Here we are then the last of the hilly stages before tomorrow's flat finale and another hard one which is being described as the queen stage of the race. As ever most of the talk at the start line is between the rider in the red corner Frank Schleck
and in the white and blue corner Jan Bakelants
Points leader Philippe Gilbert
, youth leader Simone Ponzi
fellow Italians Sergio Ghisalberti Diego Ulissi
and other hilly specialists Joaquin Rodriguez Oliver Maurice Schreurs Aleksandr Efimkin
and Chris Froome
have shown in previous stages they are up for the GC fight, though today the almost mountainous climbs may make things a bit tougher and we are on the sixth day of this tough race.
Some different names in the break of the day which comprises 11 riders:
Let's start with a familiar name to breakaways at the Tirrano Adriatico Gediminas Bagdonas
he is joined today by Miguel Angel Rubiano Chavez Mathieu Bernaudeau Welle Jallays Richie Porte Daniel Allonca Francesco Bellotti Morten Reckweg Juan-Antonio Flecha Fabio Silvestre Juan Van Heerden Maximiliano Richeze
and Peter Kennaugh
With 104 km to go the break has built up nearly a nine minute lead before the big climb. Upon reaching the climb a couple of riders realise that this breakaway may not have been such a good idea.
Mathieu Bernaudeau Daniel Allonca Morten Reckweg
all slip off the back on this nasty first King of the Mountains climb. In the peloton it is Wiggle with their superbly strong Italian riders setting tempo.
They are just keeping it steady and the break keep a decent lead as they approach the top. Again the points are very small for the winner of the climbs today all three mountain primes are 5 points for the winners, 3 for second and 1 for third. The chance is there for Bagdonas but again he is out of the points at the first instead Welle Jallays
gets the 1st place.
he nabs it ahead of Miguel Angel Rubiano Chavez
and Francesco Bellotti
with both Jallays and Chavez adding to previous tallys.
Gediminas Bagdonas
gets the next prime that is just rolled over.
Trouble is, is that it is a sprint prime that he takes ahead of Maximiliano Richeze
and Peter Kennaugh
They start to plunge down off of this high point of the days racing with 80km to go the lead 10 have a massive 10.30 on the pack. This could be the day for the breakaway though none have any chances as yet of making serious top 10 GC claims.
Two riders however who will be out of the stage win reckoning are Fabio Silvestre
and Richie Porte
who are dropped on the next KoM climb.
The best climber out of the eight left Francesco Bellotti
nabs the prime ahead of Juan Van Heerden
and Juan-Antonio Flecha
Again nothing for Bagdonas who has had a couple of oppurtunites to overhaul long time Mountians leader Thomas De Gendt
who will be secure in that jersey as Gediminas Bagdonas
and Peter Kennaugh
are dropped on that climb.
Maximiliano Richeze
is dropped here too as we have just five rider left in our breakaway the last Prime climb sees Juan-Antonio Flecha
take it ahead of Juan Van Heerden
and Francesco Bellotti
It also see's Miguel Angel Rubiano Chavez
dropped.
We also are starting to see a selection on the still to be honest sluggish peloton, the 6th day of racing is seeing a lack of concentration in Danny Summerhill
and Jesus Del Nero
who are possibly thinking of setting up their lead sprinters tomorrow as they slip back.
That being said Wikipedia's lead sprinter is having a great day on this lumpy stage with 30km to go he and the three other breakaways lead the pack by nearly 6 minutes.
Juan Van Heerden Juan-Antonio Flecha Francesco Bellotti
and Welle Jallays
are looking to get down on the record books here, but they do have a tough finale.
Behind the favourites teams still sense glory with Pearl Adidas and Vesuvio helping out the energiser bunny like Wiggle squad.
It seems strange that Wiggle would chase given the domination of the Vesuvio and Pearl Adidas leaders, but before anyone can accuse the team of being one dimensional we see a long range attack by Simone Ponzi
With 28km to go this seems like a bid to perhaps upset the lead two (three if we include Gilbert), the leaders though feel this is too early and leave the chasing down to the team mates.
They reel the Wiggle rider in after 5 or so kilometers, I guess this was just warming the young Italians legs.
In the break rather surprisingly it is Francesco Bellotti
who cracks next leaving just three riders up front with a 3.30 lead on the favourites group with 17,5 km left.
On the foot of the third to last climb Juan-Antonio Flecha
decides to roll back the years with a devestating attack.
His attack came as suddenly the break's lead evaporated, and Simone Ponzi
uses a similar place to launch.
This time as you can see he is well marked by a number of favourites including Jan Bakelants Frank Schleck Aleksandr Efimkin Diego Ulissi Philippe Gilbert
Indeed just like that the break is doomed as Ponzi powers across with Bakelandts and Schleck.
They do have a gap here, but the others mentioned Efimkin, Gilbert and Ulissi make it across with Flecha tagging on desperately on the back.
12km to go and these seven have just over 30 seconds on Chris Froome
and the front seven have 58 seconds on Marcello Pavarin
and Joaquin Rodriguez Oliver
with the rest of the favourites another 30 seconds back.
As he feels the pace go out of the front group Diego Ulissi
attacks under the 10km to go banner.
It proves a bit of a powderpuff style move though and as he conks out Jan Bakelants Philippe Gilbert
and Aleksandr Efimkin
come storming past.
Once again Pearl Adidas's race leader is fantastic as he opens a gap.
We still have 8km to go and Frank Schleck
is trying to organise the chase with Ulissi, Ponzi, Efimkin and Gilbert.
Bakelandts has made his move here and Schleck rescues things on the downhill with great technical skills.
Behind the Sony Ericsson riders Alessandro Ballan
and Robin van der Hugenhaben
have moved up to join Rodriguez and Pavarin in the second chase group.
Back up at front and it seems we have our battle of the big guns again as Schleck launches an attack past a perhaps stunned Bakelandts.
Bakelandts grits his teeth he knows if he can follow Schleck the race should be his, but it seems the Devil is with the elder statesman.
The game Ulissi is leading out the other chasing leaders Gilbert, Ponzi and Efimkin. The Festina rider realises perhaps he cannot make a top five but is looking to get deeper into the top ten.
We enter the last kilometre and Bakelandts is really struggling to hold on here.
Behind Ponzi can see the race leader struggling and launches a big sprint that gaps Gilbert, Ulissi and Efimkin.
Frank Schleck takes the win finally to strike back at the young Belgian Bakelandts.
It looks as though he has a gap too as Bakelandts rocks and rolls his way to second on the stage ahead of Ponzi.
Gilbert leads the other three over ahead of Efimkin and Ulissi.
Froome is next and he defends that 5th place once again, what a fine finish that will be for the Brit. He comes in with Van der Hugenhaben who has been a bit anonymous in the race.
Just behind you can see Ballan, Rodriguez, Caruso and Pavarin who have a gap on Scheurs and Ghiselberti.
The race directors confirm that there was a gap of 14 seconds recorded between Schleck and Bakelandts meaning the Vesuvio rider has snatched the lead by three second courtesy also of eight extra bonus seconds! Ponzi remains 4th with Gilbert holding onto that podium position. Efimkin and Ulissi move forward narrowly failing to overtake Rodriguez but jumping over Ghiselberti and Scheurs.
