Mountaineous stage in Slovakia. The CT specialists on that terrain are more or less all here to ride for the CT climber crown. The Indosat duo seems unbeatable but all other teams will ride against them today.
While 4 riders including 3 from Sodexo are already dropped on the first climb, 6 riders have attacked and created a gap on the first of 8 climbs. Der Svab Shalunov Bonnafond Hudecek Lovassy
So some 2nd tier climbers here expect for Lovassy and also Shalunov, who shouldn`t stand a chance against the others.
The gap quickly went up to ~6min where it stagnated. Lovassy as expected was quickly dropped again and 4 teams were working behind. Alpina, Indosat, Compal and BelarusBank. More or less the 4 expected teams.
Another strong team here (more in terms of depth) is Sancor.
And they play that card on the 4th ascent where Roman attacks. Now wer are coming towards the kind of riders, who are expected to top10-20 here already.
A couple of riders follow including Wang. So Compal putting the pressure on the others.
The next three are Ebsen, Kiserlovski, Ikibe, who are all being allowed to create a gap.
At half time the peloton now led by Indosat and BelarusBank have reduced the gap to under 5min.
Wang/Roman just 1min behind the leading five. Ebsen/Ikibe another 1'20, while Kiserlovsvski is 20s behind that duo but also 2'30 ahead of the favourites.
During the fifth climb Wang and Roman both join the break while Shalunov also is dropped now and the peloton is losing a bit again. Time for them to wake up.
Indosat with lots of riders in the front now as also 3 from BelarusBank. Though the acceleration in front due to Roman/Wang came unexpected it seems. They gained 2-3 minutes on them again and Indosat would need to decide for what rider to go for as the other would clearly need to work quickly to avoid a break winning here.
As Indosat is still waiting, it`s BelarusBank reacting first. Their leader Ochoa Quintero attacks with 2 climbs to go seeing this as last chance to catch the riders in front.
Atapuma, Signorini, Gilanipoor, Soler and a bit later Kulhavy, Feillu, Hirt, Berard, Bochmann, Nakane, Koep and Weber all try to react.
Ochoa Quintero though still with a small gap to the next couple of riders. And with 30km to go and 1 1/4 climbs remaining a long line of riders are ahead of him. Some are lapped riders surely. But also the breakaway and mid-stage attackers are within them.
In front though are now Maky Roman and Zsolt Der. They have attacked the group on the penultimate climb and clearly are the strongest. Der though was in the morning break and clearly has spent more energy already.
Wang coming next but already 3min behind them.
Ochoa Quintero together with Svab, Bonnafond and Hudecek in the 3rd group 80s ahead of the Indosat duo Signorini/Atapuma, who have gapped the other riders.
Wang is still losing to the leading dup and also Ochoa Quintero is coming fast from behind. So at least the podium spot seems in danger for him now as well.
Big attack by Maky Roman. The Sancor rider wants to win here.
But Der not giving up yet. First he closes the gap impressively and then immediately attacking himself.
Ochoa Quintero/Wang go full speed but the gap seems impossible to close as the leading duo is also going fast. And the climbing kilometers are almost over.
Can Roman also come back? At the moment Der looking like the winner as he has a 20s gap with only the descent to come. The gap to Ochoa Quintero still is big enough. So we have the first two places for sure. But who will win?
Wang still fighting to stay ahead of Signorini, who now is solo in 5th, while Gilanipoor and Soler both passed Atapuma, who is togther with Kulhavy next.
Then a bigger group around the Fablok dup Feillu/Berard, Nakane, Dyachdenka, Hirt, Baz, Orozco and Svab. Then Bonnafond ahead of the next group around Carlsberg etc.
The win though goes to Zsolt Der. After being in the early break he was still strong enough to counter the attack by Maky Roman, who was expected to be stronger after only attacking mid-stage.
Well deserved by him even though most experts clearly had hoped for a favourite battle.
Roman possibly with the wrong attack at the wrong time. Still a great 2nd for Sancor as well.
Ochoa Quintero might be happy with 3rd here. He surely was the strongest of the favourites and could have won here. But in the end a nice result for him still.
Behind him Wang indeed keeps on for 4th...
...while Signorini can only be disappointed to only come in 5th here. Poor race for Indosat.
Gilanipoor and Soler to make the first sprint here where the Compal rider takes 6th.
Kulhavy and Atapuma as 8th and 9th. While Elta clearly can live with that, Atapuma was really weak in the end losing ground.
Then the fight for the last top10 in the first bigger group. Dyachenko wins in front of Berard, Hirt and Nakane.
Only 66 riders made it to the finish today. So lots of time limit riders.
