It`s the first uphill finish today but as the stage and in especially the 2nd half doesn`t look very hard plus the short length of just 90km, it`s doubtful that the favourites will already go isolated into that climb. More likely a big group will come to the finish and then it`s interesting who is favoured. Will it be the pure puncheurs or again the hilly sprinters?
Burlutsky and Kangangi were able to get a gap after the first shorter hill.
Now going into the longer climb it might already be the hardest section today. Steep climbs will let some riders suffer early today.
The duo almost got a 2min lead on that climb but is followed now by 3 more riders. Kadri Decouttere Astarloza
Kangangi takes the KoM ahead of the Armavia rider. Kadri is still fighting for the points and takes the 3rd spot here.
After the two groups fusioned the French also fights for the bonus seconds and is the only rider sprinting.
Kadri as 43rd (+1'57) is the best placed of all 5, so not the biggest danger, but still he seems to see chances to improve.
Same picture at the 2nd intermediate. A short acceleration and Kadri easily wins the 6 seconds. Astarloza and Kangangi again share the last points.
The gap is up to 4'30 now with 57km to go.
Burlutsky, Astarlza and Kangangi is the order at the Cat.4, while Kadri seems to be too exhausted.
Decouttere even lost contact here and felt back.
Jaguar isn`t getting much help. Only HTC do very rare turns at the front and so the gap is stil 4'40 with 46km to go.
It`s looking better and better for the breakaway and Kadri is collecting more bonus seconds. He already has 18s today and if they can finish ahead of the peloton he might be inside the top positions again.
26km and still more than 3min.
But here comes Team Bpost. With 4 riders they work for Gautier now, who showed his good legs yesterday. This obviously will things making much closer now between the favourites and the breakaway.
Ngue was quite active already and again he attacks with 20km to go. The peloton became faster but obviously not fast enough for him.
But the work by Bpost and Jaguar is soon bringing him back into the peloton.
Kangangi and Astarloza look the strongest and attack. Probably they are afraid of the peloton which is coming closer.
And also Ngue isn`t done yet. He tries it again and this time a bit more powerful. Only 7km to go and still a 1'30 gap.
HTC took over the work again with Jaguar and Bpost obviously giving up.
This is good news for the breakaway as the pace dropped a bit over the last 3km.
The favourites do a big gamble today.
The last attempt was not successful but Kangangi is trying it again. The win will most likely go to one of these 5 and only Astarloza is following him.
Decouttere already looked bad at the small climbs and Burlutsky/Kadri fought the most at all the sprints.
Flamme Rouge and he still has a small gap to Astarloza. The other 3 are another 10s behind with Ngue still being a bit ahead of the peloton.
Astarloza struggles now with Kadri and Burlutsky coming around. Kangangi is so close to a win and just needs to fight for 300m.
Huge win for the Kenyan. Well deserved win as he was the rider, who did the most in the end.
Kadri outsprints Burlutsky and comes in 15s later taking a few more bonus seconds.
Astarloza comes in with +242 a few seconds ahead of Decouttere.
But how much time will the peloton lose in the end? How far can Kadri climb in the rankings?
Poor Ngue as the peloton is closing the gap on the last meters. He won`t gain time but maybe he can keep his 6th on todays stage?
Also they are just ~1min behind the breakway, which means Kadri won`t improve that far.
Yes. Ngue 6th ahead of Dowsett and Ben Nasser. The Brit really seems in a great form here. Konte and Gautier are the last top 10 riders but as no favourite got bonus seconds today Armee will keep the lead.
Kadri is moving to the 27th with only +39 now. So not far behind the best. But it`s enough for him to take the point jersey from Kennaugh.
The only riders losing contact were some sprinters, who definitely wanted to save some energy on the final climb here.
