So who will be able to bring Arroyo and his ONCE-team into serious trouble today? Will Majola play their cards well? Or will Quintero repeat his outstanding performance he showed in Cartago - Izaru?
Let's see...
8 riders went clear from the pack early into the stage, establishing a comfortable quickly. The break of the day:
Sammy Sánchez, Othman, Hasnaoui, Manfredi, Earle, Gaspar, Rivera and Chavanel
106km remaining and we see one of Nutresa's climbers to attack quite early here: Beltran soloes away from the bunch, trying to bridge the 4'30"-gap to the breakaway quickly!
He would bridge this gap about 30km later - with the gap on the peloton still at 4'40" and the teams starting to chase.
We reached the final 35km and the penultimate climb is yet to be climbed: Orozco is the next one to launch his move! The most serious attempt by now, definitely.
The escaping group's advantage is down to 2'20" in the meantime..
Orozco would have no problems to bridge this gap and dropping the breakaway! He enters the descend solo, with the peloton just a minute in arrears though!
No chance to hold the bunch off: Orozco is reeled in 16km before finish. The peloton already went into pieces and there's a short gap between a 21-men-group (led by ONCE) and another 37-men-group (including Feillu, Raisin, Alizadeh or Zurita)..
A few moments later, we see the next serious attempts out of the leading group:
Rodrigues goes with 13.5km remaining, followed by Txurrutka, Rodas and Moreno!
..also Iglinski, Quintero and again Orozco would jump behind a few seconds later, putting some serious pressure on ONCE in particular!
This 7-men-group managed to establish a minutes-gap, but on a short final descend, it appears, that they won't work very well together. The gap goes down quickly and the peloton (47 riders, the earlier dropped group caught up again) is soon to close the gap..
So good news for Arroyo, as his team is now in the position to set the agenda late in the race: 5km to go, we enter the steepest slopes now.
Kulhavy sets the pace, with most of the biggest names trying to fight for the best positions at the front of this big group..
4km to go and Kulhavy keeps relaying at the front of the bunch, causing a notable gap now! 12 riders remain in the leading group, which is quite stretched at this point!
Remaining in this group are (in order of their current positions):
Already 1'09" behind is the bigger group with 42 riders, including:
Schwab Diniz Feillu Raisin Alizadeh Zurita Di Gregorio
So especially Schwab doesn't seem to be in best shape and is likely to miss a notable result today!
3km to go and the leading group is down to 8 riders, now led by Iglinski, who may try to break ONCE's dominance yet.
Losing contact are Rodas and three ONCE-domestiques (Rojas, Castano and Esquivel).. when will we see a next attack?
The top-favorites Iglinski and Arroyo keep shadowing each other, it seems. Now just 1.7km remaining and Kulhavy is back at the front setting the pace.
Arroyo right behind now, as Iglinski couldn't shake off his components when he took the lead..
700metres... Still no attack, but Kulhavy is the first to kick off the sprint! Arroyo not exactly at his wheel though...
..and his teammate still has a few bike lengths advantage with the line approaching! Still no sign of anyone being able to counter Kulhavy's acceleration..
And so he takes it: Kulhavy secures his team the expected win, easily holding off the small group of favorites. He looked extraordinary strong on this short finishing climb and still had the power to bring it home!
10" later, Arroyo makes it a 1-2 for ONCE. He didn't really look willed to "steal" this win from his mate, who did most of the work here on the final kms..
Iglinski completes the podium: he clearly missed a chance here today, when he was part of a small attacking group, that didn't find a way to work together though.
Orozco and Moreno round up the Top-5, ahead of Quintero, Rodrigues and Txurruka. It seems that those, who launched this earlier attack(s), didn't have the legs to put some pressure on ONCE later on.
58" behind Kulhavy, Rodas sprints for a 9th place ahead of an ONCE-trio with Villegas/Esquivel/Castano... Alizadeh has to settle for 13th, Raisin 15th and Schwab finishes this race as an disappointing 21st. He clearly hadn't his best day.
