The Corsican adventure may soon be ending, but the race to Col de Belle Granaje from Porto Vecchio will not be an easy one. Will Trofimov bounce back from his relative TT dissapointment to continue his stunning road form, or will Phinney be strong enough to bring the maillot jaune to mainland France.
And it being a hilly stage, will Cunego immediately look to work back his TT losses? Defending champion Spilak is another good shout.
The breakaway is sure to fancy it's chances though, and here it is.
M. Van Stayen
J. El Fares
G. Steurs
R. Kreuziger
E. Berthou
S. Duret
D. Muravjev
S. Cohnen
D. Mehr-Wenige
F. Matamoros
Frustrated by the toughness of the Corsican sprint options, double Vuelta stage winner Van Stayen has evidently opted for the breakaway opportunity to ride himself into the race - while Kreuziger and Joseph both achieved stage podiums in the Vuelta thanks to breakaways.
Duret's presence means he continues to be in every breakaway of the race so far - while you may also recognise Cohnen, Steurs and Muravjev from opening stage breakaways, Muravjev having been the last to be caught on Stage 2.
7 climbs makes it a good day to be hunting King of the Mountain points. Duret shows he is serious about the competition by being here, and duly wins the first 4 climbs.
1
S. Duret
2
S. Cohnen
3
F. Matamoros
Some surprise in the peloton on climb number 2 though, as a group of 40 loses contact. They wont make it back today, and some surprising names are involved.
A. Grivko
F. Cancellara
S. Ivars
S. Chavanel
M. Bouet
D. Impey
R. Valls
M. Paterski
D. Caruso
T. Kritskiy
Kritskiy will be the most dissapointed, but none of them are serious GC contenders so there is no panic at all - time lost now may lead to more opportunities later!
1
S. Duret
2
R. Kreuziger
3
F. Matamoros
4
E. Berthou
5
S. Cohnen
6
D. Mehr-Wenige
7
J. El Fares
Its a little surprising that Spyker's Cohnen isnt taking more of an interest in these points - he won the Paris-Nice King of the Mountains earlier in the season.
1
S. Duret
2
F. Matamoros
3
E. Berthou
1
S. Duret
2
E. Berthou
3
J. El Fares
This moves Duret onto a total of 96 points. A lead now of 46 over Lalouette. It will take a lot of climbing for the GC contenders to close Duret down aswell.
Steurs was quickly dropped by the breakaway, while a tactical blunder costs Duret points at KoM #5 - attacking too late.
1
E. Berthou
2
F. Matamoros
3
J. El Fares
Unsuprisngly, Van Stayen wins the intermediate sprint of the day.
1
M. Van Stayen
2
D. Mehr-Wenige
3
S. Duret
Second there was Mehr-Wenige - probably the strongest hilly rider in the break having finished in the Top 30 for all 3 Ardennes Classics. He prepared for this race by riding the Classique du Grand-Duche, finishing 21st.
Cafe de Colombia lead the peloton - a sign that Cunego is feeling good? The peloton are just over 5 minutes down with 56km to go, Steurs is stuck in the middle.
Duret's earlier enthusiasm seems missing at the top of the 6th climb. Only taking 3rd is not enough to give him 100 KoM points overall just yet.
R. Kreuziger
S. Cohnen
S. Duret
And on the descent in the peloton, a 2nd crash in the race for Perez Sanchez. Also in the descent, an attacker.
S. Calzati
Onto the Col de Sorba then. A challenging 12km drag that proves to be the breaking point for the breakaway.
Kreuziger, El Fares and Mehr-Wenige prove to be today's strongest.
Sony Ericsson and Team B&O are controlling the peloton, while Tschopp has managed to crash uphill - with the weather becoming increasingly unappealing.
With 2 and half kilometres to the summit, many of the break are being caught. And here we go, Trofimov attacks! Soon catching Calzati.
Spilak is the only man to respond.
We reach the summit.
1
D. Mehr-Wenige
2
R. Kreuziger
3
J. El Fares
+ 1'10
4
S. Calzati
5
Y. Trofimov
6
S. Spilak
7
S. Cohnen
+ 1'42
Peloton of 30
20km to go:
That's Bibby crashing out of the 30 man peloton, as Spilak, Trofimov, Calzati and Cohnen struggle to maintain their small gap.
Our 3 leaders are working well - they have a minute's lead.
Trofimov and Spilak are caught, Guldhammer is on the front as they are caught, part of a combined effort from a number of teams. The day of Steurs gets more miserable, as race radio reports that he has also crashed having long been caught and dropped by the peloton.
10km to go
It's Albasini down this time. A truly treachourous descent, with Panayotov also having recently crashed out of the chasing group behind the peloton.
6km to go and onto the final climb. The peloton have our 3 day long leaders in sight - but the gap is still a minute, can they hold on?
We already know he is feeling aggressive today, and it's not long before Trofimov attacks again. This time the response is Talabardon, not Spilak, as well as Calzati again.
Dekker, Popovych and Keizer do look to follow soon after.
As Trofimov flies past El Fares, Mehr-Wenige and Kreuziger - so much for their hopes of staying away!
Into the final 4 kilometres and Popovych has gotten away in pursuit of Trofimov. Dekker, Spilak and Phinney trying to follow.
Together with Cunego, they ride up to Popovych. But the Ukrainian then rides away from them again!
This stop and start nature isnt really helping them, as Trofimov presses on alone.
A small gap to Popovych, and then another small gap to a group of 13. Spilak, Dekker and Cunego lead it.
Uran, Velits, Ardila, Keizer, Henao Montoya and Martin are amongst those to have missed this group! Uran has realised his error and desperately trying to get back across, and away from Velits and Cataldo - but the final kilometre is in sight.
Finish video:
Trofimov is looking strong. Hugging the inside barrier as he rides up to the line.
After keeping hidden during the early skirmishes, Madrazo now emerges alongside Spilak and Cunego in the sprint behind - while Dekker struggles to keep up.
A 3rd stage win for Yuri Trofimov! He's made Corsica his, and doesnt need much to regain the race lead.
A fine 2nd for Popovych - he might have surprised a few with that performance.
Cunego wins the sprint for 3rd. 25 seconds down on Trofimov on the day. 6th placed Dekker is another 9 seconds further back.
Phinney sprints to 7th at 45 seconds - he has lost the race lead!
Uran sprints well - moving past a fading Karpets - but cant get in touch with that group and so finishes 1'04 down on Trofimov - silly time lost, and it puts him out of the GC Top 10.
Velits and Cataldo are at 1'24, and a group with Ardila, Keizer, Martin and Henao is at 1'39.
Bibby and Albasini finish at 5'37 after their frustrating crashes, while the best of those dropped very early into the stage finish at 9'36 - Paterski leading in the group containing Valls, Kritskiy, Cancellara and a few others.
We've also lost another rider from the race. Marcel Sieberg crashed on, you guessed it, that final descent - and injuries force him out of the race.
