Lots of points up for grabs with 5 cat. 3 climbs and 3 sprint points.
Will the sprinters survive to the finish or will the GC contenders steal the show once again? Again the same three riders are marked as top favourites:
Vitoria, Rowe, and Fernandez.
Two guys jump out into the breakaway and collect the points at the 1st KoM.
1 Navarro (+1'42" )
2 Benito (+6'23" )
Both are decent climbers so they should like their chances to survive.
They are joined by Lehtinen a few kilometers later as he attacked out of the peloton to get the remaining 2 KoM to bring his total to 6 points.
Devine (+9'28" ) and Senni (+3'12" ) are also interested in joining this trio at the front.
They make the connection before we reach the first sprint point.
1 Lehtinen
2 Navarro
3 Senni
The peloton is keeping a close eye on this lead group of 5 though: 2 minute lead, 123kms to go.
The peloton slows up a bit as we reach the next two KoM points.
1 Devine
2 Navarro
3 Senni
And then:
1 Lehtinen
2 Navarro
3 Senni
95kms to go with a 5'20" advantage. It tops out at 6 minutes 5kms later before the peloton starts pulling it back. Meanwhile, also in the peloton, Wu took a tumble and our cameras missed it. Hopefully it's nothing too serious.
Rodrigues will need all the support he can get on stage 5.
Next up are back-to-back sprint checkpoints.
They are knocked out in the same order:
1 Senni
2 Navarro
3 Lehtinen
57kms to go, the breakaway is up 3'30". Not good for them.
The second to last KoM checkpoint goes:
1 Benito
2 Senni
3 Devine
Looks like everyone in the breakaway is starting to run out of gas with 50kms to go. The constant up-and-downs are taking its toll.
The peloton is putting down the hammer as we reach the start of the final cat. 3 climb which is also the final kilometer of race. The organizers sure like their uphill finishes.
The breakaway is trying their best to hold on: 1'25" gap with 23kms to go.
Devine goes for the KoM points and gets a gap on the rest of the breakaway. If he was smart he would keep going without them.
Navarro takes 2nd and that's enough to give him the KoM jersey after the stage... maybe. There are still points at the finish and he leads Devine by 4 points.
3rd goes to the man in pink Benito.
The peloton goes up and over without an attack. 21kms to go.
Devine does keep going! The other 4 breakaway riders are caught with 15kms to go. Can the American stay away?
Shoulders rocking back-and-forth Devine gets picked up with 11kms to go by Team ASDA-Savers. Looks like Rowe might be up to challenge today.
Or not, Team ASDA-Savers starts looking around for their sprinter and he is no where to be found. Maloja takes this as a cue to organize the set-up for their man Vitoria wearing the green jersey on loan.
2,100 meters to line as a group of 13 sprint off the front:
Diniz
Khatuntsev
Vitoria
Serebriakov
De Ketele
Saramotins
Branneier
Fernandez
Galedo
Cerny
Hansen
Debusschere
Angarita
Rodrigues, Young, and Iglinski are a few feet behind this group looking to catch-up.
1,000 meters later it's a complete different race! The leadout men pull out and leave Serebriakov and Vitoria to fend for themselves.
Fernandez and Hansen with a strong push on the right while Rodrigues is storming to the front on the far left.
Strong showing from Cerny as well who is right between Serebriakov and Fernandez.
Serebriakov hits the wall. Cerny is hanging in there against Fernandez and Hansen.
Meanwhile screaming across the team radio as some dirty tactics by Maloja as Diniz comes across and squeezes Rodrigues up into fence almost creating a huge crash.
Up front Cerny finally has nothing left to give. Leaving the stage win to either Fernandez or Hansen. 600 meters to the line.
Wait! A very late surge by De Ketele as he flies by Vitoria and Saramotins.
Now past Cerny! Did he leave enough time to steal the win?!?
Close but no! He settles for a solid 3rd.
Fernandez takes the win ahead of Hansen. With the bonus seconds, Hansen will regain the yellow jersey back from an angry Rodrigues who could possibly make the case that we would have won (or at least top 3) if it wasn't for Diniz.
A nice 4th for Cerny and there he is: 5th Rodrigues. If it's any consolation he remains the leader in the points competition.
6th Saramotins, 7th Vitoria and 8th Iglinski.
Passeron and Rosa round out the top 10.
68 riders finish in the first group. Which is shame for TTers Stannard and Renang as they are among those dropped and won't get a shot to be wearing yellow going into the final stage.
Key bonus seconds picked up by Fernandez and Rodrigues on the "flat" stages. However it's going to come down to the 25km ITT tomorrow and then brutal mountain stage 5 that will decide who walks away as the winner of this event.
