The mountains keep on coming, but how decisive can this stage be? The Col de la Madeleine and the Col du Telegraphe into the Col du Galibier are both a challenge, for sure. But there's a long way from the Galibier summit to the finish in Briancon.
Cunego has worked his way up to a 1'39 lead on Madrazo. That may well be enough ahead of the final time trial, but he will want a larger gap to be sure - while Madrazo will also be looking to reduce it.
Pluchkin lies 3rd, and an ambitious move is required to get himself in the hunt for the higher positions - but he also has his 2 minute advantage on Spilak and Dekker to look after.
A break of 4 quickly goes clear on the Madeleine - and it's a very interesting group for sure.
P. Velits
M. Ardila
S. Calzati
C. Riblon
15th overall Mauricio Ardila and 26th overall Peter Velits stand out. Ardila is 16'34 down on Cunego, but only 7 minutes away from the Top 10 in GC. Its a risk to go early, but a lot of teams are going to have to be careful if they want to protect their GC positions.
Calzati will hope to be able to give Jayco Red Bull the victory they continue to search for here, and they have come close, while UBS have made a clever move to get in the breakaway - with an eye on their teams classification rivalry with Wiggle.
At the other end of the field, already some riders are being dropped. Its one mountain too many for Abakoumov, while Kreder is clearly struggling after his Stage 15 crash - injured for sure. They arent the only ones to be dropped on this climb, but they are the first.
The break continues to build a lead as they top the Madeleine.
1
S. Calzati
2
M. Ardila
3
P. Velits
4
C. Riblon
They are no threat to Duret's King of the Mountains lead. Calzati has just 12 KoM points, and the rest don't have any.
A number of riders crash on the descent of the Madeleine:
D. Vitoria
DA. Montoya
Y. Offredo
R. Cleaver
Climbing onto the Telegraphe, with 70km to go. The break leads by over 13 minutes. Incredible risk taking by the Peloton - as things stand Ardila is in a net 3rd overall on the road!
After the Telegraphe, theres only a small descent before on to the Galibier.
1
C. Riblon
2
S. Calzati
3
P. Velits
4
M. Ardila
The pace is starting to pick up in the peloton, but the lead is still huge. Duret is amongst those to now be dropped.
And as the peloton cross the top of the Telgraphe, with a gap of 12 and a half minutes, there is finally some action as Suaza attacks.
It feels a bit ambitious as this stage if he thinks he can ride across the gap - the stage is surely on it's way to the breakaway, but he does start to close the gap - to under 10 minutes.
The break near the top of the Galibier, 1.3km to the summit. Riblon is dropped.
4km further down the mountain, Warner Brothers are setting the pace. Cafe de Colombia and Santander dont seem bothered about the breakaway, but Ardila is a threat to Spilak. They're not exactly setting a blistering pace though, and so we see some more attackers:
K. Siutsou
M. Samwel
F. Marquez
J. Rodriguez Oliver
T. Kritskiy
And at the top of the Galibier, Calzati has also been dropped. It's just Velits and Ardila left.
The gaps over the top are:
M. Ardila
P. Velits
+ 35
S. Calzati
+ 1'10
C. Riblon
+ 8'56
J. Suaza
+ 10'52
K. Siutsou
M. Samwel
F. Marquez
+ 11'22
Peloton
Still Ardila is in line for 4th place overall. Why does nobody care?!
And disaster for Wikipedia. Just over the summit, Phinney crashes. Mai, Pinot, Sprick and Meier are all still here to help him, but this could hardly have come at a worse time.
Up front, descending to stage victory and a possible GC Top 10 for Ardila, are our leading duo. Velits too should be making up for his dissapointing race by getting himself into the Top 20.
Calzati isnt coming back to them, and is now nearly 2 minutes down.
They arrive into Briancon after a long time descending. Just over a kilometre of uphill to test who is the strongest rider remaining.
Velits moves first - does Ardila have a response?
Ardila tries but can't do it - Peter Velits wins the stage!
And now the clock starts. How much is Velits, and inparticular Ardila, going to move up in the General Classification?
The 43 man peloton have swallowed up Siutsou, Samwel and Marquez and are now within a minute of Suaza. Right on the front is Cunego - but where's Madrazo, right towards the back! Very bad positioning by the Spaniard.
Sylvain Calzati takes 3rd on the stage. 7 minutes behind.
And Cunego goes off on the charge. Time to be gained here! Pluchkin and Dan Martin are closest, but they cant match the Italian.
Suaza and Riblon are caught and dropped by Cunego within the final kilometre, as he storms home to 4th place. 9'43 down.
Riblon and Pluchkin are next, 16 seconds after Cunego, and they lead in the main group of favourites. This includes a dissapointing Madrazo. Another 16 seconds lost today, time he can't really afford to lose.
Some riders also struggled in the peloton on this climb. Most notably Rein Taaramae, who is in a group a further minute down. Also in here is Markus Fothen, but GC is not such a big deal for him anymore. He didnt attack today - Festina will surely hope he plans to make a move on the Alpe d'Huez stage to salvage his race.
But what a disaster for Taylor Phinney. His teammates lead in his group, but he has lost 4 minutes on all his rivals. He cuts a disheartened figure at the finish.
The Gruppetto eventually finishes 57 minutes down. Bernaudeau survives, despite crashing on the Galibier descent, and having to fight hard to regain contact.
Two riders are missing though, and finish outside of the time limit. Abakoumov and Kreder are eliminated from the race.
All in all, not a great mountain stage. The only GC action comes through a crash, and the riders who got in the breakaway (excluding Cunego's late gains).
Mauricio Ardila now finds himself in an incredible 4th overall - 4 seconds ahead of Spilak, 8 seconds ahead of Dekker. Phinney is the man who loses out, and drops outside of the Top 10. He is down to 11th. Velits meanwhile, is up to 17th.
In the King of the Mountains, Cunego scored no points today - which is brilliant news for Duret. And in the Teams Competition, Riblon's presence in the break initially seemed like a way for UBS to gain time but in the end he was caught - and so there is no chance between the two teams, UBS still lead by just under 3 minutes.
