Looks like a very exciting stage from the profile. This isn't the deciding stage however, there is another mountain stage next and also has a mountain-top finish.
Can Fothen keep his leader's jersey?
The bookies don't think so. He is only ranked a 1 star favourite. The favourites today are Rujano (Cycling24), A.Schleck (Domina), Menchov (C.A) and Evans (Saturn). There are lots of other great climbers who will be in the mix, but those are the favourites for the stage. A little suprise is that Andreas Klöden, riding in his home country, is only given a 1 star rating.
Onto the race in hand and it was a very hectic start. A group of 10 got away but with riders such as Kroon and Soler, the pack chased them down. After 45kms of racing, a group of 9 got away, and stayed away.
In this group we have the KOM jersey holder, Visconti (Carrefour), Frohlinger (Germany), Tiralongo (Telefonica), Tschopp (Cycling24), Claeys (Domina), Montoro (Control Team III, not me btw, i'm Trentin of Ceramica Flaminia), Meier (Ferarri), Cummings (Discovery) and Fofonov (C.A).
These guys didn't work together at all, they were always attacking each other and this led to Montoro getting dropped fairly early on.
Fofonov took the first sprint ahead of Claeys and Tschopp. Then all these attacking antics led to Cumming, Frohlinger and Tiralongo slipping off the pace and formed their own group behind the leaders.
Magenta then put some very hot pace on the front of the pack, so much so that the pack split, with all of Magenta's riders, even Fothen, in there own group. Carlserg didn't like it and clawed them back.
Still the front group were dis-organised and even though the group was now down to 5, Visconti kept attacking. Not even for KOM points as they were on the flat. When they did get to the first KOM point, Visconti did take all the points, ahead of Tschopp and Fofonov. Claeys was then dropped from the front group. There are allready 14 groups on the road.
14 groups wasn't quite enough for Stefano Garzelli (FloGas), and he attacked, still with 85kms to the finish. As this was happening, Visconti payed for his efforts and was dropped from the front group. Many attackers were trying to follow Garzelli, but none of them got near. Moncoutie and Sevilla were the biggest names.
So to sum up, the main groups we have are:
The lead group of Meier, Tschopp and Fofonov.
The 2nd group on the road which contains, Frohlinger, Claeys, Tiralongo and Visconti.
Then we have Garzelli soloing up towards the Visconti group and catching them quickly.
The next group on the road is only just ahead of the peleton but it contains, Moncoutie (France TV), Intxausti (Accumalux), Cummings and Sevilla (Telefonica). Then we have the peleton still containing all the favourites.
After about 10kms of chasing:
Garzelli bridges the gap and is now in the 2nd group on the road. There is still 52kms to go though. The 3rd KOM point is won by Fofonov ahead of Tschopp and Meier.
Further back though:
Moncoutie, Sevilla and Intxausti bridge up to the 2nd group having dropped Cummings. Again to the head of the race, Fofonov wins the last sprint ahead of Meier and Tschopp. With 35kms to go to gap from the peleton to the lead group is around 6 minutes. If the finish was flat they would make it, but the finish is far from flat.
Intxausti, Sevilla and Garzelli leave the rest of the group behind and chase after the front group. The pack is very close to them though and it doesn't look hopeful for them to go all the way.
With 29kms to go, Sevilla, Intxausti and Garzelli join up to the front group and are pulling very hard to try and stay away.
So hard that Sevilla and Garzelli pull away from the others. Garzelli is first over the KOM point ahead of Sevilla and Intxausti soloing behind them. A couple of kilometers back though:
The favourites start their attacks. Schleck, Menchov and Zubeldia set off with 23kms still to race, looks like they've gone too early. Indeed, they are caught again with 16kms to go.
With 12kms left to race the yellow jersey attacks! He is shadowed by Evans, Schleck, Klöden, Menchov, Sammy Sanchez, Mancebo, Abal, Devolder, Rujano and Perez Cuapio. Dekker and Leipheimer attack after a few seconds. Not all make it into the front favourite group, so who did make it?
Here is the lead group and Klöden, Mancebo, Rujano, Sevilla (Just been caught), Fothen!, Evans, Perez Cuapio, Dekker and Sammy Sanchez are the priviliged ones. The other favourites are all caught in E2. Until Abal gets dropped, then he drops back into E3 and relays with Garzelli. Sammy Sanchez finds the pace in E1 and E2 too difficult so he joins Abal and Garzelli.
With 2.4kms to the finish, disaster for a rider!
It's Dekker! He's being dropped! The pace was too hard for him and he has to drop back. He is still ahead of the favourite group #2 though.
Menchov is putting the pain on the favourite group #2 trying to break free and gain some seconds. There is still the chance they could bridge up to the front group, as with 2.3kms to go to gap is just 39". Then with 1.5kms to the finish, someone gets a gap to the rest of E1, who is it?
Klöden! Going into the short sprint he has an advantage. Evans is the best sprinter in the group behind and Klöden is only about 15" in front, but Klöden is only slightly worse than Evans in the sprint, so it's going to be close.
With 600m to go Evans is coming up on Klöden, can he get around the outside or will Klöden take the win in his home-country?!
It's Klöden! Terrific win and tactic to simply ride away close to the finish and hold on for the win. Unfortunatley Evans closed the gap and no time difference was recorded. So with that fact, Klöden, nor Evans gained enough in time bonus' to take the lead, so Fothen has another day in yellow, it really was a great ride from Fothen. Dekker, Schleck and Menchov had bad days today and will hope they can fair better in tomorrow's mountain stage. Visconti held onto his KOM jersey and Ciolek still holds the points.
