The toughest day of this years Basque tour and possibly one of the hardest routes devised in the races history see's the last 60km peppered with tough short climbs.
The first the Karabieta tops out with 56km to go with some small climbs before the Ixua topped at 27km to go and the relatively modest San Miguel climb maxing out at 15km to go. This is all before the final steep summit finish at Uzartza.
It is going to be a battle royale at the finish and smart money seems to be on Robert Gesink
who is 25 seconds behind race leader Jan Bakelants
with this being a massive test.
Last years winner Yuri Trofimov
should not be discounted of course currently 3rd at 21 seconds and neither should Stefan Schumacher Simone Ponzi Luis Leon Sanchez Gil Patrik Sinkewitz Aleksandr Efimkin
or Philippe Gilbert
all of which are in touch of the race lead.
Early on we get a break and one of them is reasonably well placed on the King of the Mountains in Mauro Facci
You fancy that Warner Brothers with a lack of leaders will be shooting for a lot of Mountains jerseys this year and Facci immiediately moves level with current KoM leader Wiggins on the first climb (a 10-8-6-4-2 one) by winning the first climb. His breakaway companions go over behind him in this order Andrey Zeits
Mikhail Ignatiev
(Tinkoff) Andrea Moletta
Zeits is the best placed on GC at 7.08 with Ignatiev the well known Russian TTist ay 8.30. In the pack Sony are taking the most interested with Luis Fernández Oliveira
taking 5th place at the first mountain.
With 75km to go the gap is 6.42 but falling, even so there is plenty of space for Facci to win the second KoM prime atop the Karabieta. This takes the Italian to 40 KoM points and a pretty formidable position.
Zeits is second again to move to 16 KoM points with Molleta third, Ignatiev is 4th with Fernandez Oliveria once again leading the pack over. Jan Bakelants is staying right up there out of trouble with Tanel Kangert
playing his chief domestique.
50 klicks to go then and the breaks lead is down to 4.30 thanks to all the work being done by Sony at the two small categorised climbs Zeits tries to move clear solo.
He takes the first King of the Mountains from Facci, but is reeled back in by the second.
KoM 3: Zeits (22 KoM in total) - > Facci (44 KoM in total) - > Moletta (12 KoM in total)
KoM 4: Facci (50 KoM points) - > Moletta (16 KoM in total) - > Zeits (24 KoM in total)
We move onto the Ixua and things start to get interesting as riders attack the pack it is Damiano Caruso
who starts us off followed by Johnny Hoogerland
and Diego Ulissi
However Sony are really determined to set a steady tempo and Fernendez Oliveria and Robin van der Hugenhaben
are relentless.
They are surprised by a powerful acceleration by David López Garcia
as we get to 2km from the top.
The Spanish rider attacks past the failed move involving Caruso, Ulissi and Hoogerland. Meanwhile near the top Ignatiev who has done little in the break puts in a dig probably in a bid to stay away.
The Ixua is worth 20 points to the winner of the climb but Ignatiev has not gained that many points early on so only gets up to 22 points by winning the climb. Behind Moletta nabs second to move to 28 points, Zeits is third moving to 32 points and then the likely winner Facci who gets up to 58 KoM points.
The pack led by Kangert chase Lopez Garcia, in fact it seems false to call it a pack things have shredded down to just 13 riders.
The list of riders then Luis Leon Sanchez Gil Tanel Kangert Jan Bakelants Diego Ulissi Robert Gesink Haimar Zubeldia Aleksandr Efimkin Joaquin Rodriguez Oliver Stefan Schumacher Johnny Hoogerland Sergio Ghisalberti Simone Ponzi Tejay Van Garderen
You'll scan through these riders and notice that Gilbert, Sinkewitz and shockingly Trofimov is missing! This despite Sony having led the pace for much of the day.
The Pearl group catch the break and Lopez Garcia but as they get to the bottom of teh San Miguel climb the Sony boys have done a great job of work and pulled Trofimov back up to the lead group/
Lopez Garcia is proving the livewire today, the Spanish climber attacks again on the San Miguel.
It seems as if the Spanish riders are nailing their colours to the mast as LL Sanchez and Purito attack. Mind you uber favourites Gesink and Bakelants are all over this move like a rash.
Simone Ponzi best young rider has missed this move but shows real guts in powering across solo.
Behind him Efimkin is working with Sony lead domestique Van de Hugenhaben with Trofimov seemingly not at his best. Tejay Van Garderen, Kangert, Schumacher and Ghiselberti are here but Phillipe Gilbert is some way back. Clearly some riders are having a hard day on the toughest stage, up front Gesink cleverly descends up to Lopez Garcia and in turn creates a small 15 second gap to Bakelants and the others.
The Trifimov group are clocked at 49 seconds to Lopez Garcia/Gesink as we get to the bottom of the last climb, Gilbert is in a group with Sinkewitz at 1.21.
We move onto the final climb of just under 6km, it is short compared to a grand tour climb but it is steep all the way up and Bakelants desperately tries to get onto Gesinks wheel.
The Belgian does so having pulled things together as a group of six, but Lopez Garcia continues to attack.
This proves the breaking point for Ponzi and J Rod as LL Sanchez, Gesink and Bakelants hold onto the Santander rider.
Yuriy Trofimov is trying desperately to remind us why he is the champion of this race and has moved alone solo ahead of his group. He just might be able to pick off some of the riders ahead of him.
Further back another fallen champion Gilbert tries to get out of his saddle.
Alas he cannot keep the cadence for long as he and Sinkewitz are forced to grind their way up the climb.
Up front we are under the 3km to go banner and we are still going up a very steep gradient, Gesink is beginning to show his power and Bakelants is out of his saddle. He is the only one who can live with this as Lopez Garcia and LL Sanchez are forced to let go.
As Bakelants tries to sit down and regain his composure Gesink goes on the attack.
The elastic is beginning to snap, behind Trofimov has indeed caught and is about to pass Ponzi and J Rod.
Under the kite Bakelants has lost the wheel of Gesink completely it is looking like the leaders jersey will be lost.
The Dutch rider flexes his 2 inch pythons at the finish, really Bobbie we know you are as light as a feather.
Bakelants finishes second, he has given his all. Perhaps tomorrow Bakelants can do something? He'll need to he lost 37 seconds in the last 2 kms there.
Lopez Garcia and LL Sanchez hold off Trofimov to finish 3rd and 4th, 1.30 down on Gesink. Trofimov comes in at 1.51.
At 2.23 Joaquim Rodriguez finishes with Simone Ponzi, Ponzi is looking secure in the young riders tee.
Schumacher lost over four minutes to Gesink there and finishes in a group with Ghiselberti, Efimkin, Kangert, Van den Hugenhaben and Van Garderen.
Gilbert and Sinkewitz nearly lost five minutes.
Zabriskie finishes with Hagen and Kolesnikov nearly 7 minutes back.
Retirements Nestle Danilo Kupfernagel Marc Machado Saulo Lay Patrick Gretsch UBS Alexander Kristoff Denis Vorontsov Milka Alexandr Nepomnyachsniy Tinkoff
Aleksei Markov B + O Kobe Vanoverschelde Sten Stenersen Cerne Marco Cunha Vesuvio Nico Schinker Carmuese Alexandre Aulas Festina Anthony Lavoine Niki Østergaard Webeffect Gregor Gazvoda
Edited by Roman on 17-10-2016 05:39
