The Clover Tour of the Lowveld continues with a stage that finishes atop Kowyn's Pass, which is a rolling climb. You would not describe it as a mountain top finish or even a hill top one, but it is a again a tough hilly stage.
Pivovarna Lasko took control of the race yesterday, it is they along with American Express and of course Het Nieuwsblad who are looking to dominate the race.
Out on the course there two 10-8-6-4-2 climbs and the break of 13 riders are coming up to the first of those primes after 37 kilometres raced.
The majority of todays break is made up of those who lost time on yesterdays difficult stage and some of the names have some good climbing pedigree. Isidro Nozal won the Tour of San Juan earlier in the year and has slipped in the break. Portuguese climber Nuno Ribeiro, Hungarian toughman Tamás Lengyel, Dyson's recent stage winner Charles Wegelius, Adecco punchaer Alberto Rodriguez Oliver and Petrobrus leader Franklin Chacon are headline acts in this group.
But the dangerman is Gilberto Sampaio who is at just 41 seconds down on GC compared to three minutes plus of his breakaway companions.
The other names here are Loic Desirac Andrei Krasilnikau Egor Silin Dermot Nally Matej Jurco
and Maurizio Morandi
Rodriguez Oliver takes the climb ahead of Sampaio and Nozal. He will have to take the second climb too if he wants to challenge Jaoa Costa who has 19 KoM points from yesterday's stage.
In the pack, the work to begin with is mainly done by Metinvest. This team do not really have the big domestiques to chase breaks down in the final so are taking the job of keeping the gap sensible.
No doubt though that the press attention is on Sampaio in the break who is the big danger, he is looking strong as he take the days intermediate sprint. This strengthens his GC position slightly as he outkicks Russian youngster Silin.
The 31 year old Portuguese rider is never far from the front particularly on the second ascent of the king of the mountains prime. His pace hurts the break and he rolls over to take the maximum points taking his points tally to 18 KoM points in total just one behind the competition leader Costa. Rodriguez Oliver can only manage fifth here.
No points are available atop Kowyn's Pass, so Costa will hold for another day. But King of the Mountains points are small fry compared to the main prize today as Sampaio is a real GC threat here. The latest time check to the pack was 4 minutes with 42km to go.
AMEX have got young Qatari Tareq Esmaeli pushing hard, he is significantly reducing the pack down to less than 50 riders.
In fact with 30km to go the pack is down to 34 riders, well make that 33 as Diego Milan takes a tumble.
Importantly the gap to the break has continued to fall and it is pretty much Sampaio at the front of the break all of the time. With 25km to go it is down to three minutes with this tricky Kowyn's Pass finale to come.
Sampaio's pace is now shredding the break as Deseric, Nozal, Wegelius, Kraslinikau and Chacon are all dropped.
It is clearly Het Nieuwsblad versus AMEX, though really it is Sampaio on his own against Esmaeli, Zajicek and Colby.
15km to go and the lead seven in the break have 2.32 on the small AMEX controlled pack, in usual circumstances this would be enough for the breakaway. However Sampaio looks like he is beginning to slow down and his companions are not looking to help him out. Rodriguez Oliver who looked like he was struggling on the last climb attacks to go solo with 12km to go.
He gets a decent 40 second gap as Sampaio looks to try and maintain a decent enough tempo to take the GC lead. The pack though can see him on the plain terrain ahead.
Finally a bit of help for the Het Nieuwsblad rider in the form of Jurco of Samsung-Mol. These two rid themselves of the other wheelsucking riders.
10 km to go:
Rodriguez Oliver leads
Jurco and Sampaio at 40 seconds
... other former breakaways...
... pack is at 2.32.
This last climb up to Kowyn's pass is a difficult one to define it is has some decent gradients in sections along with a number of false flats. Having made this solo move Rodriguez Oliver should be able to take the stage providing he doesn't crack.
With 6km left he has over a minute on Sampaio and Jurco and just over two minutes on the pack.
Sampaio's hopes of taking over the lead on GC are fading, but the plucky Portuguese gives it one last dig leaving behind his recent companion Jurco.
Behind him the big favourites are jumping away from the pack as AMEX look like they have run out of credit. Their leader Carlos Alberto Ospina is marking Ricardo Serrano Ruslan Grychenko Wang-yip Tang Benoît Daeninck
and Ruben Elvira Lobato
However Serrano and Grychenko are looking strong, Serrano manages to make the junction with Sampaio as Grychenko joins Jurco.
So with 2.5 km left to finish we have Rodriguez Oliver out 90 seconds in front of Sampaio and Serrano. Rodriguez Oliver lost nearly five minutes yesterday so is not a GC threat! Jurco and Grychenko are 30 seconds back from these two and 20 seconds ahead of the rest of the favourites who are in a big group.
The group are desperately trying to get back to Grychenko at least as the top of this pass flattens out.
Rodriguez Oliver has been by far the strongest rider over the last 15km and very comfortable win. His team will be well out of the GC battle with Milan's fall and Tang's poor day yesterday but have the glory of a stage win.
A stunning job by Esmaeli brings Grychenko back along with Serrano and Sampaio. It's been a long day out for Sampaio for little effect.
In the sprint Lobato barges his way through ahead of the tireless Esmaeli to take second place. Sampaio holds on to take 4th ahead of Herve, Vicioso, Serrano and Ospina.
94 seconds after this group comes the group containing Mancebo, it's been a poor day for Kingspan.
Sorry clicked past the results by accident (it can happen to us all!).
Top 22 on the stage:
Top 30 on GC:
Lobato strengthens his position, 13 riders all within about a minute of each other with four tough stages to come.
