Definitely the toughest stateg. 14 climbs on todays stage. And easily the longest all race. And even when not being the steepest the amount and 217km in total will take care of a hard race.
3 in todays break and who is surprised to see again an Eritel rider in there. 4/4 for them and this time it`s one of their captains even though the hilly stuff is not that much to his favour as he prefers the longer climbs.
Also Netia with 3/4 already. Teklehaimanot (+2'53) Der (+2'52) Kohler (2'40)
Awful to see then. Only 30km into the race and 10 riders on the ground. Unfortunately some GC riders as well... Barbin Schumacher Roux
Würtz, Kriek, Dupont, Spengler, Ivars, Minguez Ayala, Pozzato are the others.
And as if one big crash is not enough yet another one...again two big names down.
Bystrom Ulissi
All of them are back in the peloton and were able to continue racing. Hopefully they all are fine and the GC won`t be impacted.
Only Dillier seems in huge trouble as the UBS time trialist was also in the 2nd crash and is alone behind the peloton.
Roche was one of the lucky riders and is sending 3 of his team mates to the front controlling the pace.
3 min gap and 65km to go.
All GC riders including the crash victims in the first rows!
Teklehaimanot takes the last KoM and is the only one to take another one as before it was shared nicely. Hence no danger for the KoM leader Stachowiak.
With 3 hills left a big selection and only 29 riders in the first peloton. Unfortunately 2 of the crash victims seem to suffer and are in the later group. Those are U25 leader Bystrom and Strava leader Roux.
And while they made it back again, Bystrom is dropped again soon afterwards but has team support at least.
And also Roux is again struggling. So we unfortunately have 2 injured captains here. Vuillermoz with him while Gilbert stays in contention to the best.
32 riders in the favourite group with 1 climb only to go. On the penultimate descent the gap is down to 1'20 with La Poste chasing. Dowsett was doing nicely so far and yet again belongs to the favourites of course.
But the first powerful attack comes by Ulissi just when the climb started.
Behind him Ben Nasser and also Dowsett, Roche, Di Maggio, Barbin, Costa, Teklit, Craven, Bilbao...Meintjes, Schumacher and Gilbert just behind those.
In front Teklehaimanot goes solo. Just 30s to Ulissi!
Same gap to the first favourite group then with most big names being with the other two former breakaway riders.
Schumacher and Gilbert a bit behind just like Meintjes. And also the Eritel riders in problems being in the 11 rider group further behind. At least they are 3 of them chasing and Teklehaimanot still in front.
With 10km and still on the climb after the short midway descnet Ulissi is passing the Eritrean.
And the Eritel rider can`t follow and is soon dropped to the next group.
Bilbao and Gilbert a bit behind those, while the Schumacher/Meintjes group is 40s behind then.
But the clear winner is Ulissi! Huge win after yesterdays weird TTT by Generali. And he gained time with every kilometer taking profit of the bad cooperation behind. Most likely the race lead!
Barbin sprints to 2nd ahead of Costa. So at least for todays 1-2 the crash was without impact different to Bystrom and Roux, while Schumacher was just riding like his usual 2016 self.
Dowsett, Ben Nasser and Di Maggio just behind them but already 1'31 down.
And surprisingly Roche lost another 33s as it wasn`t his best day clearly. This means he even drops behind Ben Nasser into 3rd, while the Tunesian is close to yet another podium now. Mr. Tour of South Africa. A title probably only Dowsett or Monfort could also ask for.
Teklehaimanot is down to 8th in the end 2'42 off and just ahead of Bilbao and Gilbert. Good for Strava that they had a 2nd option here.
Schumacher as 11th almost 4min down together with Meintjes and the Ferrero/Eritel riders.
GC wise Roux and Bystrom obviously drop out of contention losing more than 10min today.
Teklehaimanot up to 8th as best Eritel rider but two more in top20. Gilbert as 10th also for Strava some success so far. Barbin and Dowsett in the top5 with a superb CT showing so far.
Last but not least couple riders outside the time limit.
