We arrive at the first of two tough mountain stages, with this one finishing atop a climb this one could prove the key general classification stage. Of course the first three stages have been fairly decisive in themselves in that some good mountain climbers have gained times on the very top climbers in the division. Sorting through those riders we have 10 riders with a mountain stat of 67 or more who have gained time sitting close enough to race leader Mangel.
Rank
Name
MO
Team
Time
1
Laurent Mangel
62
Alstom - Bic
9h08'23
2
Anthony Colby
71
American Express
+ 8
5
Aleksandr Serov
68
Gazprom-Rosbank
s.t.
10
Dennis Van Niekerk
70
Team Metinvest - Slovnaft
+ 20
13
Wilson Zambrano
68
Team Petrobras - Banco do Brasil
s.t.
16
Kristjan Fajt
71
Pivovarna Laško
+ 1'07
17
Goran Smelcerovic
69
Team Serbian Telecom
+ 1'13
18
Wang-yip Tang
68
Team Adecco
+ 1'19
25
Egor Silin
67
Gazprom-Rosbank
+ 2'42
28
Robert Vrecer
70
Pivovarna Laško
s.t.
29
Scott Zwizanski
68
American Express
+ 2'50
The first 90 km of the stage is on rolling territory and you can see the tension with numerous break attempts and catches.
For the first sprint at 16km Gilberto Sampaio and Martin Kohler get away with Kohler taking the first sprint.
Christopher De Souza takes third in this sprint.
This move was not successful but Sampaio a good mountain stat 71 climber keeps trying and before the second sprint a group of 11 is straining to get away.
Nuno Ribeiro a climber with mountain stat 73 is here with teammate Dermot Nally also a good 69 mountain stat climber. We also have Robert Vrecer here as Pivovarna Lasko go back to the breakaway strategy and Vrecer is the best placed on GC here. Also in this move are Christopher Roth Matej Jurco Diego Milan Daniel Eliad Idan Shapira Ahmed Albourdainy Preben Van Hecke
It's not really a palatable break for the pack with Riberio, Sampaio, Vrecer, Eliad, Nally, Jurco and Shapira. Vrecer strengthens his GC leader in the break position by winning the second sprint ahead of Roth and Jurco.
The elastic between the 11 and the pack starts to stretch and the tell tale sign of the two minute gap board starts to go up as the 11 begin to prise open a decent gap. Ekspla quickly send Algirdas Mockus and Mindaugas Striska a fairly strange move as neither can climb that well.
Kasper Klostergaard, another who really doesn't like those big climbs joins the two men in green.
To their credit the three make the break as we roll over the small 4th category climb which is won by Sampaio ahead of Vrecer and Riberio.
75km to go and it is looking good for the break as their lead is over six minutes, it's time for some teams in the pack to make a decision to close this down. AMEX and Gazprom's team managers are clearly looking for a result as they send riders forward.
Meanwhile Nally is doing the job for Kingspan, the team rooted to the bottom of the team standings going with a plan A here. They still have former Vuelta winner Francisco Mancebo sitting in the pack.
Roth wins the third sprint over Shapira and Klostergaard as we head up the penultimate climb which is dominated by the Kingspan lead break battle with the AMEX and Gazprom boys.
Nally 'wins' the non contested sprint at the top of the climb over Riberio, Sampaio, Shapira and Vrecer. But the important news is that AMEX and Gazprom have done a very good chase job reducing the gap down to two minutes with 25km to go.
As the teams prepare themselves for the final 9km climb race leader Laurent Mangel attacks with Ignacio Sarabia
But AMEX and Gazprom are having none of this, both teams really are looking to control everything though as yet neither team are revealing which of their riders they are working for.
The break having let Nally do most of the work are slipping back to the pack, Metinvest are not quite ready to give it up as Shapira goes solo to have an 80 second lead going into the last 15km.
But with the likes of Danail Petrov and Tareq Esmaeli chasing the break has no chance.
We are all back together for the climb as both Gazprom and AMEX have 4/5ths of their team in the front positions.
Bizarrely though neither of their best GC placed riders Colby or Serov are in the front rows.
No rider though goes for it on the early slopes of this climb as the riders move around to get into the right position. Under 5km to go we can see Dyson, Kingspan and Alstorm at the front as AMEX and Gazprom search for their GC men Colby and Serov.
