Yet another mountain stage with the finish on the Pleateau de Beille. Lots of climbing today and surely one of the hardest stages this Tour.
It`s Pluchkin first day in the leader jersey this Tour and gaps are smaller now to the next riders. Spilak and Phinney
are within 1min to him, while the next are having at least 2min. It will also be interesting to follow Phinney. So far he was very strong in the mountains, but how strong can he be without the leader motivation?
7 riders form todays morning break including some KoM interested riders:
Levarlet
-
Medvedev
32pts
Navarro
-
Rolland
24pts
Hivert
28pts
Vanendert
49pts
Camier
-
GC wise they are no danger at all.
Wikipedia was always strong in supporting Phinney. Can B&O do the same for Pluchkin?
Surely Keinath is a rider you want to have as luxury domestique in this case. A pretty decent GC rider himself, he should be strong enough to close most gaps. With Hacecky and Grivko they have two more riders for the mountain support.
Cat.3
Rolland
6
Levarlet
4
Camier
2
The first KoM was not really challenged surprisingly. In especially Vanendert was not able or interested to take the points.
He though became more interested at the next and actually only Hivert and Medvedev really challenged him the most.
Cat.3
Vanendert
6
Hivert
4
Medvedev
2
Cat.2
Vanendert
10
Rolland
8
Levarlet
6
Hivert
4
Medvedev
2
Cat.1
Vanendert
16
Medvedev
12
Navarro
10
Hivert
8
Camier
6
Levarlet
4
Rolland
2
They have created a gap of more than 8min at this point with ~100km still to come and those are the hardest obviously.
The peloton still has 120 riders, which means, that some riders really have to fight in the later groups.
Bad luck for Festina as their breakaway rider Rolland just crashed. But he is on his bike again trying to join the group again.
Other recent crashes by Sinkeldam and Bodnar.
With 65km to go B&O is accelerating. While the weaker climbers have done all the work so far, it`s Grivko taking over now with Hacecky and Keinath still behind him for the later climbing. The ap is down to 6min with only 89 riders left in this group but many more struggle at the end of the peloton.
Medvedev really showing he is the strongest climber as he attacks the group for all 3 KoM points taking a lot of points now as well.
So he is having 80 points in total now, which means 2nd in the ranking as Vanendert has a few more with 87. Both though pass Lopez Garcia while Hivert also moves up a lot to 4th ahead of Boom. Still a close fight there.
With a gap of ~3min with the descent and the final climb still ahead it`s questionable if they can take any more points today.
Cat.2
Medvedev
10
Camier
8
Hivert
6
Vanendert
4
Levarlet
2
Cat.1
Medvedev
16
Camier
12
Hivert
10
Navarro
8
Levarlet
6
Rolland
4
Vanendert
2
Cat.3
Medvedev
6
Navarro
4
Levarlet
2
With 45km to go 3 riders attack out of the peloton. Those are Siutsou König Anacona
In especially first two are potential top20 riders here and not too far behind some other GC riders.
Actually another rider had attacked a bit earlier with Kolesnikov. The Russian sits in 19th in the GC and has joined Rolland and Vanendert, who were dropped by the breakaway.
Navarro has saved his energy by not going for the KoM points. This might work for him as he seems to be the strongest in the end having a gap to the remaining breakaway riders.
All recent attackers as also Rolland and Vanendert are caught by the peloton making it 62 riders in total 1'45 behind the four riders behind. Another 42s to Navarro.
Sprint
Navarro
6
Medvedev
4
Camier
2
With Keinath and Hacecky taking over now from Grivko the pace gets another level. Not much left for the breakaway and still 15km left and all uphill with slopes around 10%.
As many riders need to gain a lot of time, the attacking has started early though. Kritskiy goes first immediately followed by race leader Pluchkin. Many more follow: Amador Phinney Schleck Madrazo Monsalve
A few more have waited a few seconds longer but also decide to follow: Taaramäe Spilak Dekker Intxausti Sicard Fothen Siutsou Kolesnikov Kohl
And yet another bit later also: Keizer Marquez Úran
while Siutsou and Kolesnikov were not able to make it and fall back into the peloton.
This means we have almost all top20 riders but Tenorio!, König and Kolesnikov and also Henao Montoya still seems to be in pain.
Navarro still leading while the first GC riders are just 32s behind him. Another 18s the next row of GC riders and the former breakaway while the Uran/Keizer/Marquez group is still behind.
They are joined by Tenorio, who was pulled forward by his teammate Valls.
The Vueling rider is the dropping Hivert as Schleck is with the others in front.
Kritskiy looking really strong today. As first attacker he also is the first to attack another time and only Madrazo follows. This is a new picture this Tour de France as so far other climbers like Schleck, Spilak, Pluchkin, Phinney or Amador were the riders creating gaps.
The duo is almost joining Navarro in front, who won`t win the stage then neither.
Behind them a group of 13 including all other GC riders but the Tenorio group.
Led by Pluchkin though the trio in front is caught again with 8km to go making it 15 riders. Possible top14 in this Tour de France as Navaroo is one of them? I guess the group behind with Tenorio has something against it and is still trying to reduce their gap.
This is more like the picture we saw on the first mountain stages. Schleck attacks with a powerful acceleration and Pluchkin and Phinney are following. Which riders are going next?
But first have a look behind. Marquez, Uran and Tenorio are the strongest and they dropped Keizer, who obviously gets no support by Valls.
The "peloton" around König, Kolesnikov, Henao Montoya or Siutsou is 1'40 behind Keizer.
Spilak is the next as he jumps to the top trio. A bit behind him also Amador has attacked and is solo trying to join them.
So once again those 5 look the strongest and surprisingly the Santander duo isn`t.
The Festina rider though is not happy with the 3rd and attacks the group immediately. Only Schleck and Pluchkin are able to follow while Phinney/Amador are a bit behind still ahead of the rest though. 3,6km to go.
1,5km and Spilak still having a nice gap. Pluchkin/Schleck a bit behind having a similar gap to Phinney/Amador and twice the gap to the next riders being led by Taaramae and Madrazo mainly.
Behind them Uran is solo after he got some nice support by Navarro, that helped him to attack Tenorio and Marquez.
But the big winner is Spilak. Not a lot has changed since the last situation and so he comes in solo. But is it enough to also take the GC lead? 54s were between him and Pluchkin.
Pluchkin comes in 2nd getting a few bonus seconds as well with Schleck in 3rd. But what about the time gap? It`s 34s, which means that he will keep the GC lead. 12s only to Spilak though making it a thrilling fight in the next stages.
Phinney and Amador come in next being only 19s behind them. This means Phinney is still having a great race here keeping the podium 40s behind Pluchkin only with Amador on the 4th with 2'11 and Schleck as 5th with 2'24 having the most to gain.
All 5 are looking good for a top5 in the end though as the next riders are having at least 5min to Pluchkin already, which means more than 3min to Schleck!
Madrazo, Kritskiy, Taaramae, Intxausti, Kohl, Dekker, Sicard and Fothen all within the same time 1'36 behind. Some were lucky though to not get any gap here, but they came in closely one after the other.
Monsalve 2'26, Uran 2'33 and Tenorio 2'46 are coming next with some gaps though.
Also then Navarro 3'25, Keizer 4'15 are having gaps with Henao Monoya finishing the stage togther with other ~20th riders like Kolesnikov, Keinath, Siutsou, Ratiy and Suaza 6'10 down.
König with +7'56 with the weakest stage so far. Is his low regeneration becoming crucial for him in the final week?
And on a stage like this it`s not surprising to have some more riders over the time limit. 7 in total with stage winner Vantomme being the biggest name.
