The of two consecutive mountain stages features a summit finish on "Mt Baldy" and will be also another key stage for both the GC and the KoM-battle.
Kashechkin looked strong two days ago, when he countered Eastman's early attack to also take the stage. Rohregger, Rodas (who lost stupid time yesterday) and Txurruka had some strong showings as well.
It took a while for this 6-men-group to go clear from the peloton:
Shimizu (GC's 13th, + 21.39) Piamonte Sarmiento Danacik (GC's 19th and 42pts in KoM) Klimiankou (84pts in KoM) Davila (50pts in KoM)
With quite a lot of KoM-points up for grabs, riders like Klimiankou or Davila definitely can go for something special today!
Let's keep it short for this first half of the day though: Klimiankou would be dropped by the escaping group already on the first HC-climb, thus just scoring less points than he might have hoped for. The peloton wouldn't also allow the group to establish a bigger gap, as some teams may fear Shimizu in particular..
..and so it's quite a high pace already halfway through the stage, where the peloton pulls the breakaway back 90km before finish: just 42 riders remain in this bunch!
Camargo and Piamonte would attack just a few moments later and go for a 2-minutes-gap when climbing the last mountain prior to a long flat sector now:
KoM-competition Boaro 95 Klimiankou 90 Fritsch
So as for now, Boaro keeps the polka dot.. which may change at the finish though, depending on how the premium climbers will end up!
75km before finish, we see yet another GC-contender hitting the turf on a tricky descend:
Di Gregorio (11th in GC) goes down, but fights his way back to the leading bunch all alone!
So the Frenchman is alongside those, who are likely to battle for the stage today: 16km remaining and the two escapees Camargo/Piamonte have been reeled in already!
And here go the first serious attacks: Txurruka and Eastman!
Trying to follow: Agudelo, Kashechkin and Rohregger..
Eastman couldn't open up a gap this time, but those attacks made for a first major selection. 10km to go and a group of 6 riders established a 25"-gap on the 19-men-group behind:
Kashechkin Eastman (2nd in GC) Rohregger (3rd) Pozzo (7th) Txurruka (9th) Di Gregorio (11th)
So Di Gregoria looking strong despite his crash, while it's surprising to see not Rodas on the move yet..
..which finally happens a few minutes later though! 6km to go and two more riders managed to bridge across this leading group:
Rodas (4th) Haga (6th)
So putting pressure on:
Dyball (5th) Agudelo (9th)
with the latter beind down by a minute and Dyball in between those two groups!
4km before finish, it's still the same situation with different gaps though.. will Eastman try again?
He does about 2.5km before finish, following an impressive move by Rodas! The latter lost stupid time in a split yesterday and seems willing to take those minute back today!
GC-leader Kashechkin won't just remain in the group and tries to jump behind Eastman 1.6km to the line!
Rodas leading by 11" on Eastman, Kashechkin further 36" down: at this point, Eastman won't be a serious threat for Kashechkin, but of course any seconds can be crucial..
Rodas holds on to a small advantage on Eastman to bounce back from yesterday's loss in style! It's also the second stage-win for his team in those two entertaining days!
+ 40" Kashechkin, who avoided any major damage at least..
+ 1'23" Di Gregorio, Txurruka, Rohregger and Pozzo
+ 1'48" Haga
+ 2'57" Dyball
+ 3'11" Agudelo
+ 3'28" Doi
+ 3'35" for a bigger group with Stetina
So Dyball suffered today and drops from 5th to 7th in the GC! Rodas therefore went for a comfortable gap on the new 5th Haga, while Pozzo as 6th and Txurruka as 8th did also quite well today. Doi and Di Gregorio complete the Top-10 with Agudelo still being a threat to fight for them places.
Eastman now exactly 5 minutes down on Kashechkin: he will need some extraordinary special things on the remaining key stages to fight back for yellow. He's coming closer in the points competition though, as well as re-taking the KoM-lead from Boaro!
And let's not forget some more notable news today: Thorsen (5th in the points competition and triple stage-winner) is amongst 6 riders, who did not finish the stage today! No real surprise, but anyway..
