Only a short stage today but still one of the hardest. Completely flat until the final climb before it`s going uphill towards the finish. And this climb really has it. A real killer mountain.
While yesterdays finish wasn`t the hardest and already hurt some riders, this mountain is completely different. 16km of very hard climbing. Here you might lose a lot of ground for sure.
One of the hardest climbs the whole season! Is there any easier part? Well maybe the first 2km an a few 100 metres in the 2nd half. but other than that it`s always ~10% with lots of 15-20% slopes. In especially the final can make much damage as the riders will most likely be very exhausted already when facing the highest slopes.
7 riders in todays breakaway. A bit surprising also KoM leader John Devine. I think there are more suitable stages actually as today the only KoM points rewarded are in the finish. Silvestre Devine Zaini Khripta Kung Mihaylov Dieteren
Best placed in the GC is Khripta as 15th but with +7'55 he is not the biggest danger.
The sprint more or less starts the climb. Silvestre ahead of Zaini and Devine.
Zaini btw. is one of Meiji`s stage winner here and wants to do it another time even though todyays climb it not his best terrain.
Almost 5min later Repsol leads the 136 rider peloton through the small village.
17km for the peloton, 15km for the breakaway.
And the first rider attacks: Anthony. He sits in 33rd in the GC and so hopes for a small chance to create a gap.
Also Lewis is a good climber, who already is 18'55 behind as 39th. And with his team leader Peraud doing quite well, the Aussie is allowed to go.
But as more climbers attack like Krasnoperov, Gadret or even Anton the pace obviously is very high now.
10km in the peloton and the gap is down to 2'30 already as the riders ahead really struggle now. Krasnoperov is the only rider, who still has a small gap to the peloton and is catchin Mihaylov now.
A bit ahead also Silvestre wasn`t able to follow the breakaway.
Khripta isn`t the best placed for no reason. With 9km he gaps the rest of the break and goes solo.
Ardila is not suffering after his crash yesterday luckily.
So he is the next to attack while Krasnoperov is joining the rest of the breakaway behind Khripta. The gap reduced pretty quickly on the first ~15% slopes at halftime. Only 50s left for Khripta now.
Huge split in the peloton behind this attack and some well placed riders behind!!
Biggest name surely Vrecer, who leads the 2nd group now. So far he showed some great and surprisingly good racing. It had to happen one day I guess.
Also in this 2nd group are Marentes, Jiriakov, Sousa, Hudecek.
More riders are dropping as the remaining favourite group really goes fast now. As expected this mountain is really a killer and we see some surprises here, who are quite a surprise. For those it`s about limiting the loss. Dyachenko Pellizotti Nicacio Peraud Lowe Agudelo
So who is left in the first group? Quite a few surprises actually. And remember that Khripta and Krasnoperov are still a bit ahead. Anton Kashechkin Stetina Ardila Cabreira Devine Kiserlovski Ochoa Quintero Kung Ratiy Gadret Txurruka
Zaini
Next split and the 5 riders ahead are Anton Kashechkin Stetina Ardila Cabreira
Stetina even attacks now. Where is he taking the energy from? He was already in the attack on the last 2 stages. Also impressive how Cabreira holds on to them today.
And Kiserlovski showing weakness today?
Best race performance by Krasnoperov for sure. He goes into the lead now but you can already see the Kashechkin group behind. Not much left of the gap but still 4,5km to go. Long 4,5km when seeing those gaps already and the hardest part is yet to come.
Kiserlovski found his rythm again and is up to the Ardila, Cabreira, Anton group. Also Ratiy is solo behind those four gapping the others.
But this is not enough for Kiserlovski as Kashechkin and Stetina are still ahead.
Krasnoperov in the lead while Khripta is caught by the duo behind.
Then arleady Kiserlovski who also gaps the others now. Everyone has to go on his own today as there aren`t many groups or even helpers left for those.
Kashechkin goes past Krasnoperov and accelerates again seeign that Kiserlovski is closing the gap.
Also time for Stetina to ride his own pace instead of following the Kazakh any longer. Still an impressive performance by him. Back in the fight for the top10 it seems.
Same for Krasnoperov and Ratiy, who look much improved even though Ratiy might still have more to show I guess.
No one is able to follow him an he actually widens the gap. behind a trio of Krasnoperov, Stetina and Kiserlovski.
Huge win for Kashechkin. As he is also a better time trialist than Kiserlovski, this could already be a first decision. The next mountain stages or eventually the hilly stages in between must be used by the others to close the gap.
Krasnoperov with a huge performance today being stronger in the sprint and takes the 2nd ahead of Kiserlovski, who at least came back after the split, where he most likely just was surprised a bit. Both lose 57s on Kashechkin which is quite a lot to be honest.
Another 11s behind Stetina with the next huge performance in the mountains.
Ardila as next defends his 3rd position today and even has a small gap to the next, which is important as he isn`t a very strong time trialist. Then again he is already a few minutes down to the top2 which means, that it`s just a fight for the last podium spot at the moment.
Next are Khripta, who rewards himself a bit with his 6th together with Anton and a very strong Cabreira.
Ratiy comes in next together with Txurruka, Gadret and Ochoa Quintero. For Ratiy the fight for the top5 isn`t even impossible now. But he needs good performances in the upcoming hilly stages then.
Also impressive how WWE always has a new rider being strong in the fight for the team ranking.
Nicacio next together with Lowe and Peraud. On one hand you might think they are the losers of the day. Then again most of the climbers ahead are indeed stronger.
Actually those riders here can be named as the weaker performances today.
Agudelo and Pellizotti are 4'41 down today with Vrecer and Dyachenko being another 13s behind.
GC wise Pellizotti drops to 6th, Vrecer to 8th. In especially last one though has chances for the top5 due to the time trials.
Also one single abandon. And it`s ariBaltic`s top sprinter Matt Rowe, who really had problems with the climb today. And due to the short stage 30min was already too much to continue the race.
