A real shark tooth profile for stage 5. None of the 145 kilometres is flat. The last kilometre is quite steep so we should be in for some exciting racing.
Ji is defending his overal lead but four riders are within 8 seconds. Ji should be the strongest puncher over Castano, Ardila and Marquez but Castano won the earlier hilly stage.
Big stage favourite is ofcourse Efimkin who needs to bounce back after a dissapointing MTT.
Fraile, who wore the youth jersey after a very strong opening prologue, is the first rider to attack today.
He gets joined by Afewerki, Manfredi and Rocchetti. The latter is still in a good position sitting 28th 2'48 behind race leader Ji.
Meji does not have any problem with him being in the break though and they can create a good advantage.
None of the riders at the front has collected any KoM points so far. With only 5 times 6 points available, they don't pose any threat to Watson's 38 point lead. No surprise that they don't sprint for the points here.
With 65 km to go, the advantage of the break is just over the 4 minute break as Meji is doing a good job controlling the peloton. They have a really strong team here with 4 riders inthe top 13.
The first victims are already dropping out at the back of the peloton. Guardini, Vingerling and Giacoppo are the most important names who need to fight to stay inside the time limit.
25 km to go and only three riders remain in front. Afewarki was dropped over one of the hills and couldn't comeback. The peloton, where Hatanaka is now doing most of the pacing, is 2 minutes behind the leaders.
Micheal Rogers then becomes the first big name to attack. He sits 12th overal currently and it seemed like his biggest task today was to limit his loss. But he is clearly feeling better as on stage 3.
First he got joined by CSC' Spanish champion Gil but later also Efimkin joined. He knows he has to attack from quite far as he needs to make up quite a bit of time if he wants to salvage his GC hopes here.
Efimkin's move was closely followed by Bibby and Marquez. The Brit wearing the green jersey made it into Efimkin's wheel while Marquez is a bit further behind just in front of the Meji-led peloton.
The other riders you see are doubled riders.
Efimkin attacked away from Bibby right past all escapees into the lead. He holds 25 seconds advantage over the chasing peloton with 15 kilometres to go. Bibby and Marquez are back in that peloton.
Bad news for his Cisco team though as Dyachenko, who was sitting 8th overal, has a flat tire. He is helped out quickly but the pace upfront is too high for him to come back.
Kilun, Rogers and Masuda now have taken the front trying to chase back Efimkin. They are not the strongest riders on this terrain and are losing more and more time. Efimkin's lead over a chasing group of 39 with 10 km to go is just under 1 minute.
Many riders try, here Marguez followed by Ji, Bibby, Rogers and Agudelo, but none can get away. They can't even get anything closer to Efimkin who seems assured of stage victory here.
But a strong attack form Bibby finally pulled three riders clear. Marquez and Shimizu follow and they have almost closed the gap to Efimkin. With two km to go and only the final ascent remaining, the peloton, were surprisingly it's OZ and not Meji doing the chasing is more as a 30" behind the trio. Ji's race lead is under real danger here.
Efimin has started his sprint and so has the trio behind. He doesn't seem to have the kick to sprint away from the chasing trio. Bibby looks done there but Marguez and Shimizu clearly still have something left in the tank are closing in fast on Efimkin.
Ji came with a really strong accelaretion and has left the group behind. He is now going after Castano who attacked away from that group during the descent towards the final hill. Ji still has a lot of ground to make up though if he wants to defend his leader's jersey here.
Efimkin, Marquez and Shimizu are now as good as next to eachother with the Japanese having the highest speed. The crowd goes mad as they see this, will we have our first Japanese stage win here?
Bibby is a bit further down and looks out of contention for the podium.
It was really close in the end but Shimizu takes the stage win! What a day for all Japanese fans! Marquez is a surprising second here as many saw the hilly stages as his weak point. Efimkin (the Cisco rider right next to Marguez is a doubled rider) lost all his speed in the last metres and can only take 3rd just holding off Bibby.
Castano just holds off Ji for the 5th place. They come in 16 seconds behind today's winner.
That means that Marquez takes the lead. Ji is now second 20" behind, Castano third, Bibby fourth and Shimizu moves up to 5th as Ardila who finished in the next group and wasn't seen all day slides down to 6th.
Meji's tactics can be questioned. Wouldn't it have been a better plan to let Shimizu work for Ji, that way he might have defended his GC lead. It seems that they are happier with another stage win.
Really bad day for Cisco as Efimkin's move only gives him 8th overal and no stage win while Dyachenko tumbles down out of the top 20.
Some riders finished outsite the time limit and can't fight for the win tomorrow. Guardini and Vingerling will be missed tomorrow by their teams respectively.
