Back to the Mountains, well one mountain to be specific: Alpe d'Huez! Both the classic hairpinned road, and the Col de Sarenne route are in action today, in both directions for each. Let the GC fight continue!
Departing the top of Alpe d'Huez, already a number of strong riders attack. And by the time they have looped round and hit the lower slopes of the familiar ascent, they lead by over 5 minutes.
In this powerful move are Vasyliv, Kudus, Kolar, Kung, Carapaz, La Lavandier, Bravo and Smit.
Kudus and Kung both messed up their attack timing on the first mountain stage, while Vasyliv, Carapaz (and Kung again) lost ground on the 2nd hill stage. All are looking to make amends, while La Lavandier will aim to outshine his currently higher GC place twin brother. Bravo and Smit will do well just to keep up, but credit to Smit for trying again after almost winning yesterday.
The presence of Kolar is obvious, with a great chance to secure the KoM jersey. He is however unable to take first place at the summit of Alpe d'Huez. It is much fought for, and Carapaz is able to take the honour. Smit and Bravo have both been dropped.
Now, the best placed rider overall in the move is Kudus. 16th overall at 8'08. By the time they have gone through the smaller Sarenne summit, this group has a lead of over 14 minutes! A very handy virtual lead. Meanwhile Egger has attacked the peloton for a solo adventure, and is 10 minutes behind the break.
Descending the Sarenne road though, Meiji have something to say about this. In particularly Kolahdouz, the Siam Cement rider, does a lot of work, continuing on the flat loop around Bourg d'Oisans.
The break don't really want to push too hard on the flat terrain, so as they go back the way they came now up the full Col de Sarenne, the lead is down to 8'34. Hopes of a Kudus Yellow jersey may be put to rest, but the stage is still well up for grabs.
There's a split in the peloton very early on in the climb. Shirota and Haig were pace setting, and now suddenly only Morton, Shikai and Olivier are with them!
Of those in the peloton, this only really affects Lecuisinier. So the peloton are turning to Festina, and Festina turn to ... Le Gac. Oh dear, surely he is tired from the past two days, and this is hardly his terrain anyway.
All 5 in the Morton group do take relays, and though they may not be pushing full out yet, that gap soon grows.
To add to the Festina confusion, when Dzhus attacks with Cort Nielsen and Lutsenko, it is Herklotz who follows.
Lecuisinier at least makes the next move, with Galta, La Lavandier and Ndayisenga, then Ikibe just a little behind.
Those two groups do merge together, but they are facing up to a 2 minute deficit to the Morton group! A serious threat to Lecuisinier podium hopes, never mind challenging Morton for the overall race win! Shirota has done his job now, but Haig remains.
Disaster for Ikibe! As he chases to make contact with Lecuisinier's group, he punctures.
The fact that Haig remains with Morton may be becoming a hindrance. He takes a fairly long turn at the front, and their advantage drops down to 1'30. And now Lecuisinier is attacking to close it further.
Let's not forget about the breakaway, who are still over 5 minutes clear of Morton's group! Kung denies Kolar the maximum points on the Col de Sarenne. A Cat 1 from this direction, as opposed to the Cat 3 version earlier in the stage.
Haig falls behind now, leaving just Olivier, Shikai and Morton. But Lecuisinier is now just 42 seconds behind!
Lecuisinier made his move at just the right time, as the group he left behind are now 2 minutes behind him (with Haig and Bravo in between). Dzhus, Galta, Cort Nielsen, La Lavandier, Lutsenko, Herklotz and Ndayisenga are in there. Ikibe a further 2 minutes back with Shirota and Egger, then almost 2 minutes more to the remaining peloton - with no further attacks as yet.
Now back to the front. On the downhill towards the Alpe d'Huez ski resort, Vasyliv has attacked!
He gets a gap before Kudus responds, with the Eritrean almost making contact as they pass through the intermediate sprint in Alpe d'Huez, which also marks the start of the descent to the line.
While one Festina rider is chased, the other is the chaser. Lecuisinier now just 30 seconds behind.
Kung still fancies his stage win chances up front, and why not, he is the best descender in the move. He is now 3rd on the road, but has 40 seconds to make up.
It's going to be a gripping battle, with Vasyliv still pushing to stay ahead of Kudus - he doesn't want to let him latch on to his back wheel!
Morton is doing his bit now to keep Lecuisinier at bay. You have to wonder why he didn't try to attack Oliver or Shikai on the uphill sections, as any time gained today on Lecuisinier will be an important extra buffer tomorrow. The gap is now 20 seconds!
Haig is still next on the road, over 2 minutes after Lecuisinier. Behind him that chasing group has split up. Galta and Herklotz lead the way, with Cort Nielsen and Dzhus not too far behind.
Lecuisinier has all-but caught up. He is almost as close to Shikai as the Chinese rider is to Morton.
5km to go at the front, and Kudus is trying his best. Sometimes judged to be in the same group as Vasyliv, sometimes not. The gap is 15 seconds.
But it seems as if he has hit his limit as in the next 2 kilometres he starts fading, and Kung sweeps past. Is there time for the Swiss rider to take the stage?
There is not. Yuriy Vasyliv has plenty of chance to celebrate a fine stage win for Festina!
Kung takes 2nd at 27 seconds, with Kudus at 41. It's 4th for La Lavandier at 1'15, with Kolar at 1'52 and Carapaz at 2'18. There are some big GC jumps forthcoming for all riders.
Morton wins the sprint for 7th, from Olivier and Shikai. They did manage to hold on to a gap on Lecuisinier after all, going out to 29 seconds in the final split. Morton was 4'20 behind Vasyliv, by the way.
There's then a bit of a wait before Haig takes 11th at 6'58.
Herklotz at 7'30, Galtaat 8'09.
8'49 for Cort Nielsen and Dzhus, just 13 seconds ahead of the stronger descending chasers Lutsenko, La Lavandier and Ndayisenga. Ikibe almost caught up to them, but not quite, at 9'44 with Bravo.
After that some solo riders who did eventually attack the peloton. Eyob at 12 minutes passed both Shirota and Egger, with Hadi, Rivera, Borisavljevic and Cataford all clear of the peloton, which finished at 16 and a half minutes.
So, a big shake up for the GC. Morton now leads Lecuisinier by 1'16, Shikai and Oliver remaining around 2 and half minutes back. Kudus leaps up to 5th, with Vasyliv, Carapaz, Kung and Kolar all into the Top 10 - Herklotz managing to hold on to 9th. Haig slips to 11th despite a great ride, while La Lavandier (Bougyues) goes up to 12th - 4 places ahead his stronger twin (Becherovka)!
