2nd mountain stage in a row. And the big question today is: Can Vogt again overperform and hang on to stay in the lead?
Or will the stronger climbers finally drop him?
Also it`s a stage with some questions. Will there be a small group of just the top favourites or a bigger climber`s peloton due to the long descent?
Or can dropped riders come back on that descent?
And what about Cattaneo? Will the Italian finally show his climbing skills to reduce the gap to the better placed riders?
And of course the biggest question: Who will win todays stage?
A group of 6 riders surely hope for a breakaway win here after yesterdays tough stage. Amanuel Villella Tanovitchii Waeytens Lane De Bie
Interesting group as Amanuel and Waeytens are top40 riders with only a bit under 7min down in the GC. Also no one has any KoM points, so in that ranking they are not a big danger for Antunes.
Puma has such a great race so far. At least their puncheurs Vogt and Kelderman have. So after yesterdays strong effort they surely hope for another good day and organize the pace.
First sprint and unchallenged De Bie takes it over Lane and Tanovitchii.
Looking at what is ahead. The hardest part is the first half of the Cat.1 probably with high slopes. Then some lower slopes before it becomes harder again towards the top.
The HC climb has constantly quite high slopes even though not as high as the first mountain. Then again it`s a very long climb and this will be the biggest difficulty here for all those puncheurs.
70km and just ahead of the first climb when Volkswagen higheres the pace as the gap is up to 5min.
We haven`t even reached the highest slopes yet but already 126 riders are dropped! And some GC riders definitely were bad placed and are behind:
Mat Senan
Cattaneo
Dombrowski
Bennett
Barguil
Campero
Lecuisinier
So not the smallest names.
But no reason to get afraid too much. Everything is back together and next time those riders should be more careful.
Vesuvio on the other hand probably has realized the weakness of the other riders eventually and so they took over to do the pace now for Kirsch.
And as we were in the highest slopes we see more selections. This time the names behind are not that popular. Best placed are Vakoc (37.) or Craddock (53.).
On top only Tanovitchii showed interest to get the maximum points. So he attacked and rides over the line ahead of Waeytens and Villella.
But probably more interesting the fight for the last points.
Kinoshita with a powerful attack takes them ahead of Antunes, Hadi and Chevrier, who won`t get points.
More selection as the peloton is down to 75 riders no and again no big climber was caught.
Myagmarsuren (45.) was the only top50 rider being dropped.
Antunes for a 2nd time?
At least he kept attacking after the top and has a 40s lead over the peloton but still 4'40 behind the breakaway, who more or less kept the gap at ~5min over the climb.
45km left and the peloton soon reaches the next climb. Volkswafen and Puma are back in the chasing. Antunes already has a 1'22 gap with the breakaway being another 4min ahead.
Vogt still in the first positions which means, that the pace surely isn`t very high as Vasyliv is doing the pace. Riders from behind are closely to come back. So when does the attacks start?
Well. Now! Kirsch opens the attacks.
And Morton, McCarthy and Pranata follow. Quite a funny group as last two are some of the best puncheurs while first two are expected top10 candidates climbing wise.
Kennaugh, Bennett and Barguil realize the danger and also attack now.
But right now Kirsch and Morton have created a small gap, while the puncheurs are caught again.
Meanwhile the breakaway probably is happy to reach the top before Antunes was able to join, which gives them a fair chance to take todays stage.
Again Tanovitchii as only one interested as first ahead of Amanuel, De Bie, Waeytens, Villella and Lane.
Antunes came over the top 2min later. But more intesting Kirsch having gapped Morton now who is joined by Bennett.
Only 35s behind Antunes they come over the top.
Big news now as the leader jersey can`t follow.
Vogt almost made it over the top but now lost contact as he was already at the end of the peloton for the last 2-3km.
Also just ahead of him:
Houle
Pranata
So 3 puncheurs having lost contact and will have to fight to come back.
Elissonde wants to join the Kirsch/Morton/Bennett group and attacks. But it`s just not powerful enough, so he is back in the group soon.
13,5km left and just 1min left for the breakaway. Then Antunes and another 16s later the Kirsch group being 34s ahead of the 29 rider GC group.
Vogt is already 1'50 down on that group, so he will most likely lose his jersey today.
The trio has reached Antunes but the group behind is really pushing hard to bring them back. This is bad for the breakaway, bad for those 4 and also bad for Vogt, who is being gapped more and more.
What a bad luck. Bongiorno did not have to wait for Vogt. But then he crashes while being in the GC group and will lose time now.
Good for Puma that there is still Kelderman in the front group!! A few puncheurs indeed made it into this group as him or Skujins, McCarthy or Ziesler.
Grmay did a lot of the pace downhill and so the Kirsch group is caught and also the breakaway is just 25s ahead. Very unlucky as those attacks did higher the pace a lot.
But look at this. The group is really fighting and all 6 of them are working together very well. So the gap became a bit bigger again and is at 37s now with 3,4km to go.
Catching the GC riders obviously slowed down the peloton a bit again.
1,5km to go and the breakaway starts the sprint.
Tanovitchii in the lead ahead of Waeytens, De Bie, Villella, Lane and Amanuel.
Also the GC group starts the sprint with Bennett being in the pole position ahead of Arndt, who surely is the strongest sprinter left. Also Kennaugh, Kirsch, Lecuisinier or Skujins in the first rows. Vesuvio once again with a strong team performance as next to those two also Koep is still in the group. Something only Evian was able to reach with McCarthy, Bardet and Elissonde.
Looking good for the breakaway where De Bie takes the lead now with Tanovitchii and Villella looking the weakest in that sprint.
3 riders in the fight for the win. And in a very close sprint it`s Waeytens taking it over Lane and De Bie. What a thrilling finish here.
Amanuel as 4th ahead of Villella and Tanovitchii.
But all 6 did a great work today and can be happy.
As expected Arndt brings in the peloton ahead of Kinoshita, Olivier and Wellens. So no GC rider did gain time today but on the other hand all of them were in that group and they distanced some puncheurs, most notable the yellow jersey, which goes to Oz`s Bennett now.
Well that said, Bongiorno lost time obviously. Unlucky him. The crash might cost him the top20 as he is losing more than 2min in the end.
Group Vogt almost caught him in the end as they finish 40s behind and ~3min behind the GC group. So Vogt drops to 11th GC wise now and except for some exceptions the climbers take the first positions now and we still have a hard mountain stage to come.
Tanovitchii
