The third week kicks off with a bang: 180km in total, the HC-climb "Mount Palomar" has to climbed twice today! This is something like the queen stage here!
The biggest question will be, whether crash-victim Eastman can bounce back from his huge losses and gain back time on Kashechkin here. Or will Rohregger be able to attack the 2nd place now?
5 riders went clear early to go for the break of the day:
Shirota Mach Boaro (7th in KoM, 54pts) Davila (13th in KoM, 30pts) Bardet (+ 35.09 as best placed in GC)
If this group manages to hold off the bunch at least until the first climb up the Palomar, Boaro and Davila may be serious threats for KoM-leader Roussea (67pts)..
Boaro will be a threat anyway and he already takes the provisional lead prior to the first climb up Palomar!
In the meantime, the attacking Camargo and Tsikhanau bridge across this breakaway quickly: 56km before finish, this makes it a 7-men-group leading by just 2'35" on the peloton..
The group though goes into pieces at the top of climb, with only Camargo, Tsikhanau, Davila and Mach remaining in the very front.. Boaro collects more points towards the mountain classification:
30km before finish, we see yet another GC-contender hitting the turf: Agudelo (9th in GC) goes down and loses contact to the already very small leading peloton! Tough luck, but still a chance to limit the damage..
27 riders remain in the first bunch, which is down by 2'45" on group Camargo/Tsikhanau with just the summit finish ahead!
Most notable names being dropped:
Agudelo Georgiev Gaimon
who are down by 1'40" at this point!
Back to the front, where Camargo drops his companions to enter the final 17km solo, holding on to the same gap on the bunch, which the group had before..
Which may change now, that we see the first top-favorites attacking each other:
Eastman obviously has to try something today and so he goes with a strong kick!
Rohregger trying to hang on..
Dyball Haga Txurruka Rodas further 20" behind..
Kashechkin another 13" in arrears!
Some well needed pressure by Eastman here, who's more than 5 minutes down on the Kazakh in the GC..
Eastman catches up to Tsikhanau quickly, while Camargo's lead is down to a minute with now 12km remaining!
Rohregger couldn't join Eastman, but is still in between the US boy and a chasing group with Kashechkin/Rodas/Dyball..
A few moments later, Kashechkin accelarets to quickly catch up to Rohregger and easily drop group Rodas/Txurruka! There's some movements back there, as Dyball/Haga can't stay with Rodas anymore. Instead, it's Pozzo to join Rodas/Txurruka with a strong attack out of the 10-men-group with Doi/Di Gregorio/Stetina/Agudelo..
Eastman is just 30" behind Camargo, while Kashechkin still faces a minutes-gap on his biggesr rival..
7km to go (1.5km to the mountaintop) and Kashechkin is doing quite well in the meantime, dropping both Rohregger and Camargo, who couldn't stay with Eastman once he was caught!
The fight for GC's 4th (currently held by Dyball) will be thrilling, too:
Rodas, Txurruka and Pozzo appear to be the strongest behind the GC's Top-3 today.. and especially Rodas will be a serious threat for Dyball now!
GC's 6th Haga and 7th Doi together with Dyball about a minute down on Rodas, while maintaining a gap on a new 12-men-group with Agudelo, Stetina and Di Gregorio as the most serious GC-contenders..
Kashechkin almost closed the gap to Eastman when the US boy reached the mountaintop to take the provisional KoM-lead, by the way:
KoM-competition Eastman 79 Boaro 75 Rousseau 67
And yes, Kashechkin finally catches up to Eastman 3km before finish, with just a short uphill-finish to come! Eastman tried, which he had to. But Kashechkin kept it cool and managed to fight his way back.
Rohregger/Camargo already down by 2 minutes and group Rodas still going strong towards a valuable gap on the following groups!
The leading duo again a class of their own: Eastman with the slightly worse position prior to the sprint for line honours..
..and just a 2nd place behind Kashechkin today! The GC-fight ain't over yet, but Eastman will need some very special days to make up his huge disadvantage on the Kazakh..
+ 1'21" Rohregger, who's by far the strongest of all remaining GC-contenders..
+ 1'34" Camargo, who will jump onto 20th place in the GC that way!
+ 2'26" Rodas and Pozzo
+ 2'35" Txurruka, who completes a great result for his unlucky team!
Of course a very good stage for Rodas in particular, as Dyball has yet to cross the line..
+ 3'49" Tsikhanau
+ 4'19" Doi, Dyball, Haga
+ 4'37" for a next group with Stetina, Agudelo, Di Gregorio and Vasquez
So here's what we got for the new GC:
Kashechkin growing his lead to 5'44" thanks to bonifications. Rohregger also a "lonely" 3rd already down by 8 minutes.
Rodas with a stunning stage to jump onto 4th ahead of Dyball and Pozzo! While also Haga might be happy to just go down to 7th ahead of Doi, Agudelo and Di Gregorio. Txurruka goes up to 11th ahead of Stetina, while those might be the last two riders, who have a realistic shot at the Top-10 eventually.
