Second mountain stage to come and after's yesterday terrific stage we are looking for more of the same. Beltran holds yellow but he only has 20 seconds over Sella who after yesterday's effort will want to keep the momentum and take control of the race. Home hero Rujano is faced with tough task now with one minute gap to clear. It all points towards another exciting stage.
Break is formed on the 4th category climb with Barredo to defend his KoM present. Murillo best placed rider 4'59" down.
Barredo Murillo Bonnin Pedrero Bazzana
Barredo was first to attack but he went way to early and was spent at the end, Murillo being best climber present in the break wins claiming 5 points on offer. Pedrero comes 2nd across taking 3 points and Barredo salvages 3rd place which improves his KoM total by 1.
On the descent of the 4th cat climb Krasnoperov falls. Luckily for him it's just the start of the stage, but the question is if he's injured or not. No teammates help him back as he chases back on his own in next few kms.
No surprises with Nutresa taking total control of the peleton today working for Beltran. With 50km left the break has 3'01" of advantage. 25km till the climb begins.
We barely reach the climb and it's all going off! 25km to go and it's Baltazar who initiates first attack followed by La Lavandier, and it's immediately RUJANO behind him. Sella sees Rujano move across and is now following as well. Fireworks from the start.
They form four man group and Rujano comes to front putting pressure on Sella. Beltran is now trying to catch them with many other trying to do so behind as well.
Break is still intact with its five members and they maintain the gap at 2'31" seconds.
Marquez joins up to the Beltran/Rujano/Sella group. Next group across trying to catch leaders is is led by Pantano Gómez with Txurruka and Olivier.
De Clercq is the next Bpost rider in attack followed by Popovych, Aru. Poorseyedi and Martinez.
While other groups behind are quite disorganized at the moment the leading group is coherent and already with bit of decent gap with Marquez and Rujano once again sharing duties similar to yesterday, this time with Sella to cooperate as well. It's now a case of surival and staying on their wheels for Beltran as well as Baltazar La Lavandier who could benefit greatly from this move.
The leaders group already caught struggling Bazzana,
Bonnin and Barredo are the next dropped riders and about 30 seconds in front now.
It's Murillo and Pedrero on the front with 1'02" second gap and 13km to go (10km of climb).
While leaders are ahead all other riders were caught by the peleton that's still 60 rider strong. New wave of fresh attacks comes with Aru seemingly working for Olivier, the Italian is doing all the pacing now with Olivier hidden behind.
Txurruka really riding out of his skin here being present as front runner in all attacks so far, Pantano Gómez, Quintana and Popovych present us well, also this time Nazaret doesn't miss the move, however he has the ability to be in the front group so not ideal for him nonetheless.
The peleton is still not far behind with just 30 seconds behind Olivier/Nazaret/Quintana/Popovych/Pantano/Txurruka group. It's led by Children of Chernobyl Foundation p/b Nemiroff but Krasnoperov seems to be struggling not being able to follow any of the moves so far.
Other big name left in the peleton is Vinhas who hasn't made any moves so far, but has teammate up front. Similarly Ardila Cano as well as Rodrigues and Poorseyedi, Martinez is also left in peleton not being able to follow the attacks.
On the front Murillo drops Pedrero and is soloing to the finish. Can he hold off the leaders? with 8km of the climb remaining he helds 50" seconds gap, he is holding incredibly well.
BELTRAN DROPS and is really suffering now, and no teammates around him. Rujano, Marquez and Sella are now the only three riders left with Bonnin caught from break, their cooperation really paid off here, Sella is now virtual leader.
Baltazar & La Lavandier dropped bit earlier and are riding together now slowly being caught by the Nazaret group.
Aru doing most the chasing, Baltazar and Lavandier caught and Beltran is just around the corner. The trio look well ahead though with almost 1 minute gap and it looks another day Nazaret will loose big ground.
The favourites can see Murillo as he turns around the corner! 5km left and 1.5km to the top of the climb, can he make it? What an effort that would be.
Rujano, Sella and Marquez working together, no attacks between them so far, smart idea trying to distance Beltran and others as much as possible.
Chasing group crosses the summit 1'20" seconds behind the trio with Murillo taking risks on the descent extending his gap to 55" seconds with 2km left. Beltran doing majority of the pulling limiting his looses as much as he can, Nutresa though really left him with no support today at the crucial moments.
The chasing group increased with the break riders, all riders present being:
Beltran Pantano Gómez Bonnin Aru Olivier Nazaret Pedrero Quintana Popovych Txurruka Baltazar La Lavandier Barredo
Murillo descended like daredevil and is passing flamme rouge knowing he will be stage winner. Well deserved win, Rujano/Marquez/Sella took bit more caution at the end but they achieved in their goals I think, dropping Beltran and likes of Nazaret again creating quite a gap now.
Peleton 1 minute behind the Nazaret group led by Vinhas. You can also see no riders from Children of Chernobyl Foundation p/b Nemiroff present as can be see on the left of screen, Krasnoperov dropped clearly struggling from injury, Topchanyuk Efimkin dropped alongside him to help limit their leader's losses hoping he recovers for next stage, luckily they have rider up front so it's not all lost for them here.
Murillo crosses the line and is today's winner! He was 5 minutes behind Beltran and although he won't threaten top places he should make a handsome move in the GC. He also scooped 21 KoM points, still behind Barredo's total of 24 but we could face interesting battle for it.
Rujano edges out Sella for second meaning he reduces the gap he has by handful of seconds. Marquez only 4th clearly he had least left after the high tempo climb.
Pantano Gómez brings the next group 2'28" behind Murrilo and 1'30" behind Rujano/Marquez/Sella. Nazaret will be quite disappointed with his efforts so far.
Peleton crossed the finish line + 3'33" down, but we wait quite longer for Krasnoperov who really struggled at the end marking the end of his GC hopes finishing + 6'06" behind.
