It is characteristically sunny, but uncharacteristically windless here in the desert of Qatar. This is the first edition of the race going up these man made mountains prepared just for this occasion.
We see two separate groups in the early breakaway. The four man group at the front has Frank, Brandle, Dayer Quintana and Antunes.
Spoiler
For the rest of this report, I will call Nairo Quintana as Nairo and Dayer Quintana as Dayer, to not have to write full names every time.
Trailing by 20 seconds at the moment, is the next group, also having four riders - Geniez, Grigrian, Baz and Alizadeh.
The peloton is a minute down. 14 riders have already been dropped, midway up the first climb!
The two groups in the break come together in the first descent.
On the second climb, Senni and Jang attack out of the peloton.
Frank, Geniez and Baz have been dropped from the break. They are being caught by the recent attackers.
As the second climb starts, a group of 11 riders, including some race favourites get a gap to the peloton. The riders in this group are Signorini, Sarmiento, Pantano, Geniez, Jang, Uran, Meier, Brandt, Simon, Intxausti and Barguil.
The peloton are 32 seconds behind and has most of the other race contenders.
Further behind, Brajkovic and Shikai are the first of the big names to be in trouble today. They are in a big group almost two minutes behind the peloton. The only positive is that the size of the group will probably allow them to get back to the peloton.
Everything settles down and the Brajkovic group makes it back to the peloton by the time they reach the summit of the second climb. The break now have a lead of 4'48".
There is 85 km left now and we're on the sixth descent. A group of riders is dropped containing Duarte and Schelling.
They do make it back to the peloton on the next climb.
But the good news doesn't last. Duarte and Brajkovic are dropped again on the seventh climb!
The race situation with 60 km left, after the seventh decent is as follows:
E1 -> Brandle, Dayer, Antunes, Alizadeh, Grigrian
E2 (6'29" ) -> Maillet, Berhane, Uran, Intxausti, Kudus, De La Cruz, Barguil, Denifl, Lawless, Sergio Henao, Neilsen, Nazaret, Brenes, Nairo, Schelling, Choi, Talansky, Shikai
Behind them is the peloton, still having quite a few riders.
Further behind, trailing at 1'14" to the peloton is the group containing Brajkovic and Duarte.
The Brajkovic group returns to the peloton on the eight climb, but they are already a couple of minutes behind the Uran group.
We have an attack with 55 km left. It's in the break! Brandle and Alizadeh are dropped as the others speed away. The break have started lapping riders now.
Brajkovic and Duarte are dropped by the peloton again!
Up ahead, in the Uran group, Talansky, Shikai, Nazaret, Schelling and Nairo are dropped.
Talansky makes it back to the Uran group but the others are distanced for good. Eventually Brenes, Choi, Denifl, Kudus, De La Cruz and Maillet are also dropped. The chasers are now 7'37" down on the break.
Grigrian is dropped from the break on the eighth climb. It's down to just Antunes and Dayer at the head of the field.
At the top of the ninth (last lap of the circuit) climb, the situation is as follows:
We are on the monster climb to the finish and there's 18 km to go now. Alizadeh and Brandle have been picked up, but not shaken off, by the group containing Uran, Intxausti, Talansky, Sergio Henao, Barguil and Marquez. The gap to the front two is still over four minutes. Which way will this race go?
Grigrian is still in no man's land, 90 seconds ahead of this group.
9 km left now, and Grigrian is caught by the Intxausti group. The gap to the front two is down to 1'28".
Behind them, Berhane, Brenes, Choi, Nazaret, Schelling, De La Cruz and Maillet are riding together now.
Sergio Henao is dropped from the favourites' group! This is a big surprise as the Colombian was the top favourite for the stage win. Also dropped is Brandle and Alizadeh. Their efforts in the break are catching up to them. 7 km left.
Grigrian is dropped from the favourites group. The deficit from the break is now 50 seconds. 6 km to go.
Behind, Choi is dropped from the Berhane group.
Talansky is now dropped from the Intxausti group with 3.5 km to go, leaving four men chasing the break.
1.5 km to go and the gap is increasing! The break have pulled their lead to over a minute now. Will they actually hang on?!
1 km to go, and the lead for the break is 1'8". Surely, it comes down to these two for the win.
Marquez is dropped by Uran, Intxausti and Barguil.
500 meters and the lead is 50 seconds. They're not sprinting yet. The cameraman makes a cameo appearance on our screens.
400 meters and the sprint is launched.
200 meters. Dayer is much stronger. He seems to have this!
And he does! Dayer Quintana takes a phenomenal win from the day's break narrowly edging out Antunes at the line.
He raises in hands in the elation of victory and hasn't he earned this one!
Barguil powers through to 3rd to make it a double podium for Ticos. Uran and Intxausti complete the top 5.
Marquez finishes 6th. Berg also enjoy a good day's racing. Talansky is 7th.
Grigrian hangs on from the break for 8th place!
Denifl has made up a handful of places in the final kilometers to finish 9th. He is followed to the line by Brenes, Alizadeh (again from the break), Nazaret, Kudus and Henao, who has gone off the hill at the end!
Berhane and Brandle are next. The breakaway have done well for themselves, all finishing within the top 16.
De La Cruz, Schelling, Maillet and Choi round out the top 20.
