The race returns to the flatlands, or at least moves away from the mountains. The 182km course takes us into Boulder today and there are four categorised climbs along the way. Our first climb is up Rollins Pass, which is 15.8km long at 5.1%, but it does have some steeper sections. We then descend to Hurricane Hill, which is 4.5km long and 6.2% in gradient. Our third climb, coming towards the end, is Gold Hill, which though it is 13.9km in length at only 5% gradient, actually contains a brief descent in the middle and is considerably steeper than the profile would indicate. Finally, 10km from the end of the course is the summit of Bow Mountain, which is only 3.2km long but is a tough 8.1% average.
Our first climb starts as soon as the gun goes and straight away we reach the toughest part of the climb – it is over 14% in gradient for 300 metres. This tires some legs out straight away and gives the chance for a group to go free. This is not a normal group, however, and indeed it contains some of the best climbers in this race.
In this group are Sicard Soler Navarro Txurruka Kessiakoff Szmyd Sano
And bizarrely, Serebriakov.
With Sicard up here this group is incredibly dangerous and unsurprisingly they are brought back. Ochoa Quintero and Anton work together to shut it down.
And as the race goes over the top 30 riders are together in the lead group. Monsalve leads over ahead of Soler and then Castroviejo.
And let’s have a look at who is missing from this group. The biggest names are: Agudelo Vasquez Feillu Morizot Vital Becerra
Unsurprisingly, Aker are the ones putting in the most work on the front of this second peloton, which bunches up with almost all the dropped riders. They are 3’30” behind.
Thankfully for this chase group there is a very long descent down from Rollins Pass and with 20km remaining before the next climb they manage to bring the entire race back together, with the sole exception of Blanco, who is ploughing a lonely furrow behind the race.
Through the sprint point just before the second climb, Dempster leads Martinez and then Soler takes third.
Now we hit Hurricane Hill. The climb is only 4.5km long and averages 6.2%. There are 500 metres above 10% in gradient, however, right near the start. No one chooses to up the pace and so everyone rides sedately over the top. Clearly the days in the mountains mean that everyone just feels like a rest today. Dempster leads over the top with Viviani in second and Scully in third.
The long descent continues and we reach the second of the three sprint points today. This time some of the sprinters really go for it. Tereul shows his form and takes first, ahead of Serebriakov and then Manan.
Finally the race arrives at the pivotal climb of the day, as we hit Gold Hill. The first half of the climb reaches 10% briefly, then it drops down and onto the second half of the climb which is more than 10% in gradient for the final 1.5km.
Hollister hit the front and Ochoa Quintero, as always, pushes a hard pace. And the race breaks apart! 12 riders go clear from the bunch and they are:
The weakest climbers in this group all fall off the back, leaving us with 9 leaders. The three dropped are Martinez, Monsalve and Elissonde.
Realising that the day’s deciding move has gone, there is an attack behind from some of the lesser GC players. They are: Txurruka Nicacio Seeldraeyers Agudelo Sano
They get away and work their way up to the three dropped men meaning that we now have 9 leaders and 8 chasers. Of the riders to attack so far today, the most important name missing is Morizot, sitting in tenth overall. He may be under strict team instructions not to do anything with his team leader up the road.
The riders up front hit the hardest part of this climb as Soler drives the pace now. He has had a disappointing race, but is really finally coming through for his leader Anton today. The chase group is already 3’36” behind and the peloton are another 1’14” behind them.
Kessiakoff leads the front group over the top with Sicard and Ochoa Quintero in second and third.
Much more dramatically, the second group on the road splits, with the five late attackers dropping Martinez, Monsalve and Elissonde. They will probably struggle to close the gap at this point, but they are putting serious time into some of the other rivals for top 15 finishes.
Kiserlovski sprints out at the sprint point to take the bonus time and 6 points, which will help him move up to potentially challenge for a good position in that category too. Kessiakoff takes second place and Soler is in third.
This leads us on to the final climb up Bow Mountain. Though it is only 3.2km long, it averages 8.1% and is indeed more than 10% for much of the climb. This seems like the perfect chance to launch a bid for the line and that is exactly what Anton does with 2.6km of climbing still to go.
Kessiakoff goes with him and they get a small gap. Kiserlovski doesn’t want anything to get away, however, and he chases it down.
Ochoa Quintero, Szmyd and Seledkov are all put into serious trouble. The two Hollister riders realise that their GC positions are at stake and so they manage to claw their way up as we hit the summit. Once again Kessiakoff leads us over, with Navarro in second and Anton in third.
4’27” back the chasers come through, but Sano and Txurruka have got away from the others and are already breathing down the neck of Seledkov. Nicacio sets off in pursuit.
Up front Ochoa Quintero is leading out the sprint. Szmyd sits on his left and Soler on his right. It is Navarro who is best placed as second wheel, and it should be remembered that he won stage 10 in this sort of finish.
The sprint opens up and the group bunches up. Sicard starts to come forward with the race leader on his wheel and Anton just behind him.
And Kiserlovski comes through at the last minute to take his third straight stage victory!
Kessiakoff is in second place, ahead of Anton, who rounds out the podium. Navarro is in fourth and Ochoa Quintero takes fifth. Sicard is a disappointing sixth, Szmyd takes seventh and Soler rounds out the group in eighth.
The crowd now waits to see who will come through next.
Txurruka drops the others in the sprint for ninth, beating Seledkov to the line, who takes tenth. Sano is given the same time as these two, 4’07” down on the leaders. Nicacio almost caught them on the run-in to the line, but fell short at the last moment.
The peloton including tenth place Morizot come through almost 5 minutes later again, 9’03” down on our winner today. This will easily be enough to put Sano into the top ten overall.
Looking now at the jerseys, the top ten remains the same apart from Sano moving into the top ten. Nicacio also seems to be out of the running for seventh. Kiserlovski is now only 37 points shy of his sprinter Serebriakov in the sprint competition thanks to his three straight stage victories. He also slightly extends his lead in the mountain competition. There is a tough fight going on for second in the team competition between Emu and Focussed.
