Stage Favourites:

Mendes	Kolobnev	Marentes
Iglinski		Fernandez

Surely the most decisive day for the GC. In the latter half of the race the, will-breaking, Hogter Pass ( 5 KM @ 7%) has to be dealt with a whopping 7 times. The GC may be decided today.


Super Seibab!

After doing plenty on the front of the peloton for Rangel, we see the Namibian make the 3 man break of the day, the break:

With 94 KM to go the break had 5'20, their max.

With 80 KM to go we are about to ascend, for the first time, Hogter pass when Rangel punctures. It was bad timing for the green jersey as the race is now on, he would struggle from here on in and would not feature again today.



A variety of teams were interested in bringing back the break.


Sayar: The filing in a Tom-Tom sandwich!

With 59 KM to go and the break @ 2'21 we see three riders attack out of the peloton, all were at 1'32 in GC. They were:

Ndayisenga struggling at the back of the 95 man peloton as, up ahead, Colorado pushes on the pace.



Team TomTom may have had the numbers against Sayar but they didn't have the strength to bridge across to the original break.

With 38 KM to go only Sayar, Seibab and Tartarinov are 1'09 ahead of the 54 man yellow jersey/ favourites group as the fifth ascent of the Hogter Pass beckons.



The break are caught with around 35 KM to go. The pace slackens and the peloton even swells in numbers.



Dell - 361° Racing set pace on the front of the favourites group, do they have stage ambitions today?



Chris Anker Sørensen is having a lively tour here. He attacks with 23 KM to go on the penultimate ascent of the day. A good move. Schachmann tries to go with the Dane.



But Schachmann can't follow. Rosskopf is the next to make an attack and he is followed by the overwhelming favourite Mendes.


13 KM to go:

We are now on the final ascent of Hogter pass. The 51 man favourites group look to be fighting for the minor positions from here as the gap to the quality riders ahead is substantial.



Mendes bridges across to the Dane, Rosskopf can't follow.



Behind the minor positions are being fought over. The likes of Marentes, Moinard and Iglinskiy are the next to attack.



Mendes gives it everything as he distances Sørensen towards the top of the climb.



Mendes summits the final climb and he puts in big time to those behind on the descent, another victory is coming up for the Bank of Mendes.



Rosskopf catches, poor descender, Sørensen on the decent and they play cat and mouse before the American creates a gap back to the Dane.



Stage win Mendes! Another formidable ride by the overwhelming favourite sees him take the stage and the GC lead.



Rosskopf would be the next home, but over 1'00 down. Another GC looks nailed to Bank of Ireland – Irish Cycling thanks to their star rider.



Iglinskiy puts in a fantastic descent to catch the Dane and finish 4th. Schurter, Marentes and Moinard are fortunate to be given the same gap.

Kolobnev leads home the rest of the favourites at over 2'30 down on the stage winner.