Three stage wins, a King of the mountains jersey and the race lead. Bimbo Nutella have been hot chocolate here in Mexico and will feel that this is probably one of the races of the season for them. Race leader Samwel has been knocking on the door for some time in the stage races, but has to watch out for Kilun at the finish today.
It is very flat and you would think that sprinters like Guereo and Sutton will have no excuse today to make it a close run for the line. The riders in the peleton seem happy enough early to surrender to this inevitability as no-one is prepared to attack.
No action, a day to admire the scenery
It is such a short day there really is nothing to report, with just five seconds separating the top two on GC it could be an interesting finale. But the GC men are nowhere in sight as we approach the key last 3km to go point.
It is Daniel Petrov who leads the way ahead of the Bimbo Nutella train of Craven and Sabido, to the side of that Matthews is leading out Sutton. Guereo is on Sutton’s wheel. On the other side of the road it is Nizzola leading out Points leader (and surely winner) Damian Martinez.
Sprint trains
Youngster Michael Matthews is not really a match for Italian Nizzola and the Quiksilver train moves quickly ahead of the Red Bull one as Petrov fades too.
Quiksilver looking to set Martinez up a second time
Guereo starts to come around the Red Bull riders and Sutton tries to react to the Spaniard. Though neither look like they will get on terms with Martinez, so with 600m to go the Cuban looks set for his second stage win of the race.
600m left for Cuban missile
It is a real fight for third place between Sutton and Guereo – the sprinters do seem to be a ways ahead of a lethargic peleton as well (they get a time gap) as Sabido is coming through for 4th place.
Martinez takes his second stage win of the race
The sprinters have taken time out of the bunch which means Damian Martinez moves up to 5th place on GC as a result. What a fantastic performance by the Quiksilver rider, who has done really well in these stage races this year.
Samwel finishes safely in the pack with Kilun, both will be happy with their performance and Marquez rounds out the GC podium ahead of the desperately disappointing David Lopez Garcia.
