Today’s stage brings us an odd stage, with one rather tough climb in the middle of the stage but not much else of note. As such the odds seem to favour either a break or one of the sprinters. It all depends on how tough the climb is and, though there is a fairly long segment that is over 10% in gradient mid-way through the climb, the rest of it is fairly gentle.
Our attacks today are started by Andrea Manfredi (Cisco), who is followed by Irakli Bablidze (Bouygues) and Cornelius Van Ooijen (Bintang).
All three of these riders have been in at least one break this race, and this is Bablidze’s third break. He has been on the attack on every even-numbered day so far. The peloton are willing to let these three go, as Manfredi is the best placed on GC at +20’06”, so he is clearly not a threat. None of them are brilliant climbers either so the teams of the sprinters will be pleased.
The three riders start to power away over the early uncategorised climbs. On the descent of one of these, however, there is some drama as Zakayo Ndbri (Kenya) falls off his bike. His teammate Camano memorably took the yellow jersey yesterday and as such no one goes back to help him, despite the fact that he sits 5th overall.
Prio-Porto are happy to share some of the work on the early slope of the mountain with Kenya Airways. Clearly they are faithful that Avelino can haul himself over the mountain, and by setting an easier pace they can help keep him comfortable. The gradient is only about 2% thus far.
The three leaders reach the toughest section of the course. They can see the gradient rising ahead of them. The maximum gradient through this section is 18%. Their lead is 4’47” as they start this segment.
Things haven’t changed much as they leave the toughest part of today, with the gap now at 4’33”. The peloton surprisingly covered that faster than the break and still have not dropped any riders. This really could come down to a sprint if the descent follows suit.
The fight for the points on offer is hotly contested and it is Bablidze who takes it ahead of Van Ooijen and then Manfredi. Their gap over the top, with 62km remaining, is 4’54” ahead of the still intact peloton.
There is a short descent down to a sprint point before another uncategorised climb. Van Ooijen leads them through, but none of them take an interest because they are all a long way back on GC. The gap now sits at 3’23”.
Realising that this could be a chance for the sprinters to contest things, Prio-Porto, Hollister and ING put a lot of domestiques on the front as they descend. They are really determined to set this up and as such the gap keeps tumbling.
With 20m to go the road has flattened out quite a bit and the gap is now down to a very slim 1’33”. Before the day started not a lot of people would have tipped this result transpiring.
Van Ooijen once again leads through the sprint point with 12.8km to go and clearly some of the fire has gone out of the chase behind as the gap sits at 57”. This is still under control but there is now a slim chance for the break.
Or so they think as, with 8.4km remaining Afonso (Prio-Porto) makes the catch. It is mostly ING and Prio-Porto on the front of the peloton, perhaps explaining why some of the fire went out from the chase, with Hollister choosing not to contribute.
With 4km to the line, there are two main trains. ING has a train and so too do Prio-Porto. Hollister are trying to pace Serebriakov up but there isn’t much support for him.
ING’s train:
Masciarelli
King
Thire
Kip
Prio’s Train:
Afronso
Mendes
Caldeira
Avelino
Other sprinters scramble to get on to one of these lines. De Fauw and Cano sit on the tail of the Prio train, which could be a risk given how unreliable they have been. There is a fight for the wheel of Kip as Weylandt and Serebriakov use their greater size to muscle out Ghafari.
Weylandt manages to muscle Serebriakov out of the way but with 3km to go there is a huge surprise as, out of nowhere, Hollister move a train up between the other two. Monsalve has pulled up Brea, but Serebriakov is out on the right of the course and not where he should be. They have made a total mess of this.
Serebriakov shifts left and manages to work his way on to the train just as the sprint opens up. Thire, Brea and Caldeira all launch themselves, trying to set up their main sprinters.
Caldeira clearly heard all the criticism of him being too slow over the past few days and he blazes away! In fact he is so fast that he loses Avelino, who suddenly finds himself having to claw back up to his own lead-out man!
Under the kite, Cano and De Fauw have gone hard on the left, looking to cause another upset. The lead-out men are still pulling well and Avelino has got back to Caldeira, though you have to wonder how much energy he spent doing that.
800m to go and Cano has a gap! Avelino and Serebriakov launch through the middle. Kip has fallen behind their trains.
With 400m to go, Cano is still holding on to a small lead here! Weylandt is coming up well on the right and Kip is putting in yet another strong last-second bid.
With only 200 to the line, Serebriakov and Avelino are looking to challenge Cano, but they might have left this too late!
Kip comes up from nowhere right up on the far barrier but Serebriakov raises his arms. He seems to think he has this!
Let’s check the photo finish...
And he does indeed, by the slimmest of margins. Kip came from nowhere to take 2nd. Avelino is in 3rd and Cano is just bumped off that elusive podium place.
Weylandt takes 5th place and Vesely tags on to Avelino’s back wheel to take 6th. De Fauw takes 7th, with Damrow finally showing himself with 8th. Pineau once again sprints well for 9th and Bogataj surprises with 10th.
No change in the jerseys today, in fact Serebriakov extends his hold on the points jersey and could potentially even take it all teh way to the end of the race thanks to this stage win.
