We're entering the second week of the Tour of America and here comes the first mountain stage: 200km in total, today's stage from Palo Alto to San Jose features a short (6km) but steep finish on Sierra Rd.
It may not be the most crucial day for the GC-favorites, but of course the premium climbers should be there today: Kashechkin had some strong days recently, while Eastman has to bounce back from losing yellow to Danacik.
Three riders went clear early and are allowed a comfortable gap soon:
Van Zandbeek, Mach and Shirota - with Van Zandbeek (+ 6.43) as best placed in the GC and also the only one to have scored minor points (8) towards the KoM-rankings so far..
Still eary in the race, Rohregger goes down with a nasty fall! The team's main GC-rider will join the peloton back soon, though we have to see wether he suffered injuries or not. Definitely a moment of shock, for now.
We're jumping straight into today's longest climb - the Skyline Boulevard features some steep slopes, but anything but steady ascending roads:
Tsikhanau, Gaimon, Sarmiento and Txurruka attacked the bunch to bridge across the break of the day soon!
The join the three early escapees at the mountaintop (53km to go) with a 2'49"-advantage on the peloton. Gaimon (+ 1.52) as the best placed in GC, so despite not being the best climber, a minor threat for the GC today..
Teams like Repsol and Kazzinc though look in control of the situation and narrow this gap back to a minute soon and will pull this leading group back right in time for the finishing climb!
Dyball and Agudelo went for an empty-handed attack earlier, but the GC-contenders are alltogether again..
..which may change now with 5km remaining: Di Gregorio went first and Kashechkin jumps behind immediately! The race is on, as several more riders try to join this duo..
Txurruka caught up to Kashechkin/Gregorio a few moments later, while a new second group with Rodas, Rohregger and Dyball has a small advantage on the peloton, too!
We see more riders on the move, just like Eastman, who has to fear Kashechkin gaining more time on him again!
4km remaining and Eastman is indeed amongst another chasing group of 6 riders trying to follow Kashechkin/Gregorio:
Stetina/Eastman Pozzo/Agudelo Haga Georgiev are 39" in arrears at this point!
Doi Vasquez Tsikhanau Hudecek another 26" behind..
GC-leader Danacik was never expected to be his team's main option today and is still back in the bunch another minute down..
Kashechkin keeps the pace up at the very front, now taking command of the leading group, where Rohregger and Rodas managed to close up..
Group Eastman still about 35" behind, while Agudelo lost contact and looking in trouble here!
Kashechkin drops his companions to go solo for the final 2.3km! He's looking very strong, yet again, and definitely keeps putting pressure on former race-leader Eastman..
The Kazakh opened up a 27"-gap on the next group quickly, while Eastman is still another 10" behind.. given Kashechkin's disadvantage on Eastman prior to the stage (30seconds), he may actually overtake the US boy in the GC today..
Eastman though has finally found to his pace and drops his group to join the first chasing group with a kilometre to go!
Kashechkin out of reach though, holding on to a 29"-gap...
..to take out the first mountain stage: Kashechkin keeps shining, as he did the previous days! With Danacik losing time today, he may well attack the GC-lead that way..
+ 34" for group Eastman, who managed to lung in for 2nd place ahead of Txurruka! So quite a comeback on this climb, but he may not be the one to slip into yellow today!
+ 1'30" for another group with Pozzo and Doi, who already was well-placed prior to this stage..
+ 1'52" for a strong climbing Georgiev and an eventually suffering Dyball
+ 2'25" for Vasquez, who will make a nice jump in the GC that way..
+ 3'06" for a disappointing Agudelo
+ 6'03" for the first bigger group with Danacik, who will lose yellow as expected!
And indeed, it's Kashechkin to take the race-lead from Danacik, entering the next two mountain stages with a 12"-gap on Eastman. Those two now dominate the GC as to be expected prior to this race.
Doi with a nice provisional 3rd already 1'46" down on Kashechkin, with Rodas/Di Gregorio going strong for In-n-Out so far. Stetina, Rohregger, Dyball, Pozzo and Georgiev round up the Top-10 at this point, while Agudelo (11th) has yet to deliver. Danacik going down to 15th place, as Pozzo/Agudelo is likely to take over the leading roles for his team anyway.
