Yesterday's stage left David Arroyo as the main victim of a mass crash in the last kilometers, but today is a good stage for the Spaniard to start his revenge.
The stage follows the Galician coastline to finish at Lira, partway up the Alto do Rego dos Arados which will be climbed entirely in the middle of the stage. It's 6.8km @ 6.5%, so we are entering the climbers terrain here, making:
Pieter Weening David Arroyo Joaquim RodrÃguez Oliver Marco Marzano
the top favourotes for today.
1km to the top of the first categorized climb today, the 3rd cat Alto do Furado, and still no breakaway, so 3 riders attack and open a 29'' gap, they are:
Arthur Vichot Stanislau Bazhkou Sergiu Cioban
Cioban is especially dangerous in a breakaway in a stage like this, will Allianz - BMW and the top climbers teams allow this?
More attackers are joining the fun, as it's Alexander Gingsjo who goes first over the climb, followed by Bazhkou and Vichot. The Swedish rider isn't the only new attacker, as Luis Afonso and Øystein Stake Laengen have also a gap.
The Norwegian rider was caught soon though, but the other five riders join forces, and have already 1'15'' on the peloton.
As the break arrives to the first intermediate sprint, the gap has gone up to 4 minutes. There, it's Gingsjo again who takes it, this time ahead of Afonso anf Bazhkou.
60km to go, and Allianz - BMW are working hard in the chase, and they have made the gap go down to just 3'01''.
Second intermediate sprint, and it's Gingsjo taking it again, ahead of Bazhkou and Afonso. The gap keeps falling, and it's well blow the 3 minutes mark by now, but we're approaching the first climb to the finish line.
And just as the peloton hits the climb, only 2 minutes behind the breakaway, we have an attack! It's Marco Minnard. Interesting that Weening wants someone up the road.
And another attacker! This time is the young american Joseph Dombrowski. We were for sure eager to see him in action here.
And it's now Michael Olsson who joins the fun! Great amount of attacks in the climb, bodes well for a good second part of the stage.
The breakaway makes the first pass over the finish line, and Vichot, Cioban and Gingsjo have opened a gap on the rest. The gaps are, now with 38km to go:
Vichot
<-29''->
Dombrowski
<-20''->
Afonso
<-1'27''->
Peloton
Cioban
Minnard
Gingsjo
Bazhkou
Olsson
After some extra false flat, they reach the KoM sprint of the 2nd cat Alto do Rego dos Arados, and vichot takes the first place, ahead of Gingsjo and Cioban. This puts Gingsjo as the new KoM leader.
Inmediately after the climb, Bazhkou and Afonso are left behind struggling, and does not seem likely that they can come back. More interestingly, the gap with the peloton has grown significantly, and the race situation is:
Vichot
<-30''->
Dombrowski
<-36''->
Afonso
<-1'53''->
Peloton
Cioban
Minnard
Bazhkou
Gingsjo
Olsson
With the descent almost finished, finally Dombrowski, Olsson and Minnard link up with the front three, making it a 6 men group. Bazhkou and Afonso are 40'' behind, with the peloton a further 1'16'' behind them, as Team Gazelle has taken over the chase work, significantly reducing the gap.
Last intermediate sprint, and Minnard takes it ahead of Olsson and Dombrowski. The gap keeps hovering around the 2 minutes mark with 19km to go, while Bazhkou and Afonso are still in no man's land between the front group and the peloton.
And, with 15km to go, Bazhkou and Afonso are finally caught by the peloton, led now by Banco Nacional de Costa Rica, which has send all their men bar Daiber Esquivel to work at the front, and only Kappa - ENI are doing some work with them. The gap with the front 6 is still 1'54'', but it shouldn't be enough for them to make it, so the vicotry should be for the peloton.
In the small hill preceding the final climb, Cioban, Vichot and Dombrowski try to leave behind their three companions, but the peloton is quickly getting closer.
Finally, Vichot, Dombrowski and Cioban start the final climb. Remember, 6.8km @ 6.5%, but the second half of the climb is mostly above 7.5%, reaching even 10% for a short length. The gaps are:
Vichot
<--16''-->
Gingsjo
<--1'17''-->
Peloton
Cioban
Minnard
Dombrowski
Olsson
And it's Yannick Talabardon the first to attack from the peloton, on the first slopes of the climb, and he's quickly followed by Pieter Weening.
Both link up with Minnard, Olsson, Gingsjo and Cioban with 5km to go, and are joined by Mikel Nieve and Bruno Pires. The peloton is still very close, led, still, by banco Nacional de costa Rica and Kappa.
The groups of Dombrowski and Weening are caught as they merge, but Talabardon, Nieve and the same Weening go again!
Talabardon has a very small gap with a 4 men chase group, where we can find Weening, Nieve, Pires and David Arroyo, who wants a victory after yesterday's disaster.
Only 1500m to go, and Emanuel Kiserlosvki has towed Marco Marzano and the rest of the peloton to the front group. But Weening and Arroyo won't give up, and both attack again.
Both open a significant gap, and Arroyo seeks to overtake the Dutch puncheur.
And he does it just as the pass the flamme rouge. Behind, Pires leads out, but the likes of Moreno, Talabardon or Marzano are coming faster.
Arroyo seems to have a bit more of energy left, and goes faster than Weening. They have 27'' on the peloton, but Marzano and Larsson are going fast.
It doesn't seem like Marzano or Larsson are closing the gap at all, but now Joaquim RodrÃguez comes very fast.
It definitely looks set for Arroyo, and RodrÃguez could help the peloton by reducing the gap.
Grat victory for David Arroyo! The GC was ruined for him yesterday due to a crash, but now he shows he's a top quality climber by comfortably beating Pieter Weening in the second stage. Now let's see the gaps...
Joaquim RodrÃguez takes a very good third place for his team, 24'' behind Arroyo and Weening. Marco Marzano is 4th, and Gustav Larsson 5th, after doing both a long sprint. Iberia's other leader Daniel Moreno finishes in a good 6th place, with Mikel Nieve 7th. First attacker Yannick Talabardon finishes 8th, with another Frenchie, Brice Feillu in 9th, and Denis Menchov closes the top 10.
Weening takes over the GC lead from Matteo Carrara, but we still have 39 riders in 36'' so the GC is incredibly open when heading up to the last stage, the queen stage finishing atop Monte Cabalar. considering the current leader isn't the best climber either, it's fantastic how open this race is.
