Yesterdays Mountain top finish saw a tense battle as various tactical plays were shown. In the end David Belda gave Kingspan a long awaited taste of glory, with relative unknown Dennis Van Niekerk hanging the toughest to take the GC lead. The 28 year old South African leads a modest bunch of climbers for Metinvest, but the key as ever in this division was his presence in the stage 3 breakaway.
Breaking away today though may be a fools errand, this really is one for the very best with nightmarish shark toothed profile with two HC rated climbs and three first category ones. The stage pretty much kicks off with the first HC rated climb in which we have four men up the road.
Steve Zampieri, Andrei Krasilnikau, Robert Vrecer and Charles Wegelius are here with Pekka Jääskeläinen chasing.
The gap is rising quickly and it is evident that this will be our break of the day.
Vrecer nabs the points at the top of the climb as Pivovarna Lasko look to smoothly transfer the KoM jersey from Kristjan Fajt to Vrecer. It's been a good little race from the Slovakian team, who have hit a rich vein of form following that double classics success recently.
Wegelius is best placed on GC 4.21 behind Van Niekirk and with Kraslinakau and Vrecer placed at five minutes this will be a break that needs watching. Ekspla have been active in this race, though much of the press chatter has been of mountain goat Esteban Mardones, the 24 year old source of much transfer speculation.
In the pack Metinvest are supported by AMEX and S-Telecom, both teams having indicated that they are quite happy to maintain the status quo in the top 3 on GC. There is some indication that Colby may look to attack Van Niekirk if the chance arises, the South African though looks comfortable in the early stages.
Jaaskalinan makes it across to the break on the decent before the first of the days sprints. Krasilnikau wins both the sprints before the next climb with best GC man in the break Wegelius getting second and third places in these two with Vrecer getting a second and Zampieri getting a third.
Swiss team Adecco are looking to maintain their fine record of scoring points in every race, they have secured that here and have already got points in the first sprint in Morocco! On the second climb of the day a 1st category one Krasilnikau snicks it ahead of Vrecer.
It places the Belerussian rider on 28 KoM points behind Vrecer on 37, with Zampieri on 20, Jaaaskalinan on 16 and a seemingly non plussed Wegelius on 20.
Onto the next climb and with 85km left the gap is at seven minutes and 30 seconds and now closing from a lead that was over ten minutes. AMEX and S-Telecom are doing most of the work with Metinvest simply maintaining Van Niekirk at the front.
Bad news for Dyson, despite having Wegelius in the breakaway is that young Israeli Daniel Eliad punctures. He is detached with the pack in full chase mode and he will not get back on unfortunately. Dysons hopes rest on Wegelius more than ever now.
Vrecer nabs the next king of the mountains prime to regain that alpha mountains male position!
Vrecer moves up to 53 KoM points here over Wegelius on 32, Zampieri 34, Kraslinakau 36 and Jääskeläinen on 22 points. Its a plucky ride from Finnair's rider who are really here to support Swedish climber Ludvig Lundberg who did okay yesterday.
Quick time check then and with 60km to the gap is six minutes, it could be edging towards the break but we have two tough climbs to go. As we go onto the second of our HC rated brutes the San Lorenzo you sense AMEX are looking to make this selective.
Van Niekirk though is looking pretty comfortable sitting at the front with Smelcerovic and Colby also going very comfortably. In the break though all is not well for Jääskeläinen, who gets decisively dropped here.
Vrecer (73 KoM points) pretty much seals his KoM assault nabbing the HC prim ahead of Kraslinakou (50), Zampieri (46) and Wegelius (42).
Attention now turns to the stage win as Krasilnikau takes the third sprint (a clean sweep) over Vrecer and Zampieri the breaks lead is timed at four minutes with 40km to go. The final climb is fairly short at 5.4km, but averages at 8% and after the long climbing day we have had is going to take it out of the riders.
The gap at 3 minutes going in and with 25km to go, it's very much all to play for. Now is the time for the big climbers to go and indeed Luis Felipe Laverde Jimenez goes with Iván Melero, Xavier Tondo and Remmert Wielinga
AMEX are more and more taking the responsibility to chase with S telecom all rounder Tamás Lengyel though this attack is proving hard to chase down.
Seeing that the four are settling in up the road Van Niekirk attacks himself as Metinvext play a different strategy. Yesterdays stage winner Belda goes with this as does Peter Pancake and Edgar Restrepo
Up front after being quiet in the break all day Wegelius destroys his colleagues on this key climb kicking well clear.
With 2km of climbing left Wegelius holds a 1.45 gap on the rest of his former break Vrecer, Kraslinakau and Zampieri who have just been caiught by Laverde Jimenez, Tondo, melero, and Restrepo. These four are the only ones of the attackers to have kept clear of the AMEX controlled bunch. Was Van Niekirks attack a bluff?
Belda has dropped back to the bunch but attacks again feeling the need to join the two Cativan riders and two Spanish riders Tondo and Melero.
Over the top goes Wegelius with a 1.30 lead on Laverde Jimenez, Restrepo, Tondo and Melero. Belda is 20 second behind them with the pack another 30 seconds behind that. The pack is down to just 31 riders, missing here is 9th on GC Aleksandr Serov
The route into the finish is a tough drag with some little digs it splits the 31 man pack in two with Van Niekirk looking strong.
The AMEX boys are here with Pancake, P Lasko trio Serrano, Chacon and Fajt, Petrobrus twio Zambrano, Chacon and Morandi. The big GC rider missing is Smelcerovic who has been caught out with Tang.
Up front Wegelius keeps his brave solo move going and with AMEX led leaders group having caught the Cativan chase group he has a 1.12 lead on the pack with 5km to go.
The Smelcerovic group is 1.30 back on the lead group he looks to be the big loser of the day. Suddenly Zambrano see's a chance of a podium but he needs to gain time of Fajt who is sitting in this lead chase group. The Petrobrus man attacks.
Two km to go and Wegelius still holds a 30 second lead, but the gap is closing can the Brit keep his rhythm?
He does and clinches a nice little win for Dyson and a place in Colorado.
Laverde Jimenez grabs second ahead of teammate Restrepo with Van Niekirk finishing safely in the pack to take an excellent stage race win.
Colby holds onto a second place and will also go to Colorado with Fajt 3rd on GC and a stage winner, the other four stage winner Irondio, Mangel, Wegelius and Belda. Belda finishes 8th here and edges the points competition with young Mardones taking the youth jersey, AMEX's strong team display gets the team prize.
