After yesterday’s breakaway win the favourites will be looking to try their hand at this course. It isn’t the most selective stage every devised, but the one climb is fairly steep and should at least tire out some riders. The race consists of 3 laps of a course that measures about 48km. There are a maximum of 6 mountain points on offer each time around and a sprint point shortly after.
The favourites for today are somewhat different. It seems that the puncheurs are favoured today, with Ginanni just being favoured over both LL Sanchez and Samuel Sanchez. Roche, Di Maggio and Cobo are also high on a lot of people’s lists.
The attacks for the day are started off by Ndbri, Reda and Khalmuratov.
These three riders are soon joined by some other attackers. The full list is: Breschel Sutherland Lagana Longo Borghini Saramotins Ianetti Rovira
This is an incredibly strong group, with lots of tough hilly domestiques making the cut. The peleton seems content to let them go, however, probably mostly because there are no riders who made yesterday’s break. Breschel has done a good job getting himself into this group, as he is the sort of rider who could have the legs to win a small group sprint at the end if it comes down to it.
The lead group starts to pull out a nice advantage and they get to the first mountain points of the day. Reda leaps out of the group and takes the maximum, with Breschel in second and Lagana in third.
The group splits over the peak between those riders who were attacking for the points and those who just wanted to set a steady pace. The four riders behind are Ianneti, Ndbri, Rovira and Sutherland. The gap widens as the split is just a few kilometres up the road and the attackers keep the pace high. At the sprint Saramotins comes in first ahead of Breschel and Longo Borghini is in third.
The lead 6 have now pulled out over a minute on the chase group. Thankfully for those behind them, they don’t push the pace too hard and about half way through the second lap they manage to work together to get back on at the front of the race. They have burned valuable energy, however.
In the pack today, Vespa and California Giant are sharing the pace nicely. The American team have two leaders to work for, with Ghyllebert in yellow and Sanchez going for the overall. Their pace is not high enough for some riders, however, and as the pack gets to the climb on the second of three laps, two riders jump away. They are Gerrans and Zaballa.
Up front, meanwhile, Breschel finally wins one of the primes as he takes the mountain points. Ianneti is second and Reda come through in third. This puts Breschel tied for first in that competition, with Reda only 2 points behind.
Once again just around the corner is a sprint prime. The winner this time is again Saramotins, ahead of Breschel and then Reda in third. Gerrans and Zaballa are about 4 minutes behind the leaders, and they have another 35” on the peleton, who are happy to just let them dangle for the moment.
Coming down to 23km to go, about half way through the final lap, it is clear that the peleton’s heart just isn’t in it today. The break is 3 minutes ahead of Gerrans and Zaballa, and another 45” ahead of the Peleton. The gap just doesn’t come down and so with 5km left until the final climb beings, a few of the breakaway riders decide to play their hand. Longo Borghini attacks, with Ndbri and Khalmuratov following him.
These are the riders who won’t do particularly well if it comes down to a group sprint finish, so attacking now is a good idea. The others behind seem to be aware of this, and given that most of the chasers are better puncheurs it isn’t too surprising that the three riders are caught with 1.5km to go to the summit of the climb. They will have to think of something else if they want this one.
Reda leads the group over the top, ahead of Ianneti and Rovira. Breschel comes through in 4th at the top and this means he doesn’t score. That puts Reda in the mountain jersey today. With the final climb completed there are now 6 kilometres to go, with the final sprint point only 2 kilometres before the finish.
The lead group once again splits on the front, which is bad news for those left behind. The three riders who scored at the last prime, Reda, Ianneti and Rovira, as well as Breschel and Saramotins get away.
Meanwhile, in the pack, Di Maggio takes a big gamble and bridges up to Zaballa and Gerrans, who are still about 30” ahead of the pack. He comes to the front and hammers the pace.
Up front, the leaders come to the sprint point. Rovira comes through in first, ahead of Breschel and Saramotins. The other two look blown and may be battling it out for fourth place today.
Back in the peleton Di Maggio’s group has been brought back in thanks to California Giant. They have set this up really well, as when Jonathon Bellis launches an attack, Samuel Sanchez is able to follow! Ginanni attacks with them as well. The sudden acceleration causes a split about half way down the peleton. The biggest names to fall behind are Grau, Moinard, Impey and Mollema. All the big favourites are fine.
Up front the sprint for the win begins. Rovira has the lead after the final sprint point, but Saramotins looks to be catching. Breschel may be blown.
And Rovira holds on to take a great win ahead of Saramotins and Breschel! Reda leads in the rest of the break for fourth place, which on top of the mountain jersey is a decent result for him.
Back in the peleton, the attack of Bellis, Sanchez and Ginanni has been shut down, but that doesn’t deter Sanchez from launching another attack in the finale.
He builds up a 20” lead, but everyone behind him is charging now. Ginanni and Pineau put in an attack with 1km remaining.
They catch up to Sanchez, but the peleton is hot on their heels. In the end the peleton catch them right on the line, and Pineau is the last to give in. The referees rule that there is no gap and thus the GC between all of the pre-race favourites remains the same.
On GC, Saramotins moves into the yellow jersey, thanks to all the time bonuses that he picked up throughout the day. He is on the same time as Rovira, but he took the jersey on a countback. Saramotins also goes into the lead in the points category. Reda takes the mountain jersey, but will probably have to relinquish that tomorrow with 2 16 point climbs on the agenda. Pirelli having two men in the break also put them in the lead of the team classification.
