by the often used Glossglockner climb. However this horrible climb is mid stage today offering 1st Cat and 2nd cat summit points for the KOM competition, it will serve as a softening up before the fairly straight forward climbing section.
Perez Sanchez has a slim eight second lead over Jose Serpa and 47 seconds on Evgeni Petrov, he will be confident of holding that in stage sevens TT and the gaps behind that open up. It is just over two minutes to 4th placed Van den Broeck, over three minutes to Rohregger and 3.45 to the disappointing David Abal. Another name to impress yesterday was Camano who is also a decent TTer and he lies 2.45 back.
Early on we have a 3rd category climb to negotiate and Thomas Rohregger tries to make up for a fairly weak ride yesterday considering he is on home territory by taking the maximum 4 points.
Rohregger - > Rui Costa - > Ortega - > Valjavec
This is just an attack for the points however as Pirelli pull it all back together on the descent, by the first sprint point though a break has been allowed to go away. It is a group of three as they push through the first sprint point.
Bragazzi - > Vangenecten - > Signorini
These three are being chased by two other riders.
Persson and Last chase for Falcon and Youtube
It is a nice break for the peleton to allow to go clear, Bragazzi is a pretty strong rouler as he proved in several breaks in the Vuelta a Columbia this year. He is accompanied by Bimbo Nutella lead out rider Vengenechtan, who is given freedom today but will struggle on the climb. Finally Signorini of UBS is perhaps there as a policeman, not much use as a rouler anywhere, but climbs pretty well. Persson and Last are not going to catch this move and before the Glossglockner the three leaders have 6.25 over the lethargic peleton.
Onto the Glossglockner, Bragazzi who has been working with the Bimbo Nutella rider up this point starts to ease away.
Bragazzi moves away about a third of the way into the climb
It is relentlessly steep here and Signorini cannot or will not move with the Italian and he is now clear.
Nice ride from Bragazzi, he could have done with some other decent riders to help though
Back in the peleton a couple of riders attack, they seem the KOM points type and are not big threats on GC.
Wilman, Riberio and Valls move out of pack with 6km to go
Riberio of Benfica is the best climber of the three and he starts to move through the remnents of the breakaway, as does Valls about 30 seconds behind. But the move is way too late to get anywhere near Bragazzi who takes both the mountain primes on the Glossglockner for 30 KOM points.
Bragazzi takes prime ahead of Signorini and Vengenechten
The top three remains the same at both despite a game chase by Riberio who does not quite catch the Bimbo Nutella sprinter by the second prime.
Vengenchten holds off Riberio for 3rd on both primes
None of the main favourites makes much of a move, only really Falcon's game Theo Eltink who gets about 30 seconds on the descent of the Glossglockner.
Eltink tries a little attack - it does not really go anywhere however
The next 3rd category is taken once again by Bragazzi, as now Signorini holds off the ever eager Riberio for second place with Vengenenchten now out of the picture and caught by a fast moving peleton.
Signorini takes three 2nd places
The KOM situation then after the climbs of today sees, Perez Sanchez still leading on 40 points ahead of Serpa on 36 pts and Bragazzi moves up to 34pts, Petrov 32, Signorini 30, Van den Broeck 28, and Riberio on 25 pts. Later on there is a 2nd category so we will have to see whether any of these contenders can take more points.
It does not look good for the breakaway riders who roll through the next sprint in the same order as the climb. Pirelli are chasing hard and have reduced the peleton down to 28 riders, with everyone you would expect to be there is there. They reel in everyone except Bragazzi who with 25km to go has 1.50.
Pirelli doing all the work through Basso, Dupont and Ndbri
They reel in a tired Bragazzi, who will need another big breakaway in the coming days to make hay in the KOM competition but he has laid the foundations here. Next time he may be given more leeway, but Unicredit may choose the sprinting option with Napolitano.
The first group of GC attackers includes 3rd placed Evgeni Petrov with 23km to go!
Txurruka, Valjavec, Eltink and Petrov make a big move
Good move from Petrov, perhaps a bit early but it has some other GC men scambling as quickly Serpa and Camano move to join up with this attack.
Serpa and Camano respond
They are joined by Rohregger, Rajala and Grau good stuff from Unicredit and Falcon. It makes nine in the lead group, as they go up the last 2nd category climb of the day. The finish is not at the prime point you will note but there is no real downhill section following it. It is however fairly shallow and GC leader Perez Sanchez is content to wait in the peleton with Benfica domestiques doing much of the work for Van den Broeck.
VdB, Perez Sanchez and Abal content to wait a bit
Evgeni Petrov seeing Serpa come up from behind tries to push on with Unicredits Valjavec...
Tinkoff man looking to move higher than GC third
Clearly the message gets back to the peleton as Abal and VdB realise they have to try and bridge and attack the peleton. Interestingly still Perez Sanchez does not make a move, did he go into the red zone too far yesterday?
Abal and Van den Broeck attack hard
These two make it to the front group, well not quite the front as Petrov and Valjavec have a twenty second lead over the ten men. The ten man chase group then is Camano, Eltink, VdB, Sabido, Rohregger, Abal, Guldhammer, Rajala, Serpa and Txurruka and it is about a minute to the Perez Sanchez group lead by teammate Riblon.
Perez Sanchez makes a rather unconvincing but seemingly good enough little dig as he just about crosses the gap to this 10 man chase group as we approach the prime point.
GC leader on the defensive but does get up there
However the riders are pushing on as Rohregger and Eltink cross to Petrov as they reach the points.
Rohregger - > Eltink - > Petrov
Zooming out we can see Jose Serpa crosses in 5th place to take the polkadot jersey for real (he wears it today because he is second to GC leader Perez Sanchez on KOM points).
Camano, Serpa and Vdb cross 4th, 5th and 6th
There is a good gap next to the next riders over the prime as the gradient shallows toward the finish Petrov struggles to hold with the other five. These five are pushing on hard, they look good for getting a gap and in Serpa's case this should get him the GC lead.
Eltink, Rohregger, Camano, Serpa and Van den Broeck push on
As they approach the finish these five begin to prepare themselves for the sprint as they line up across the road. Serpa is looking behind him, he should be looking for a bonification really...
Four riders line up for the sprint with 1800m to go, Serpa just behind
Van den Broeck fresh from a GC triumph in the Vuelta a Columbia where he won a field sprint on last stage looks the favourite and indeed he takes to the front in the last kilometer.
VdB cruises clear with Camino the only real resistence
Serpa is battling Rohregger for third as Eltink looks fatigued, Benfica's Van den Broeck takes the win.
Stage win for Benfica on a mountain stage
Camano 2nd, Rohregger 3rd and Serpa 4th and crucially out of the time bonuses. Eltink does not get gapped too much for 5th, looking back their looks like a fairly big gap to the next group of three.
Abal, Petrov and GC leader Perez Sanchez come in the second group
The gap is registered as 40 seconds, which means that Serpa takes the yellow jersey by 32 seconds. Will that be enough for the TT? Petrov holds 3rd but is only 18 seconds clear of Van den Broeck as Camano, Rohregger and Eltink move up into the top seven.
