Today is the last stage and the one everyone was waiting for. A hill top finish, not as hard as the longer mountains, but hard enough to bring a selection.
Race leader Wyss and runner up Machado have a small gap already but lots of other contenders are within reach. So today will decide.
Quite a few riders in todays group as 8 are allowed to go! Watson Manfred Salas Vosekalns Parra Bustamante Sutherland Smit Petrie-Armstrong
While most of them are almost 5min down in the GC, in especially Manfred is a dangerous rider sitting in 37th with only +20s.
Good move by the team with Lachlan Morton also having in a good position.
Also ONCE and Risa with a smart move sending a rider for their GC men to be some support later on eventually.
Obvious teams of the top favourites at the front. Repsol and Vontobel for the first two in the GC with FCB doing the pace for top puncheur Lejman and Nutresa for Kolobnev.
First sprint and one rider with a nice sprint here. It`s not Salas as best placed. Instead it`s Salas, the 2nd rider without a bigger gap. As 42nd he is 2'39 behind Wyss and now 6s less.
Sutherland and Manfred as next.
Going into the first long climb it`s mainly Nutresa and Repsol doing the work.
First team with their co-leader Golas, who sits comfortably in th at the moment. But working that early might see him dropping in the end.
All for Kolobnev it seems to deliver the GC win!
Salas also first at the KoM. Manfred and Watson follow behind him. That said still Kudus in the KoM lead from stage 1.
The gap is under 3min now with 64km to go.
First riders struggle and fall behind. Within those: Infantino Chaabane Parra Bustamante Landa Bissinger
Last sprint and the gap is down to 1'05.
Salas as expected also taking those seconds here ahead of Parra Bustamante and Watson.
Petrie-Armstrong does not give up and attacks. Quickly he opens a gap to the rest of his companions and seems to be the only rider, who eventually avoids a peloton win today.
7,1km and the climb will start any second now.
The former break but the Irish is caught. He still holds a 1'33 gap and even was able to extend it a bit.
2'12 now but the hard part has started and while he is an excellent rider for flat attacks, he is not the strongest climber, which is his problem right now as the peloton behind accelerates again.
Nutresa has a very strong team here and so it`s not even their leader Kolobnev to attack first. Instead they send Beltran, who is +20 and race leader Wyss has to follow. Great move by Nutresa.
From behind also the ONCE duo Kulhavy/ Jumabekov follow together with Bugge and Lejman. So quite a few of the top top favourites.
Fernandez, Machado, Kolobnev and Morton realize that this might be the deciding attack and also follow.
With ~5km to go and the gap extending more riders attack seeing their chances fly away otherwise. Firsanov starts with Chaabane and Ito following.
Tiernan-Locke as biggest name remaining probably at the front of the peloton riding his own fast pace.
Other riders missing so far are: Passalacqua Valencia Konte Masuda Kimeli Richardson Chamorro
Bugge and Wyss with a small gap ahead of Kolobnev and Kulhavy.
And also just 27s behind Petrie-Armstrong.
Then a trio of Jumabekov, Lejman and Morton another 31s later and Machado, Beltran, Fernandez a bit behind those.
The latest attackers are split a lot behind those.
While Petrie-Armstrong`s attempt is over with 3,2km to go the two duos have fusioned making it a group of 5.
1min already their gap to the Lejman group! It seems as if those will make the GC.
Kulhavy was already on the attack on day 1. And he tries again today. Can he distance the yellow jersey?
Tiernan-Locke still chasing behind not giving up yet even though he might have missed the right move.
In front of him still 6 different groups. So the very first might be gone.
3x4 riders as Petrie-Armstrong is dropped and Kulhavy caught again. Wyss, Kolobnev, Bugge, Kulhavy
+1'03 Jumabekov, Morton, Lejman, Petrie-Armstrong
+21 Firsanov, Beltran, Machado, Fernandez
+29 Chaabane, Ito
+12
Peloton
Flamme Rouge and Kolobnev takes the lead with Kulhavy being in last position.
Almost impossible for the later groups to make it back in time.
But it`s race leader Wyss flying up the last bit taking the lead.
None of the others is able to follow that acceleration!
Now it`s just about 2nd and the bonus seconds to secure the best GC position.
What a race for Wyss. What a season for him as well.
Not the most expected win today actually but that said, he always has that kick to win hard stages. This will obviously also mean the GC win for the Swiss. Congrats to him and his Vontobel squad.
Just as on day 1 it`s Kolobnev taking 2nd, which also gives him the 2nd in the GC failing their win goal by just a margin.
Kulhavy as 3rd today and Bugge as 4th. This will also be their new GC positions.
Great ride as well by young Aussie star Morton as 5th leading the next group including Firsanov, Fernandez and Jumabekov. +1'29 though but still a bit ahead of the next.
After Beltran in 9th, it`s Lejman leading the trio of Machado and Rodriguez Galindo. Probably some of todays loser dropping back a bit.
Tiernan-Locke as 14th on the day with a bad stage as well.
