Today is the GC deciding stage. A very tough climb on Coronet Peak will give the climbers a great chance to create gaps.
It`s not unlikely that todays winner will also take over the GC lead as gaps are small so far.
Some riders have created a gap to the peloton and now fight for the mountain points. Within them the KoM leader Boonratanathanakorn, who comes over the line as 2nd.
Cat.4
Torres
5
Boonratanathanakorn
3
Wurf
1
The full list of names in that group is: Ngock Ngue Choi Kudus Torres Boonratanathanakorn Wurf Redondo
So some pretty good climbers in there with GC gaps around 1min only. Dangerous situation for the favourites behind.
Sprint
Redondo
6
Ngock Ngue
4
Torres
2
Sprint
Boonratanathanakorn
6
Wurf
4
Kudus
2
Big jump to the later part of todays stage. 42km left and we see another attack by Lloyd.
The pace behind though is fast with Fletcher getting huge support by the CSC mountain train, that is expected to control the situation on the climb, so Lloyd was not able to create a gap and also the breakaway is just 50s ahead now.
But Lloyd is not giving up and attacks 5km later again with the breakaway just ahead.
This time he is followed by Popkov and Rodriguez Galindo.
But once more the peloton is too fast. Alongside CSC and Fletcher also Magna for Bluff Hill winner Simon is working. So the field is really long now with most GC riders in the first rows though. Being elsewhere could end awful now.
18km and more riders attack. First to go is Zoidl. Behind him Ghisalberti and Kononenko.
Also Marzano as possible top5 rider puts the pressure on the others by following and once more Lloyd tries to follow a bit later together with Jiao.
So far the combination of CSC and Fletcher was able to catch them immediately.
Now the attack is far more dangerous though as we see some of the best attacking and this also forces CSC to send theit leaders: Raisin Pedraza Kiserlovski Plaza Abal Lloyd Marzano Kononenko Zoidl Duenas Nevado Fraile
CSC obviously with the most jerseys in front as also Lloret and Livramento are just behind and also some more climbers of other teams.
A few riders though are not within the first 20 riders and need to fight their way back. Those are: Berhane Samwel Ji Bennett to name a few.
Pedraza going strong right now gapping Kiserlovski.
Already with a bigger gap a group of 15 including the CSC mountain train, Raisin, Marzano or Vasquez.
The group around Berhane, Duarte, Ji, Samwel, Nieve or Bennett with another gap.
Also within the 15 rider group are Bjelkmark Simon Popkov
In the later group we see some surprisingly dropped riders on their way back to the front. Those are Bennett Berhane Duarte
Bad news for other teams as their riders are further back and not really going to try to come back: Ji Samwel Topchanyuk Nieve
All those riders are within the yellow jersey group of Cameron Meyer, who is everything but a good climber.
Back to the GC decision though. Abal is the best climber in this race but he first has to get back to Pedraza/Kiserlovski.
Good news for Bennett and Berhane. Both made it back into the first big group.
Just a tiny bit behind Duarte is leading the next group still fighting to come back.
Surprisingly the 4th rider at the moment is Matthew Lloyd, who really has a great day here. He though will be caught soon by this group as Raisin is setting a high pace and also Lloret, Plaza and Marzano are helping him a bit, which results in getting a small gap to the next solo rider Duenas Nevado, which makes him the 4th CSC rider within the top9 at the moment.
Then the next group of 9 where Berhane and Bennett are doing the pace now together with some support of Zoidl and Bjelkmark. Also Simon, Vasquez, Kononenko, Popkov and Livramento in there.
Duarte is solo in between those and the next big group as he did attack but is already 3min down on the race leader Pedraza and 45s to the Berhane group.
Ji, Samwel etc. are almost 5min down.
At the moment those two are the strongest and go almost the same pace up the mountain. Pedraza though has a 17s gap with 1,3km to go.
Abal is ~50s behind them and has eventually lost the race today.
Behind Abal we have a group of 5 now and CSC is working here despite Abal in front. Probably they want to get more riders in a good GC positions with Lloret and Plaza in here. Also Lloyd, Marzano and Raisin are part of this group.
And right behind them already Berhane and Bennett, who have worked very well together for most of the climb to pass a lot of riders and make it back into the top10 fight. In especially the performance of the Kiwi rider is impressive in his home race.
Duarte at least reached the next group around Vasquez, Zoidl, Bjelkmark, Simon etc.
This though is far too less for him and he should try to quickly pass them.
Last kilometer and Kiserlovski seems to come a bit closer and also Abal is not that far behind but probably only finish 3rd today.
Although Lloret was working alone in this group he now has opened a gap at the same time as Bennett/Berhane found contact.
This is the fight for 4th today and top5-10 in the GC. The podium seems to be decided of the three riders ahead.
Taking the stage and also the GC lead is Pedraza. What a brilliant win for him and a huge result for the struggling Mobil team. After a good 6th in the Tour de Andorra he shows rising form and eventually could help the team to avoid relegation this way.
As 2nd Kiserlovski comes in 16s later taking 2nd in the GC as well.
Abal surely had hoped for a bit better. +1'18 for him as 3rd is quite a lot in the end. With that team dominance they should have done a bit more. Then again his individual disappointment is probably feeling a bit better when seeing the strong team performance.
Lloret comes in 4th, which is also his new position in the GC just behind his team mate.
Berhane on a decent 5th after a great come back gives him the last top5 GC spot after this stage ahead of the 3rd CSC rider Plaza! So scoring wise CSC surely a winner here.
Within Plaza also Lloyd, Bennett and Marzano. First two are rather surprising to beat a lot of stronger riders. But it`s well deserved after their showing here.
As Raisin is just a bit later coming in as 10th today, this means GC wise that Bennett takes 7th ahead of Raisin, Marzano and Lloyd in this order to complete the top10.
So one rider must be hugely disappointed. Coming in as 11th today gives Duarte the same spot in the GC and far from his expectations.
Behind him Bjelkmark leads in the next group around Simon, Zoidl and a bit ahead of Kononenko, Vasquez.
Biggest disappointments are surely the early dropped Ji, Samwel, Nieve, who finish within the sprinter gruppetto more than 9min down. Only a few pan flat sprinters like Chicchi, Awang, Renshaw do finish in a later group.
Also mentionable that those 3 early KoM points by Boonratanathanakorn will see him keeping the KoM lead by 1 point ahead of Pedraza.
