Today’s contest is undoubtedly one for the climbers. It features two back-to-back ascents of Mount Etna over the course of 164km. The first ascent is on the north side of the mountain and measures 28.4km, with an average of 5.5%. The second ascent, which features the finish line at its summit, is 24.4km in length, but this time with an average of 6%. Generally speaking neither side of the climb has particularly steep sections and instead it is just a long, steady climb. Because of this there probably won’t be massive gaps at the top of the stage, but the length should be enough to show who is definitely out of the GC running.
The first man to start the attacks today is young South African time trialist Reinhardt Janse van Rensburg, who attacks with Jonas Ljungblad. It has to be said that neither of these men are particularly good climbers, but they might be hoping that the GC men will cancel each other out.
These two men are joined straight away by Blel Kadri and Jason Donald. Interstingly, these two men as well as Ljungblad all crashed on stage 4.
With four riders up front, a few more seek to bridge across. First up is Diego Alejandro Montoya with André Steensen. These men are joined by Leigh Howard. Together all three of them bridge up to the front and with 29km raced there is a break of seven riders who have a lead of about 3 minutes.
Behind Bacardi are doing all the work on the front. The rain starts absolutely teeming down, causing Forero to come off his bike. The weather really hasn’t been kind to the riders over the last week.
As we reach the base of the first ascent, it is still Bacardi doing all the work. They are mostly lead by Terciado, Grabovski and Perget. There is a 5’50” gap to the leaders as the road starts to climb.
With the first climb almost half done, 12.5km to the summit, the break have maintained their gap and have a 5’54” lead over the peleton. It is this moment that two climbers choose to launch their big attack. Their names are Marco Marzano and Guillaume Levarlet.
Marzano was considered a real contender for a top 10 place before he crashed on stage 4, injuring himself. Now he is 39’20” down on Ricco’s time. Levarlet is better placed in 44th at +14’23”. The two rider are joined by another couple of strong climbers. They are Branislav Samoilev and Thomas Faiers. Faiers is fairly well placed overall, being only 7’28” down.
These four getting away together causes Bacardi to raise the pace slightly. With 7km left on this climb, the lead is down to 4’19”. Another rider decides that it is the perfect time to attack and puts in a very strong dig. Yeison Delgado fell on stage 2, losing time. That means that he clearly thinks he has some leeway for an attack.
The riders in the first chase group all reach the breakaway with 2km left to climb here, thanks to the hard work of Marzano, who clearly wants this stage victory to rescue his Giro. The snow is falling all around the riders up here. The attackers do not slow the pace at all, however, and almost immediately they drop the original break of the day. The only one who can hold their wheel is Montoya, who is almost gapped as well but keeps himself in contact.
Over the top of the climb none of the new breakaway attacks, preferring to keep a constant pace. Levarlet leads the group over, ahead of Marzano then Faiers, Samoilev and Montoya. Janse van Rensburg leads the remnants of the break over as 6th place, with Howard behind him taking 2 points. This result puts Levarlet in the provisional mountain jersey.
Over the top the situation is as follows:
24”
52”
20”
4’12”
5’48”
5 Leaders
--->
5 Chasers
--->
Steensen
--->
Delgado
--->
Peleton
The peleton was split on the way up thanks to the increased speed of Bacardi. The first group with all of the favourites has 90 riders. There are 35 riders in the second peleton and then there is another group of 51 behind that. The biggest names in this group are Dmitri Medvedev and Nico Keinath, as well as numerous climbing domestiques.
The wet and even at times snowing conditions lead to Honorio Machado falling for the second time this race. He isn’t the only one, however, as Champion and Durán both come off their bikes.
Up front, meanwhile, Kadri succeeds in bringing together both groups during one of the less technical sections of the descent. So once again there are 10 riders together up front. Through the sprint prime there isn’t much interest and so Montoya leads the group over, ahead of Faiers and Marzano.
Through the sprint point, with 45km to go the situation is as follows:
2’24”
1’52”
4’16”
10 Leaders
--->
Delgado/Steensen
--->
Peleton
Aging Brit Steve Cummings is the next rider to fall, just before the road starts to climb upwards again. On this same small rise before the climb officially begins there are two more crashes. Paolo Scarponi is the first to do so and Eduardo Gonzalo is the first Santander rider of this Giro to fall.
Steensen, rather unsurprisingly, is dropped by Delgado on this small rise and is soon after swallowed up by the peleton, now lead by Webeffect and Vesuvio. Up front, Ljungblad is also dropped. This brings us to the start of the second ascent of Etna, which should see some absolute fireworks. Going in, the situation is:
1’25”
12”
1’35”
3’12”
9 Leaders
--->
Ljungblad
--->
Delgado
--->
Peleton
Almost straight after the climb starts, Donald and Howard are dropped from the front group.
