The first mountain stage before the mountain ITT tomorrow, the favourites for today are Marzano, Nazaret & Krasnoperov.
Plenty of riders in the morning attacks, Colby Luzi Santaromita Bercz Beyer Hicks Sutterlin Colex Cuapio
Corrales crashes very early today but does rejoin after 30kms of chasing, hopefully not an early sign for more crashes later in the day.
Most of the early attacks are pulled backed, expect for Colby, Bercz, and Santaromita.
More attacks go free but will recap them in the next photo, at the sprint point it is Colby followed by newcomer Martinez, and 3rd to Santaromita.
As promised, Group 1 - along with Colby, Beercz, Santaromita, and Martinez. Mercado Martin Criel Armstrong Rabou De Weert Vingerling & Didier Gate
Group 2 - Marcato & Pirazzi Cattaneo Jeannesson
Most are names we have seen before, the name that pops out is sprinter Vingerling from WWE. I guess he is trying to make up for his poor efforts by trying something here in the mountains.
When the second group is caught, 4 more riders try to take their place.
Luzi Colex Girardi
And just caught Jeannesson attacks right away to join this group.
Emu Export are control the pace nicely but that doesn't stop Ortega from attacking.
As the riders hit a nasty incline, it allows everyone to come back together. 113kms left to race.
On the downhill Ortega, De Weert, and Armstrong all manage to sneak away.
Belda comes across the gap to put a D2 rider in the breakaway.
Beyer Passalacqua
Try to follow Belda but end up in the gap between the breakaway and the peloton, no man's land.
It is clear these 4 are the breakaway of the day as De Weert leads Armstrong and Ortega through the second sprint point with a 4 minute gap over the peloton. (1'20" in front of Beyer and Passalacqua.)
It looks hopeless for these two as 10kms past and they loss 10 more seconds to the men they are chasing. Although they might be 1'30" off the leaders it's another 4 minutes before the peloton rolls through.
The pace isn't to the liking of Lewis Maisto
With 50kms to go, this looks like an interesting move.
The race situation stays like this, so we jump to the final sprint point. Ortega, De Weert, Armstrong is the order with Belda not even trying. Perhaps he is saving energy as the breakaway still has a 4 minute lead with 30kms to go.
As the peloton reaches the sprint point, Volkswagen – Siemens is starting to increase the tempo picking up Lewis and Maisto, along with Beyer and Passalacqua.
Martinez goes down with 28kms to go. A few teammates come back to try and pace him to the front, but it's to far in the stage for that. Martinez will lose a bunch of time today.
20kms to go, the breakaway can't look back now. The watch says the gap is 2 minutes but it sure looks shorter then that.
15kms to go and even though Emu Export is hammering the tempo 4 riders attack, but only two get away. Bosisio Diniz
get away, while Rodas Rajala
are the unlucky ones that just show their faces off the front.
But it won't make a difference as Emu Export brings everyone back together including the breakaway with 12kms to go. Let the real action start!
It's Stetina that gets things started.
Looks like Emu is done chasing as Nazaret goes after Stetina himself.
As Nazaret pulls up next to Stetina more action takes place behind, Colorado Brandt Bosisio
But all these attacks do is bring everyone back together on the other side of the 5km to go banner. So who has energy saved up for the next move?
Agudelo still has energy to burn. And with just 3,800 meters to line this could possible be the winning move! He is followed by, Stetina Colorado
Agudelo quickly fades, leaving Stetina the race lead. Marzano and Nazaret are just chilling in the front off the peloton. Not worried at all even though there is just 3kms left to go. They must be able to see the future as the previous attacks go nowhere leaving a 26 rider peloton with 2kms to go.
Nazaret wants to make a move with 1,500 meters to go but is blocked in by Osella!
Nazaret finds daylight as they cross under the 1km to go banner.
But Nazaret wasted to much energy trying to get free leaving teammate Mikayil Krasnoperov (In White) to battle it out with top favourite Marzano (In Green). While everyone else is right behind them fighting for top 10 placings.
Marzano gets a small lead but Krasnoperov is coming strong!
Marzano just hangs on to beat Krasnoperov, and will trade in his green jersey for yellow as both are given a 9 second gap over their followers. Which gives Nazaret a 9 second lead over now 2nd place Marzano heading into the Mountain ITT tomorrow.
Magno Nazaret will be upset to lose yellow by being boxed in but it's a part of cycling. Wilmer Vasquez picks up the slack of an average performance from Agudelo to finish 4th. Peter Stetina takes 5th and outshines teammate Brandt who finishes 13th, 40 seconds behind Marzano. Daniel Navarro makes 3 Emu Export riders within the top 6 spots. Julián Rodas beats teammate Francisco Colorado for 7th, even though Rodas should be the weaker climber. Marco Osella causes all the controversy by blocking Nazaret and still manages to finish 9th. With Gabriele Bosisio 10th after a very eventful attacking day for him. Should be an interesting time trial tomorrow with 9 riders within a minute of 1st place.