Will somebody accelerate before the two teams in blue can sort themselves out we go to an overhead to check on the positions of the favourites. The pack is lead by Peter Pancake probably for race leader Mangel. However Mangel is beginning to drift back so the presence the Kingspan riders David Belda and Francisco Mancebo.
Dyson are well placed with Ignacio Sarabia and Daniel Eliad.
But the big dangerman is Dennis Van Niekerk who is riding superbly at this point.
Kingspan decide to roll the dice with Belda going on the attack with Laverde Velez right on his wheel.
Pancake with Mangel clearly having bad moments tries to mark this move along with Van Niekirk and Melero.
These five begin to force open a gap of thirty seconds, UPC's Weilinga realises that he needs to bridge.
Mardones and Serrano also try to get across but are struggling just ahead of the lead chase group. Meanwhile camara's roll back to see Mangel now at the back of this lead chase group being taken over by the AMEX riders shepharding Colby up the climb.
As Colby rides up the road Mangel sinks back in the saddle seeing the rider just 8 seconds behind on GC opening up the distance.
Mardones ditches Serrano and overtakes Weilinga to bridge to our five leaders. Van Niekirk is doing an excellent job sticking with what should be fresher climbers.
Colby is in the group behind the leaders and Weilinga. Also in this group is Zambrano, Smelcerovic and Fajt.
Kingspan have made two big plays today and now Belda is their trump card and clearly feeling stong as he presses on in the break trying to break Van Niekirk you would imagine or at the very least reduce his challengers for the stage win.
The gap on Welinga stands at 37 seconds and the gap to the colby group is 56 seconds. It is looking very good for Van Niekirk for the overall. The Colby group contains: Serrano, Chacon, Fajt Esmaeli, Cardoso Espaniola, Colby Eliad, Wegelius, Sarabia Langyel, Smelcerovic Laverde Jimenez, Restrepo Dor Dviri Yennier López Fonseca Francisco Mancebo Carlo Kirsch Ludvig Lundberg
Zambrano has been dropped and Franklin Chacon is trying to help him limit his loses about a minute back from the Colby group. With Serov struggling to remain with them with the Gazprom climbers trying to encourage the Russian through.
Pivovarna Lasko's GC man Fajt loses touch with the Colby group and after Jose Chacon has done a lot of the lead work tries to rally to get back.
Up the road Laverde Velez strikes for home, he has three Spanish riders looking to challenge him here in Mardonas, Belda amnd Melero. GC leader hopeful Van Niekirk is trying to keep up as is Pancake.
Behind the other Laverde, Laverde Jiminez is trying to get the gap to the leaders down having caught Weilinga. Chacon is trying to hold onto him having abandoned Fajt's GC cause a bit.
Belda, Laverde Velez and Mardonas pull away from the other three - Van Niekirk has probably done enough today so long as he remains clear of Colby.
Belda has timed his sprint well and takes the stage win and some joy at last for Kingspan.
Mardones gets second, just maybe he might find a contract for the next season with Laverde Velez giving his highly successful team another high potential GC placing.
Van Niekirk takes 6th behind Melero and Pancake, the South African went with the winning move and held on well.
Laverde Jimenez manages to gap the other riders in the finish - but he didn't play it that smart today missing the winning move.
Chacon, Restrepo, Kirsch, Mancebo, Lopez Fonseca, Eliad and Wielinga manage to get 25 seconds on the remainder of the Colby group. AMEX played it out for Colby rather than for Cardoso Espaniola or Esmaeli, Colby climbed pretty well but Van Niekirk was positioned better. Colby will now sit in a decent enough 2nd place on GC.
Gazprom game plan unravelled completely with Serov having a tough day on the climb finishing at 3.35 dropping him down to 9th overall.
Former leader Mangel battled gamely and will be pleased to hear that Pancake got up the road in the winning move. He dropped 5.30 today however and is now way down on GC.
GC
So all change on GC, with breakaway alumni Van Niekirk, Colby, Smelcerovic, Fajt and Zambrano hanging as tough as they could to make up the top five places. The climbers are queueing up to have a crack at them though in tomorrows mountain stage.