Kadri and Janse van Rensburg soon follow, leaving just the 4 mid-stage attackers and Montoya up front. All 5 of them are happy to share the pace for a while and realise that they must still keep working to hold off Delgado, let alone the peleton. With 19.2km to go, Delgado has passed all of the dropped riders and sits only 1’02” behind the leaders. The peleton is another 1’30” behind him and is setting a strong tempo.
The tempo is obviously not strong enough to discourage attacks, however, as Costagli attacks, lighting the touch paper for this big showdown.
He sits out the front of the peleton for a while, who continue to keep a strong pace. Up front, with the gap down to just outside 2 minutes, Marzano decides that he is better off doing this solo and he sets off.
With almost 14km still remaining on this climb, Costagli is only 15” off the front of the peleton. He never looked totally comfortable and could still be hurting from his early-race injury. Seeing that he is about to be dragged in, other riders try their luck. This time it is big names who start things off. The attacks are: Pozzovivo Machado Arroyo Denifl
All 4 of these men are in the fight for top 10 places, so it is not surprising that they are marking each other. Costagli manages to slot himself onto their back wheel and joins up with them. Denifl is clearly not satisfied with their pace, however, and he creates a gap to the other 4 riders.
Up front, meanwhile Levarlet climbs out of his skin and manages to pull back Marzano. In doing so he also drops Montoya. To replace him, however, Delgado climbs into this lead group, ensuring that it is still 5 riders.
The situation is this with 12km remaining on this climb:
43”
10”
33”
1’26”
5 Leaders
--->
Denifl
--->
Pozz/Mach/Arro /Cost/Mont
--->
Peleton
Denifl is determined to bridge up to the front. This is fortunate for him, because just as he really puts himself into it, Henao Montoya attacks from the peleton. He gets into the chase group, but his acceleration causes an increase in the pace of the pack so the entire chase group is caught including him.
Denifl manages to work his way up to the leaders but just as he does so, Delgado attacks. He has spent almost 100km chasing these men up front and now he wants to turn the tables and leave them behind. Very strange tactics from Nestle, though.
It does cause an increase in the pace of the lead group and once more it is Levarlet is the one who pulls it back together. Just as he reels Delgado in, Levarlet decides that he wants to have a go himself.
Vesuvio push a furious pace at this point and with 6.6km to go all of the chasers are back in the peleton, thanks to Samwel. Levarlet still has a 42” gap.
Over the next kilometre the peleton shaves 12” off that lead and it is down to 30”. This speed causes Marzano to be dropped from the group, which is a shame after the strong ride he put in today.
With 3km to go Levarlet has only 20” and is looking rather tired. His fate is sealed, however, when the pink jersey himself kicks launches his big attack!
Sella is straight onto his wheel, and he is followed by Schleck and Amador. Kohl and Machado are just behind these two. Henao, Pozzovivo and Arroyo are slightly out of position and respond a little bit slower.
The favourites quickly overhaul Levarlet and with 1km to go Ricco, Sella, Schleck and Amador have pulled out 17” on Kohl and Machado, and another 10” on the rest of the pack, now reduced to 12 men. Ricco looks powerful today and small gaps start to form.
Towards the top Machado really kicks and manages to get up to the leaders. Sella looks to come around Schleck.
Ricco really has something magical today and he forms a gap to those behind him. Sella and Machado both look to come around Schleck, who is starting to flounder. Amador is struggling to hold the pace too.
Ricco wins the stage and shows everyone that he can perform just as well in the mountains as he can in the hills.
He has created a gap to Sella in second place, and the clock reads 8” as the climber crosses the line. Schleck holds off Machado for third. Amador just avoids a gap and doesn’t lose any extra time in fifth place.
Pozzovivo leads home most of the favourites 19” behind Ricco’s time. An acceptable time loss, but an ominous sign nonetheless. Pozzovivo has been caught out by big attacks a couple of times now and will have to change that. Arroyo is 7th, Henao Montoya is 8th, Kohl is 9th and Denifl has enough left in the tank to finish 10th. Menchov is the other man in this group. Ardila and Devolder were the big losers today, both of them finishing 53” down on Ricco’s time.
Just two riders withdrew today; Johansson and Nelson.
In the GC Ardila drops to 7th, with Pozzo, Montoya and Denifl all moving up 1 place. Menchov holds onto 8th, while Kohl makes his move into the top 10 in 9th place. Carrara is riding well in 10th. Sella now leads the mountain classification in his own right, though Ricco closed the gap here. Vesuvio continue to lead the team classification, but lost a bit of time on several other teams. The young rider jersey looks like it could go all the way to the final stage, with Henao Montoya still holding it by only 8” over Denifl.
