After the mountain prologue, today's stage from North Vancouver to a summit finish on the Cypress is the next big test for the gc contenders. The stage features a hilly loop through North Vancouver, where a short, but steep climb has to be done eight times. The long finish up the Cypress ain't steep in it's average (6%), but with it's length, it will definitely be a crucial stage, obviously.
Amador was impressive in the opening prologue and of course he's the guy to beat here: úran, intxausti, shikai and costagli were the strongest behind amador on the first timetrial, while other contenders like kudus, eastman or marquez/nazaret will be those who challenge for the win as well.
The breakaway group with four riders has been found quickly:
Plenty of points for both the kom and sprint competition up for grabs today and so, there are some close battles in the breakaway for those sprints.
Fuglsang takes the first mountain sprint ahead of moscon, while the latter takes the first intermediate sprint and also the second mountain sprint ahead of fuglsang. The two appear as the strongest in the escaping group, with only girdlestone managing to take one intermediate through the way.
Stachowiak struggling already quite early into the stage: he is dropped from the breakaway about 90km before the finish..
Still about 50km remaining and the early break (now only three riders) leads by three and half minutes. Again some heavy crosswinds today, but there's no further action or drama except of the battle for the virtual kom lead in the leading group. Which is won by moscon, who takes the final mountain sprint:
provisional kom
#
rider
pts
1
moscon
21
2
amador
16
3
fuglsang
16
Just like yesterday's virtual points leader wang, moscon probably won't keep the lead unless his breakaway group will somehow fool the favorites to take the stage instead of the big guns..
..which probably won't happen, as the trio leads by only 1'31" with now still 32km to go and the first gc contenders attacking from the peloton:
nazaret and roglic with an early move!
The duo is surely as dangerous as the biggest favorites for the stage and even though it's surely a gutsy move, they ain't given an easy escape for obvious reasons. The pace is brutal and the duo is pulled back by team ubs quickly.
17km remaining and the early break has been reeled in thanks to the high pace in the pack now. 115 riders left in the pack and the as we are at the bottom of the finishing climb up the Cypress, the action is on again:
nazaret and roglic with another attempt to break clear!
kudus (gc 7 | + 0.25) tries to follow! It's time for the big guns.
brenes works hard at the front of the pack and he's pretty impressive at this point. Still 12km to go and the premium domestique for intxausti is pulling group kudus/nazaret back. Also meiji is showing it's colors heavily at the front of the peloton (95 riders).
10.5km remaining and guess who's attacking again:
nazaret and roglic with their third attempt!
The duo obviously feels great and confident to be a factor today. Will they finally succeed now? Still a long way up the climb and there's a wave of attacks behind the duo now..
A chasing group of 6 riders goes clear from the pack, about 25 seconds behind roglic/nazaret:
brenes intxausti amador martinez úran kudus
So amador and úran still with two strong supports at their side.
We're surely heading for the key moments now and with 8km to go, we may get a first idea, of who will be a true contender today. A couple of more moves brought a few things back together and the peloton went into pieces in the meantime.
Just when the chasing group around amador/intxausti is about catching up to the leading duo, nazaret/roglic go for another acceleration!
e1
< 0.02 >
e2
< 0.27 >
e3
< 0.36 >
e4
nazaret
amador
shikai
ochoa q
roglic
úran
gilanipoor
intxausti
hiratsuka
kudus
shirota
brenes
eastman
martinez
marquez
ratiy
nazaret/roglic opened up a 25" gap yet again, the two are truly aggressive today!
amador has seen enough and with now 5.5km remaining, he's launching his first big attack, quickly catching up to the leading duo and dropping úran/martinez and intxausti easily!
The overall situation has changed in the meantime, as the first chasing group went into pieces with amador on the attack and brenes finally cracking after this hard work in the last five kilometres.
so kudus couldn't hang on with intxausti/úran. THis may become a key moment for the u25 competition, as shikai attacks this group with shirota as a strong support!
Back to the front and we're at the 5km mark, where amador caught up to roglic/nazaret and now accelerates again! The gc leader obviously feels great and instead of waiting for some more attacks from his opponents, he's now taking control of the whole race. Impressive ride.
Group úran/intxausti/martinez about 36" behind, group shikai/kudus about 1'12" at this point..
..and less than 3km to go now. The chasing groups all go into pieces, as some riders are more and more suffering from the long climb here!
kudus with some real problems now! He could not follow shikai's acceleration and he ain't looking good at all. He's already more than 40 seconds behind shikai, who's flying towards group úran/intxausti!
van den broeck as the most notable name about to catch up a struggling kudus. The veteran clearly ahead of a next smaller group with costagli and ji as the biggest names. Their group is already more than three minutes behind amador, who has 2.6km to go now.
1.5km remaining and amador keeps pacing towards his second stage-win here. He's strong, but nazaret is fighting big time, yet hanging on for just a 20 seconds gap on amador.
His former attacking companion roglic is already 47" in arrears, struggling to hold off the group with intxausti/úran/shikai..
Group intxausti/úran with a 46 seconds advantage on marquez/eastman, who are 31" ahead of a group with kudus/ratiy/brenes..
amador takes the first of two summit finish and he does it in style. The premium stage racer was truly dominant today, going past the most aggressive duo easily and then climbing to his second stage-win in the race. Obviously, he will keep yellow and extend his lead in the gc comfortably.
+ 0.21 nazaret
An impressive ride as well, as the Brazilian launched several attacks from already 30km outside the finish and kept attacking on the climb up the Cypress. A huge fight after amador went away, so despite his rather disappointing outing in the prologue, he's a big player in the gc now.
+ 1.13 shikai, úran, intxausti, roglic
So a strong shikai completes the stage podium, as the group went past roglic in the final kilometre. Quite a loss for intxausti and úran, but with another summit finish on the menu, there's nothing lost yet. Shikai with a key performance to hold on to his young rider's jersey and he's also looking good to contest for a high gc result eventually.
+ 2.14 marquez, eastman
+ 2.29 martinez
+ 2.49 chiarello
+ 3.03 a group with van den broeck and kudus
Kudus looked strong early into the climb, but he suffered big time halfway through the ascent. Surely not the result he had hoped for, almost losing two minutes on shikai and also a minute on eastman here.
costagli the big loser in the gc fight today, eventually losing 4'44" on amador, just like ji. His strong performance in the prologue won't prevent him from dropping down the gc significally.
The deserved man in yellow remains amador, who also reclaims the lead in the points and mountain classification. He's now one minute ahead of nazaret, who moved up to 2nd in the gc. Then a trio seperated by only two seconds: shikai, úran, intxausti, while roglic moves up to a strong 6th for now.
eastman, marquez, martinez, chiarello rounding up the top-10, while kudus as 12th has something to gain back now.
