Queen stage? Eventually. At least the amount of climbing is the most in this race with 3 very difficult climbs plus two more ranked climbs.
Then again we have a long descent and a bit of a flat before the finish, so some might expect more gaps on the 6th stage with a mountain top finish.
Nevertheless todays stage could be very important and some riders will surely try something.
Only 3 riders in the breakaway. Novikov (85./+11'41) Gerrans (48./+6'06) Kunitski (71./+11'41)
So different to the first mountain stage we have no climbers in the group surprisingly. Instead they are more the puncher kind of riders. At least the last two. None of those teams have a high GC rider, so they probably hope for some success this way. That said, Tinkoff would have another option here with Kolesnikov. At least his manager hopes for a bigger group to finish together today where he should be one of the fastest then.
Dekker hasn`t shown any weakness so far. One reason is surely his team. They are all working together with one big goal: Winning the GC.
Same today as 6 teammates take control of the peloton.
Let`s have a closer look on the profile.
We soon enter the first climb but it might be one of the easier tasks. Not the highest slopes and early in the race probably not ridden very fast.
Then a very hard Cat.3. Not long but very difficult.
The Cat.2 shouldn`t be the biggest problem but right after the descent it`s going up the next Cat.1 with some difficult sections.
But the highlight waits until the end. A HC rated climb and that`s for a reason. It starts very tough, won`t become much easier and ends even tougher. The 2nd half is surely the best place to attack. Slopes up to 18% where a team can surely destroy the peloton completely.
Poor guy if you have a weaker moment then.
First KoM and Novikov takes it easily ahead of Kunitski and Gerrans.
Easily as he wasn`t challenged when riding in the first position. But with so many more points on the course today we at least hope for more action the next time as the KoM ranking can surely be won today.
Two riders attacked out of the peloton to take more points. It`s Vasquez and Rollin in this order over the line. Both already collected some points and also see a good chance to take the KoM.
Geniez and Fuglsang take the last points.
While Vasquez slowed down again to go back into the peloton, Rollin stays in the attack mode and tries to join the trio in front.
Not the easiest tast if you are almost 4min down and one of the weaker climbers in the field.
Indeed some more action on the tough Cat.3.
Gerrans showing why he is the best placed of them and takes the points just ahead of Kunitski, while Novikov really struggled this time.
On the easier Cat.2 it`s then Novikov again in a close fight.
Kunitski takes the 2nd here ahead of Gerrans.
So it`s still very close but the next two will be the important ones.
Rollin obviously takes 4 points as he is still in between the groups with Vasquez again jumping out of the peloton to take the last 2 points.
More teams join Vueling in the chasing. Zaini is working hard for his leader. Ji showed a solid form two days ago and looks confident for today.
Also Swedbank and Hollister have been seen.
It`s probably time to do something more as the trio already is 11'36 ahead with 94km to go.
Rollin is ~ half way and also Vasquez is still in between as he is not waiting for the peloton this time.
It didn`t took long until he joins Rollin. We are half way up the next climb and they are 4 min ahead of the peloton but still 6min behind the breakaway.
Novikov showing unknown qualities here and wins the next KoM ahead of Kunitski and Gerrans.
Rollin actually kept contact with Vasquez pretty long but shortly ahead of the top he is dropped.
So Vasquez for 4th and Rollin 5th here with two Vueling helpers again taking the last points.
Also the peloton sees many dropped riders now. And some are kind of surprising. Saldarriaga Delgado Solis Castano Ruijgh Cataldo Morabito Kunshin
This is pretty surprising as the peloton ahead still has 82 riders and probably lots of weaker climbers.
Also interesting that Taaramae and Pozzovivo both lost their best helper.
And tough moment for Alstom and Rothaus, who both lost their leader now.
Alstom actually lost all their riders in the later group while all other teams look to have at least one rider left in the peloton.
Just at the start of the HC climb, Vasquez joins the former breakaway. Probably those would have prefered to wait a bit longer as the pace surely will be highered by him now.
Rollin is already 5min behind with the peloton following another 4min.
Some dropped riders made it back into the favourite group.
So Cataldo and Castano as best placed found contact again with Kunshin being solo in between those two groups but slowly coming back.
So bad news for Solis, Ruijgh and Morabito who are still behind.
We hit the highest slopes and Vasquez obviously is the rider to follow here. None of the other riders is as good a climber as him and so it`s already very tough to follow at all.
And then he is gone. The high slopes really were in his favour and so he opened a gap leaving the trio behind. For those it`s just about taking as many KoM points as possible on the top and the 2nd place on this stage most likely.
Vasquez takes the full 20 points which moves him in a high KoM position but will it be enough?
Kunitski being actually the weakest climber seems to have a great day and takes the 2nd on top ahead of Gerrans and Novikov.
This moves Novikov into the KoM lead with 54 points. Kunitski follows with 50 points ahead of Vasquez with 46 and Gerrans with 44.
Rollin btw. was caught before the top and so a mix of Bintang, Bouygues and Vueling riders share the remaining points.
Time wise Vasquez did extend his lead and is now 10min ahead. And also the trio still has a 8min gap, so Gerrans is still in the virtual lead and only the downhill to come.
The riders reach the flat and Vasquez was really flying down the descent. He gained 3min on the trio, who looks really exhausted after all those climbs.
Vasquez goes solo under the Flamme Rouge and for quite some time now he can already enjoy his win.
What a come back. Crash two days again, yesterdays breakaway attempt without a happy end. And today what a ride by him.
So he fully deserves this win here. Great success also for his team, who are still in the relegation battle.
Gerrans to finish 2nd ahead of Novikov and Kunitski.
It was a good attempt by those but in the end it was one mountain too much plus a too strong Vasquez.
Well. Kolesnikov did just what his manager wanted. Unfortunately for him 4 riders finished already.
So he "just" wins the bunch sprint for the 5th. And they are 11'13 behind Vasquez.
Levarlet, Dekker, Hivert, Pozzovivo and Krizek finished in the rest of the top10 and more or less all favourites seem to be in there.
More or less? Yes.
A small gap again opened and again Ratiy is on hte wrong side with 2 teammates and Chaabane.
But as CSC`s Basso was also slowing down in the end they are once again very lucky as the officials again see no gap.
Losers of the day are surely the dropped riders on the second last mountain.
Morabito and Solis lost 7min while Ruijgh even loses 10min and all his top 30 chances.
Also a calm day for hte favourites. Just like yesterday no attacks. It seems as if they are waiting for the mountain top finish.
At least all riders made it into the finish today.
