The stage is only 112km ... BUT ... there's quite a few tough climbs. The Col du Peyresourde, Col d'Azet, Col d'Aspin, Hourquette d'Ancizan, and then the summit finish up to the Col de Portet.
Cunego has the race lead - but on the same time as Pluchkin. Their battle continues, as all the other contenders look to join in. Madrazo, Spilak, Dekker and the rest.
But will there be injuries from the crash yesterday? Pluchkin went down, but so did Fothen, Popovych, Amador, Gadret and Taaramae.
The break of the day is a team attack.
C. Meier
M. Sprick
Festina's Dan Holloway tried to follow, but he doesnt mix well with climbs, so it seems like an odd day to attack - and he can't stay with them.
At the top of the Peyresourde, the Wikipedia pair are already 6 minutes clear.
1
M. Sprick
2
C. Meier
3
D. Holloway
4
DA. Montoya
5
J. Tschopp
6
MA. Rubiano Chavez
7
F. Perez Sanchez
Continuing the team duo theme - two riders are dropped on the climb are from the same team.
L. Howard
A. Nepomnyachsniy
The lead is still 6 minutes at the top of the Azet - with Holloway only just remaining clear of the peloton.
1
M. Sprick
2
C. Meier
3
D. Holloway
4
D. Klemme
5
M. Hacecký
6
R. Guldhammer
7
A. Hernández Gutierrez
A group of 41 is surprisingly dropped from the peloton going over the top. The best placed riders in there are:
J. El Fares
I. Bibby
Y. Delgado
Onto the Aspin and the lead of Meier and Sprick is down to 4 and a half minutes. It's time for some mid stage attacks: Moreno followed by Siutsou.
Cataldo, Marquez and Samwel also launch a move.
And the attackers merge together over the top of the climb.
1
D. Moreno
2
K. Siutsou
3
M. Sprick
4
C. Meier
5
M. Samwel
6
F. Marquez
7
D. Cataldo
Next is the Hourquette d'Ancizan. The peloton is already down to just 78 riders - King of the Mountains Duret is missing.
The break of 7 lead over the top, 3'30 clear. Theres 30km to go - so they definately have a chance here.
1
F. Marquez
2
D. Cataldo
3
M. Samwel
4
D. Moreno
5
K. Siutsou
The weather is getting pretty treachorous, and for the 3rd stage in a row - Deignan crashes!
Theres also bad news for one of the team leaders going over the summit of the climb. And it really has been a horribly unlucky season for Festina - Fothen has been dropped, he appears to be suffering from his 2nd crash of the race yesterday. So dissapointing after an encouraging performance on the Puy de Dome.
11km to go and the break's lead is a very comfortable 3'10. Siutsou immediately attacks, and Samwel counters
10km to go
Phinney, Amador, Popovych and Taaramae have launched the first attacks from the peloton.
The break is back together. Siutsou and Samwel couldnt keep clear.
Trofimov, Spilak, Uran, Dekker, Kashechkin and Cunego are all getting involved in the attacks.
Nothing is sticking, but Spilak punches clear again - tracked by Amador, Popovych and Uran.
Henao and Phinney follow, as gaps seem to be forming. Nothing from Cunego until Madrazo goes clear - Pluchkin and Trofimov also following.
Up front, the break is back down to two leaders. But this time its Marquez and Cataldo. Marquez has already shown good form in this race by taking 7th at Puy de Dome, and now he has a stage win opportunity for sure.
A 10 man group of favourites of formed. Only Trofimov is missing of those who recently attacked
But along with Kashechkin, Trofimov gets himself back into the mix - Dan Martin also making a move up to the group.
With 5km to go, Samwel has moved clear alone in pursuit of Marquez and Cataldo - while the peloton has regrouped. Nestle's Maillet having been relaying since Karpets was missing
Marquez and Cataldo lead Samwel by 48 seconds. The stage win will go to one of them.
Back to the favourites, and we now have a group of 17 riders
A. Pluchkin
R. Taaramäe
SL. Henao Montoya
D. Martin
A. Madrazo
Y. Trofimov
T. Dekker
A. Amador
R. Úran
S. Spilak
A. Kashechkin
J. Popovych
T. Phinney
Last on that list, but first of the group on the road is Phinney - and he is attacking!
2km to go for Marquez and Cataldo, here is the finish video:
And Marquez has broken clear of Cataldo now!
Maillet, Suaza, Ardila and Karpets are dropped from the favourites group while Phinney has gained himself a 30 second advantage as he starts to pick through the breakaway.
Amador leads the response, and Cunego is following
Dekker and Madrazo are quickly onto Cunego's wheel, but Pluchkin's chance of beating Cunego to take the Yellow jersey appears to be slipping away as he is following Kashechkin's attack, and the Kazakh isnt really going far.
Cunego is flying - Dekker can't keep up
Up front, Florentino Marquez wins the stage! 2 in a row for UBS!
Dario Cataldo will take 2nd while Pluchkin and Spilak have made it up to Madrazo - Henao and Uran now trying to follow suit
Cunego has caught Phinney and now Samwel is caught aswell - the climb a kilometre too long for the Kenyan's hopes of holding on for a stage podium.
Cunego just keeps going and going. A clear 3rd on the stage for him, and his race lead is starting to grow!
Madrazo comes through to take 4th ahead of Phinney, losing 18 seconds to Cunego - plus the 8 time bonuses. Pluchkin, Spilak, Amador, Samwel and Dekker are on the same time as Madrazo, but there are small splits recorded over the rest of the group.
Ardila and Karpets will be dissapointed with today, losing over a minute and a half to Cunego - while Gadret and Velits are further back still.
And then of course, there's Fothen. He has had no luck in Grand Tours this season, and could barely keep up with the support of Morabito. He finishes almost 17 minutes down, in 87th.
The big gruppetto of riders dropped early in the stage finished a long way down. Had they not finished in such a large group, many of them could have missed the time limit. Safety in numbers is certainly true, when the group is 64 strong.
4 riders did do just that though, and are out of the race.
