A short race this one at 137km, but one that finishes with a huge climb. Denifl and Machado are the favourites, but an unpredictable race is in prospect.
The peloton wouldn’t be keen on letting a break form at first, but with 88km to go we would see a group of 4 riders establish itself in the lead - Frohlinger, Adamou, Sonnery and Melo. All can climb, but none would be expected to achieve anything in particular today.
Nothing really to report from there on in until we hit the foot of the climb with 33km to go. At this point the break has 1’45 of advantage, and all seems to be in control for the peloton.
Already the pace on the climb starts to see riders being dropped, with Vinhas the biggest name so far - he loses contact with still 30km of climbing to go.
23km to go and Frohlinger and Sonnery have distanced their companions. They have 25 seconds to Adamou and 1’30 to the peloton, which still contains 99 riders.
The next notable name to be dropped is Moschella with 21km to go, as the climb begins to flatten out somewhat. Up front the duo have 1’00 to Adamou and 1’20 to the peloton (now down to 62 riders).
With 15km to go and the breakaway about to be caught we see the first attack of the day! Martin jumps first, with Machado in hot pursuit - but it all comes to nought 2km later, as the work of Brenes and Egger brings them back. The effect of this though is to reduce the peloton down further, to 34 riders.
The brief lull between the two parts of the climb allows the peloton to grow once again up to 65 riders. But as the climbing starts again with 7.5km to go, Machado launches a big attack!
Martin follows the move and with 6km to go the duo have a lead of 30 seconds over the peloton. Could this be the key move?
Under the 5km to go banner and the duo remain with a 30 second advantage, but the race has exploded behind. Next on the road is a group of 4 - Monsalve and the Indosat trio of Intxausti, Brenes and Signorini. They lead Chamorro, Marquez and Nazaret by 20 seconds, with all other notable names 10 seconds further behind.
We pass the 4km to go point and the race is once more back together behind. Machado and Martin are pushing ahead though, leading Monsalve, Intxausti and Signorini by 45 seconds with the other big names at 1’05 - except from…
Beltran, Talansky and Contador! The trio appear to have cracked, and are now 50 seconds behind the main group containing Marquez, Chamorro, Nazaret, Sella, Brenes, De la Cruz, Denifl, Brajkovic, Rujano, Valls and and an overperforming Herrada and RodrÃguez!
Signorini would soon crack though, with Marquez accelerating past him to join Monsalve and Intxausti. Behind them the group has split - Nazaret, Chamorro, Sella, De la Cruz and Rujano distancing the others by 20 seconds.
3km to go up front and Machado has dropped Martin! The race situation now is:
Machado Martin +20 Intxausti, Marquez, Monsalve +57 Nazaret, Signorini, Sella, Chamorro, De la Cruz, Rujano +1’24 Denifl, Valls, Brajkovic, Brenes, RodrÃguez +1’48 Contador, Talansky, Fothen +2’28
With 1.5km to go it’s clear that Machado has this in the bag with Martin now 45 seconds down. Interestingly however, Marquez has tried to bridge - will he catch the fading Irishman?
Indeed he will, but Machado is long gone as he heads under the flamme rouge - so it’s a battle for second that Marquez is joining.
And Machado indeed takes an impressive win! Too tired to celebrate, but he won’t care.
Marquez would impressively distance Martin in the closing metres to take second, with the Irishman having to settle for third.
Next up would be Intxausti, leading Monsalve over the line - the duo too tired to contest the sprint at the end.
The next group home would be lead by an impressively strong Chamorro in 6th, with De la Cruz taking 7th. Nazaret finishes 8th, and Sella finishes 9th on a good day for the CT teams here.
Rujano would crack in the closing stages and have to settle for rounding out the top 10. But still a better day for him than for some of the other big names - Denifl in 11th and Contador in 15th at the end.
