Things aren't getting any easier today, as we're about to travel over the mountains to the finish in Sur Al Abri. It's a shame that the big climbs are located so far out from the finish though, as that might scare the favourites away from attacking.
Race leader Lutsenko will certainly be watched today, after the show on stage 1. These mountains are something else though, and perhaps a little too hard for the Kazakh. Perhaps Rohregger, etc... will try to claw back some of the lost time?
Just like yesterday, the attacks are nowhere to be seen in the opening kilometers. Good news for MTN, as it makes their job of protecting Lutsenko's leader's jersey a whole lot easier.
The long awaited move finally comes with just over a kilometer left to the top of the day's first climb. Dadi Suryadi is the man in attention.
Surprisingly, there's no reaction from Anuar Aziz, Feng or Naibo. Clearly they've all got bigger plans for this race than the KoM classification.
No complaints from Suryadi while cresting the summit in first place! And for some reason, nobody is interested in the remaining points either, allowing the pacesetting domestiques to mop them up.
Suryadi decides to carry out his attack, and extends his advantage on the way down from the first climb and the way up to the second one. He reaches the summit of that one a full six minutes clear of the peloton.
The remaining points goes to the domestiques again.
A little while later, our lone leader reaches the first intermediate sprint. His advantage has increased to just over eight minutes, with 100 km to go.
Ghafari beats Belletti in the sprinters' battle for second place and a few points.
The first of two first category climbs follow, and MTN start speeding the main field up a little, assisted by Magna.
Suryadi obviously stays ahead over the climb, however - collecting another 16 points. Vakoc leads the peloton over the top some 7 minutes later.
One long descent later, the gap is reduced further - to more or less exactly 5 minutes as Suryadi starts preparing himself for the final few ascents.
Ghafari is again the fastest in the sprint behind, this time beating Polivoda. This takes the Iranian to a provisional third place in the points classification.
MTN meanwhile turns the heat up another notch, and riders start getting shelled out the back as we hit the two non-categorized climbs preceding the last difficulty of the day. Notably, we find several big names badly positioned towards the back end of the field.
Rohregger, Rodas, Parra Bustamante, Colorado, Landa and GC's third Kononenko are all found in the last 15 or so positions. Probably just a tactic, as all of them easily continues to follow the group while more and more riders start dropping off.
The favourites seem to have decided not to take any risks today, as the following climb passes without any sign of attacks or other major events. MTN simply keeps going at a pace Lutsenko can handle, while cutting down Suryadi's advantage in the process.
Suryadi maintains his rhythm extraordinarily well after such a long day, and stays clear over the top with an advantage of almost two minutes over the chasing group of 28. A clear lead in the KoM classification secured for him!
In the somewhat tricky descent, MTN and Magna takes major risks to continue clawing back time on Suryadi. A few riders actually struggles to follow and get tailed off in the first couple of turns.
Most notably Craig Lewis and Cayetano Sarmiento.
Up front, a dead tired Suryadi is convinced to keep fighting till the end, but with 8 km remaining his advantage has shrunk down to just half a minute.
Those final seconds prove to be extremely difficult for the group to take, however. Ihlenfeldt, Naibo, Schrangl and Gougeard gives it everything, but the man up front just wont give up.
Four kilometers left, and the gap is stuck at 15 seconds!
Lutsenko gets desperate with three km to the finish, and opens the sprint himself in a very early stage. This causes chaos in the group, with other riders feeling forced to make their move as well.
This mess ends up working against the group rather than in favour of it. Suryadi keeps going at his pace, and the gap actually extends to 20 seconds!
And just a kilometer to go!
Inside an eternal final km, the gap starts to melt faster and faster - one meter at a time. Lutsenko is gone from the front, but other riders have picked up speed after saving the legs earlier.
It's not going to be for them today though, as Suryadi digs very deep down his body and finds the energy to hold on to win the stage by a matter of meters!
Too tired to raise his arms, but surely extremely happy!
Kononenko wins the sprint behind, improving yesterday's third place by one. Masuda gets overhauled in the last 100m, but is probably happy to take third and a little time bonus.
The top 5 is rounded off by Mestre and KoM leader Anuar Aziz.
Lutsenko finishes within the group and retains his race lead, but there's no doubt who's the man of the day. After being up front all by himself more or less the whole stage, Suryadi still somehow finds a little reserve tank to hold off a fast closing peloton and win the stage.
He is rewarded with both the points and the KoM jersey, a 10th place in the GC and a fourth place in the U25 classification.
