Here comes the queen stage of this tour, some riders even struggled to get to the start! That could be due to the fact that the start was on a 11% Gradient!
Sebastien Joly is the first to attack, he shone in Stage 2 but lost 10 minutes in Stage 3. He is countered by quite a few riders but they struggle to get far.
Cioni then attacks! This is an interesting move by the Domina leader, he is 12th Overall yet nearly 5 minutes down. He was followed a kilometre later by Disco rider Perez Sanchez. Perez Sanchez has had a low key tour working for his teammates and having lost 7 minutes already, is ready to work for himself today.
The peleton arent keen on letting these high quality riders go and are soon down to 52 as their high pace drops almost all of the riders with an MO stat less than 70.
Perez Sanchez crosses the summit first with over a minute on Cioni and Nogaledo (Relax), but Rasmussen attacks - along with the usual KoM hunters: Kloden, Kashechkin, Danielson, Brandt.
The dane seems to have refound his eagerness for KoM points and takes Brandt's wheel in the descent while the others drop back.
They hold off the peleton for some time before being caught leaving just the 3 riders up front. Cioni and Nogaledo nearly catch Perez Sanchez but the spaniard pulls away on the next climb.
He takes the points ahead of Cioni and Nogaledo as Rasmussen and Co. again attack for points, this time though - they do not try and stay away.
Cobo attacks on the next climb. He is countered by Lovkvist, Julich and Sevilla but only Cobo has the strength to keep ahead of the pack.
He takes 4th behind the earlier escapists and ahead of the likes of Kloden and Rasmussen who went point hunting again.
With 80km to go for the peleton, they are 5 kilometres and 8 and a half minutes behind Perez Sanchez, who has a 4'30 lead on Cioni.
The riders reach the longest climb of the day, the Port d'Envalira. Cobo is caught as Ardila Cano, Serpa, Sevilla and Julich try to get away, but all 4 are soon reeled in.
Nogaledo is caught and Cioni is next in what is a bad climb for Domina.
They started the climb with 5 riders in the peleton and Cioni up front, by the top of it all 6 had been dropped by the peleton.
The first serious move comes at the top of the climb as Rasmussen and Kashechkin attacked for KoM points but kept up the pace in the descent.
Kashechkin and Rasmussen still have a gap at the end of the descent as they tackle a short climb to the top of Col du Puymorens and Attack!!
Brajkovic sets off in pursuit of Kash/Ras and is followed by Di Luca, Mancebo, Rujano and Dekker.
Brajkovic takes 2nd place over the summit and in the descent 2 groups form:
Dekker, Di Luca, Mancebo and Brajkovic have a gap over Rujano, Rasmussen and Kashechin. The likes of Contador, Danielson and Kloden did not attack.
Perez Sanchez now holds a 4 minute lead over Dekker's group.
We reach the flatter section and Di Luca and Dekker use the intermediate sprint to get a gap on Brajkovic and Mancebo.
Cycling24 display some confusing tactics as they call Rujano back to the chase group.
Edited by SportingNonsense on 25-10-2007 18:44
They reach the final climb and Brajkovic attacks away from Mancebo, he moves past Dekker and Di Luca who do not respond.
Mancebo joins up with Dekker and Di Luca as they try to chase down Brajkovic.
Despite having dropped back to the peleton, Rujano is the first to attack in some weird tactics by Cycling24. Kloden, Contador, Danielson and Gomez Marchante respond.
Gomez Marchante catches Rasmussen and Kashechkin, and Kashechkin cracks not long afterwards.
Here is the situation with 2km to go for Brajkovic: E1 - Brakovic E2 - Dekker, Di Luca and Mancebo - +22 E3 - Gomez Marchante and Rasmussen - +37 (To Brajkovic) E4 - Contador - +55 (To Brajkovic) E5 - Rujano, Kloden - +1'15 (To Brajkovic) E6 - Kashechkin, Danielson and Mayo - +1'38 (To Brajkovic)
