Now the puncheurs amongst the peleton can start to get excited – the first of two hilly stages which finish this tour. There has been a slight change of plan in terms of the course and it has been lengthened to 202km. There are 16 laps of a course that is about 12.5km in length. Each lap finishes on an odd sort of climb – there is a short section of about 12%, then there is a short descent to a 1.5km section that averages about 5%. The start and finish line are on top of this hill.
There is rain belting down today, which will make for some rather treacherous conditions out there. Nevertheless there are always riders willing to give it a go in these sorts of conditions. The first two are Stallaert and Koep.
On the first climb of the hill, several more riders bridge up: Mayo Talansky Fothen Capecchi Kinney
Then a second group of riders tries to come across: Belmokhtar Bennett Sambris Mazur
Puma are less happy about this group and so they shut them down. The lead 7 are still away, however. Indeed, at the start of the second lap they have a 2 minute gap. Not to be deterred, another group of riders tries their luck: Bazajev Keukeleire Sambris Aramendia Roulston Veloso
Puma and Emu aren’t happy with this group at all. Veloso is sitting 21st overall so he could be a real potential threat if this group stays away. Just as the 4th of 16 laps starts they make the catch and we are all back together.
This only leads to another wave of attacks, and this time all the riders who go have been part of earlier efforts. They are: Aramendia Veloso Stallaert Kinney Capecchi Mayo Talansky Koep
Veloso doesn’t seem to realise that he is the reason that the group couldn’t get away last time. Two more waves of riders try to get away. The first wave is: Fothen Bennett Bazajev
The second wave is: Novak Belmokhtar Vesely Roulston Keukeleire
This would be too large a group, and the pace is still fairly high, so the second of these waves is caught. The first one manages to get up to the front without much worry, making it a lead group of 11 riders.
But once again, people want to be joining the break. Mazur bridges up on his own and then he is followed by a handful more riders: Sambris Flaksis Keukeleire
So now we have a front group of 15. Everyone seems content with this, so there are no more attacks. Puma and Emu are still pushing a tough pace though. This pace continues onto the 6th ascent in the race, just after the attacks have calmed down. During the climb, the pace results in the peleton splitting. Maongst those caught behind are: Lowe Selander Kilun Osella Teklit Colorado Monfort Pineau
All of these riders are ranked between 10th and 20th.
Some of the teams help set the pace in the front group to extend the gap back to here, and it gets up to a 2’20” difference. This raising in the pace has an unintended consequence – the break is dragged in.
Dempster does a lot of the work on the front of the second group to help Selander, and he manages to pull it all together just as the seventh climb begins. The group stays together over the top of the climb this time.
It was only a matter of time before someone tried to form a new break and on the descent that is just what happens. This time it is just a lone man - Simon Gerrans.
Over the top of the 8th climb, that is to say the half way point of the race, he has pulled out a gap of 4’05”. He started the day only 4’38” down on GC, so the teams will have to be careful how they play this one.
Indeed the gap grows to 7’37” over the top of the 9th climb and over the 10th climb the gap is still steady. Pirelli and Bianchi are doing most of the work on the front. They aren’t really able to stretch the race however, and it is obvious that the lack of depth in most of the teams here is really hurting.
Still the pace is hurting some people as a group of 29 riders is tailed off, with Lowe being the best placed on GC in 10th. More importantly both Claeys and Froome are amongst them.
Thankfully, several Bianchi riders drop back and pull Claeys and everyone else in this group back up to the peleton.
Over the top of the 11th climb the gap is still out at 7’12”. There are only 63km remaining and Gerrans is clearly feeling good today. Indeed over the top of the 12th of 16 climbs the gap is still out at 7’19”. The Puma guys must surely be panicking now, but at the same time they haven’t got anyone in their team who can contribute to setting the pace at this point in the race.
Raph’a day takes a sour turn as 16th place overall Teklit falls off his bike. Several of his teammate go back to help him, including Froome.
Over the top of the 13th climb, with 38km to go, Gerrans has stretched the lead back out again to 7’51”. He looks really comfortable on his bike, and really it looks like he just has to remain upright at this point to get the stage win.
Meanwhile, Rapha decide to give up on Teklit, who is really struggling. Froome kicks back up to the peleton and will have to hope he can salvage something from today.
Froome gets back in at the right time as pre-race favourite Roche kicks off the front to try to get some time on the other GC riders.
He immediately pulls out 30” and things look good. So good in fact that several riders try to come up to him. In a real turn-around from his earlier performances, Lowe gets on the front and sets a really high tempo. He succeeds in pulling back everyone. Moreno is particularly enthusiastic, but Lowe manages to bring him back too.
This sudden increase in speed causes another split in the bunch and once again Claeys misses out! Clearly he is not having a good day at all and it will fall to someone else in his team to put in a strong showing.
Rather predictably, Roche attacks once again on the 15th ascent. He is desperate to get away today!
This time the reactions as several riders get a gap on the front of the peleton. They are: Van der Velde Sousa Monfort Hesjedal Pineau
Sousa’s acceleration falters and he drops back. Roche, Monfort and Pineau team up ahead of Van der Velde and Hesjedal and start to look good but once again everything is brought back before the final climb. The gap has come down to 5’30”, however, with the sudden increases in pace.
Just as the peleton comes to the base of this final deciding climb, Monfort attacks again.
He gets a small gap and like a broken record, Roche attacks. This time, he does so right on the first part of the climb, so he comes up to Monfrot and starts to work with him to extend the gap.
The gap to Gerrans is coming down and, though they won’t catch him, Rolland realises that he might be able to hold on to his jersey after all! He puts in a big attack on the short descent, trying desperately to make up time.
Meanwhile, up front, Gerrans wins the stage. What a great ride by the Australian puncheur.
Wishing to claim some glory from today, Pineau puts in an attack and he is followed by fifth overall De Greef.
Roche pips Monfort for second place, 3’28” down on the time of Gerrans, but everyone wants to know – will Rolland keep his jersey?
The bunch comes up. They catch Rolland, Pineau and De Greef on the line. Gerrans started the day 4’38” down.
The clock stops.
4’07”. With Gerran’s time bonus, this is just 11” short of taking the yellow jersey. This puts him just behind Navarro on GC, into third place! The bunch split slightly on the run-in and De Sousa, who was in 3rd at the start of the day is on the wrong side of it, so he moves below De Greef into 6th place overall.
Not many changes to report in the other jerseys – Rolland keeps hold of the points jersey and indeed he managed to pick up some more points today. Bobridge takes the young rider’s jersey from Selander, who slipped back again today. Jayco extend their lead in the team classification and should have that one wrapped-up.
