The long expected Coronet Peak stage. The most likely race deciding stage. Sella and Anton are the two big names here but while they are still huge riders in the CT division, they are no longer on their prime and the next row of climbers are not much weaker.
An incredible big group form todays break. 15 riders and it`s only 16 teams in the race! Ilias Davison Chhetri Mat Senan Gunman Witmitz Hung Vorontsov Ariesen Eising Varga Koch Passalacqua Cooper Robov
Best climber easily is Mat Senan, who could have been a top10 rider in the GC if he didn`t lose couple minutes already in the wind.
Seid joins the break as 16th in total and 2nd Compal rider after a long solo. Back in the peloton not many teams are left to chase.
cycleYorkshire and Chiquita are seen at the front chasing. Also Isostar joining later for Anton.
Meanwhile Chhetri won the KoM ahead of Ilias and Davison while Witmitz is the only interested in the sprint as best placed in the group.
8km left and the climb starts. The break is almost caught. Only 1min left and many are struggling already.
Sella accelerates behind and is immediately followed by Martinez.
Isostar instead sends Timmer to the front chasing for Anton.
This is surprising. Italian veteran climber Sella struggles and can`t follow Martinez on the steepest part.
And seeing how strong Martinez is and that both have joined 3 of 4 remaining breakaway riders (Ilias, Chhetri, Davison) it`s Antón on the attack now.
The 4th former breakaway rider Mat Senan is now solo in the lead 40s ahead of Martinez.
cycleYorkshire for Tvetcov is chasing in the field now.
Smart riding by Elta today. Sella is being pulled by Ilias now and the Greek is finding some unknown mountain legs being able to reduce the gap to Martinez.
Anton is 40s behind them with the peloton being another 1'20.
A duo in front as Martinez joins Mat Senan and Ilias is done now. That said, Sella must not have his very best day as he can`t chase them down on his own. So it`s good news for him that Anton has joined them and is helping out now.
Then being a group of 4 attacked from the peloton and actually twice team mates: Tvetcov Tiernan-Locke Ivanov Robov
So Podium Ambition indeed goes for their GC chances instead of working for GC leader Nelson. Good for the team!
Bad news though for two teams. Battaglin and Krasnoperov seem to struggle on that climb.
Anton and Sella dropped the former breakaway riders and are now 50s behind Martinez/Mat Senan.
Then further behind the Podium duo surprisingly is stronger than Tvetcov and is on the chase.
Last kilometer and Mat Senan is still hanging behind Martinez. Seeing the gaps at the moment he could gain a lot of time finding himself back in the GC fight.
The stronger rider though was Martinez. The strongest actually. So it was an easy win by him in the end gapping Mat Senan by 10s.
31s in the end for Sella who also was able to drop Anton who comes in at 39s. Both surely had hoped to win today and instead are only podium riders now.
Huge result for Ilias, who fought until the end to finish 5th just ahead of the Podium Ambition duo, who performed hugely today. It`s more than 2'30 though already, hence Mat Senan is climbing up to 4th in the GC!
Pozzo out of nowhere up to 8th today already 3min down. Then Tvetcov behind him together with Zoidl. So also a decent stage for Sauber today.
Tempier/Khripta for New Balance next while quite a few must be disappointed such as Salinas or even worse Battaglin and Krasnoperov.
