A huge day of climbing lies ahead, with the race finely poised. Of the 4 riders who gained time yesterday, race leader Salerno is the weakest with 68 MO. But Bosisio and Soler have 76, and Gil 74. It will need to be an attritional day for the team leaders of this race to close them down. Thomas Dekker is the favourite for the stage, but can he do enough to win GC? The likes of Gomez Marchante, Marquez, Ratiy, Marzano and Anton will all fancy their chances too. But will Anton work for Gil, likewise Cataldo for Bosisio?
11 men in the breakaway. Seledkov Briceno Giaux Bablidze Busche Delgado Sulimov Sys Potocki Calzati Grygorenko
Calzati made the most of the early sprints:
1
2
3
4
5
Sprint 1
Calzati
Sys
Potocki
KoM 1
Calzati
Seledkov
Busche
Grygorenko
Delgado
But it is trouble for one of the team leaders in the peloton - Ratiy crashes, along with Kolobnev of Tinkoff. His team are there to guide him back.
Improved fortunes up front, as teammate Delgado won the 2nd KoM. The Venezuelan looks to be the strongest climber in the breakaway group.
1
2
3
Sprint 2
Calzati
Giaux
Potocki
KoM 2
Delgado
Calzati
Busche
Vadim Ratiy's day does not improve after his earlier crash. Next up for him is a puncture! It is no trouble to return to the Cisco-led peloton, but not an ideal build up to the remainder of the stage.
More sprints up front:
1
2
3
4
5
KoM 3
Grygorenko
Delgado
Busche
Seledkov
Potocki
Sprint 3
Delgado
Potocki
Grygorenko
With the breakaway starting to split up too - but more interesting is behind them in the peloton. Igor Anton and Dario Cataldo are relaying! Throwing their eggs into the Gil/Bosisio basket then - hopefully not in turn damaging their chances by setting a high pace!
And the break really has split up by climb #4, Delgado now solo!
1
2
3
4
5
KoM 4
Delgado
Grygorenko
Seledkov
Potocki
Busche
He now has 26 points in the competition, compared to 22 for Grygorenko.
Next up is the Cat 1 climb - 2nd hardest of the day, 3rd from last from the finish. And there are attacks from the peloton!
The likes of Vitor Rodrigues, Thomas Lebas, Theo Eltink, Carlos Castano, Jonas Bjelkmark, Joaquim Rodriguez, Aleksej Kunshin, Marco Marzano and Mikel Nieve amongst them.
Delgado still leads over the top for 16 points, while Grygorenko was just caught by a group of 4, and only gets 8 points for 4th - looking good for the KoM jersey to Delgado then. Meanwhile, Salerno is still riding strong towards the front of the peloton!
1
2
3
4
5
6
KoM 5
Delgado
Berard
Rodrigues
Grygorenko
Bjelkmark
Marzano
The race settles down a bit in the descent and of the chasing group of attackers, only Berard remains clear. He links up with Delgado and they build up a lead of 1'30 over the pack.
There is now a 2nd category climb, before the final rise to the finish, and Berard is too strong for Delgado at the top of this one. But who is that in the distance? It's Thomas Dekker!
Dekker knows he has time to gain, and has gone early. Marzano tried to follow but could not.
And so with 7km to go, at the foot of the final climb, Dekker links up with Delgado and Berard at the front of the race. A peloton of 42 trails by 46 seconds.
Dekker presses on alone - he needs to distance Soler, Bosisio, Gil and Salerno as much as possible, and this is the best way to do so.
The peloton is splitting! Gil and Bosisio have been dropped - as has Salerno, even further back now already.
Crucially, we now see Anton and Cataldo drop back from their group to support their teammates. This could either payoff or go horribly wrong. Cisco too have sent Dyachenko back for Salerno - even more of a lost cause you fear.
At 4km to go, there is now just 13 riders in the chasing group behind Dekker - 1 minute behind. The 13th man in there is Soler! He has a 1'50 advantage over Dekker at the start of the day so is the virtual race leader as it stands.
The full 13 are: Gomez Marchante, Castano Ratiy Moreno Marzano Vasquez, Soler Marquez, Berard Kolesnikov, Kunshin Rodrigues Eltink
Anton and Cataldo lead their teammates Gil and Bosisio in a group - also featuring Rodriguez, Scarponi, Nieve and Marentes. They are 1'20 behind the chasing group, therefore 2'20 behind Dekker. To hold on to a Top 4 spot, they must avoid losing 3 minutes to that chasing group.
Gomez Marchante and Ratiy lead that chasing group. They are holding that Dekker gap at 1 minute, but really need to ditch Soler and gain on those behind - which they do seem to be doing, as Soler is now gapped!
Rodrigues, Berard and Eltink also drop from the chasers - while Ratiy and Gomez Marchante forge away.
Final kilometre for Dekker - Soler is increasing losing ground, and the GC victory looks to be on now for the Dutchman.
All sorts of struggles further down, with Gil and Bosisio now at least 2 minutes behind Ratiy and Gomez Marchante - plus struggling to keep up with their helping team leaders.
Thomas Dekker wins his 3rd stage of the race! Points jersey is of course sewn up, while he must settle for 2nd in the King of the Mountains behind Delgado. And what of GC? The clock is now ticking.
Gomez Marchante finishes alone in 2nd, 1'14 down. 9 seconds later Ratiy takes 3rd after an eventful day, joined late on by Marquez.
Marzano, Moreno, Castano, Kolesnikov, Vasquez and Kunshin finish at 1'42. Top 10 on the stage, but not all will make Top 10 on GC.
The clock clicks past 2 minutes, so Thomas Dekker's overall victory is confirmed!
Maurico Soler has put in a great ride to finish with Eltink and Rodrigues, limiting his losses to 2'38. Securing an unexpected 2nd overall for his struggling Repsol team.
Now what about Gil and Bosisio? With time bonuses taken into account, they need to be no less than 4 minutes down on Dekker to ensure they keep in the Top 4 of GC.
Anton and Cataldo sacrificed their hopes for them, and they finish at .... 3'53!
So it is 3rd overall for Bosisio and 4th overall for Gil! The pair clung on to both finish less than 15 seconds ahead of Gomez Marchante in GC.
Meanwhile, race leader Salerno lost a much larger 6'47. He slips to 23rd in the standings, but the stage win was a big bonus for Cisco.
Vadim Ratiy was comfortably the best U25 rider to make it 2 jersey wins for VolksWagen, while ING won the teams classification thanks to the combination of Gomez Marchante and Castano performing strongly.
And remarkably, Theo Bos both finishes this massive mountain stage - and avoided coming last in doing so! He is, however, still the Lanterne Rouge of the race.
