It's already the third mountain stage in four days here: today's 150km road race from Matrei to St. Johann features the HC-climb "Großglockner" right in the middle of the stage. A tough climb, though it might be questioned, if the GC-favorites will go for some aggressive racing there. At least the finish does feature a short uphill-sector, which may become tricky.
Intxausti will have to avoid any serious trouble anyway, so it will be interesting to see, wether his team will allow a breakaway to stay clear or finding himself under pressure to defend his narrow lead. Bonus seconds can be crucial, of course!
The 5-men-group, that went clear right from the start, indeed may be one of those typical groups being allowed to go for the stage:
Pirazzi, Schrangl, Kimeli, Anthony and Khalmuratov!
Kimeli (+ 13.48) as best-placed in GC and Pirazzi (5pts) as the only one to have scored KoM-points so far.. local hero Schrangl as the most notable name though, as he already won a stage in this race last season!
As the group enters the long descend from Großglockner, it's just four of them remaining: Anthony, Pirazzi, Kimeli and Schrangl dropped their former breakaway companions and hold on to a 5-minutes-gap on the peloton with now just 58km to go.
While Anthony took out today's premium climb's mountain sprint, it's indeed Pirazzi taking over the KoM-lead from Intxausti:
KoM-competition Pirazzi 31 Kimeli 30 Intxausti 29
We take a first look at the situation back in the peloton, which is down to 53 riders with now 45km remaining! No serious GC-contenders got dropped though.
With still a 4-minutes-gap on the leading four, this may be a close decision today. Several teams are willed to work together on the chase!
About 20km to go and just when we thought, the favorites would take it easy today, we see the first serious attack:
Pedraza (6th in GC, + 0.25) tries to go clear, followed by Gilanipoor and Heider!
The early escapees hold on to a 2'15"-gap..
..and the action goes on, as also Torres (4th in GC, + 0.13) launches a move just a few moments later! Mobil really trying to put some pressure on Intxausti, who's now forced to jump behind Torres though!
Also Marquez, Abal, Nepomnyachsniy and Silva on the move now..
Intxausti did well to keep those two attacking groups together and 12km before finish, the race settled down for a few minutes with the bunch reeling those latest attackers in.. the 4-men-break leads by 1'10" at this point..
..but it wouldn't be the last attack, as we see Abal (2nd in GC, + 0.09) going for another one with less than 10km to go!
A group of 8 riders, including Intxausti, jumps behind quickly. This is some action-packed racing here on the rather flat final 20kms!
It's another empty-handed attempt, as group Intxausti would once again bridge across a small gap and then slow the pace down. Which is good news for the escaping group, that enters the final 5km with a minute ahead of the 56-men-peloton!
Where the action just won't stop: Abal and Ardila Cano go for another attack 3km before finish, just when the road goes slightly uphill! We again see a group of six riders led by Intxausti, Pedraza, Nepomnyachsniy and Marquez trying to follow!
Better luck this time for Abal?
..but first a look at the very front, where Anthony is the first to kick off the sprint.. their advantage goes down quickly, but this looks like the group fighting for line honours today..
..and now we take a look back: Ardila Cano dropped Abal to hold on to a 24"-gap on the bunch, where Intxausti really put up a huge fight today.. Cano (8th in GC, + 1.52) does aim for those minor, but maybe crucial seconds..
Anthony went too early and doesn't look like he can counter Kimeli and Pirazzi with a few hundred metres to go.. Kimeli with a bike length ahead.. and Cano ain't too far behind, still holding on to a small gap on the bunch!
And that's a quite dominating win for Kimeli, who even managed to open up a 22"-gap on his former companions! Anthony did well to hang on for 2nd ahead of Pirazzi, Schrangl..
..and Ardila Cano, who caught up to those three to finish with the same time!
+ 54" for the first peloton with Marquez, Abal and Pedraza crossing the line as first. Marquez keeps his points-lead that way, while Intxausti defends his yellow thanks to his great work of countering all serious attempts today.
Still a narrow lead of course, while Ardila Cano moved up from 8th to 7th thanks to his small gap on the bunch here. Tomorrow's hilly stage features a quite challenging hilltop-finish, which is more likely to produce further gaps between those remaining GC-contenders.
Final Results Stage 4/
(The results would not export, so it ain't the complete results here. No major changes inside the GC's Top-50 anyway)
