Queen Stage here in the Basque Country. Small sister of the more popular Vuelta al Pais Vasco hill stages with lots of up and downs here and rarely flat sections. The final uphill finish also really difficult and hence a potential GC changer.
The KoM as well potentially changing on that stage as we will see several Cat.2 and Cat.1 climbs alongside two smaller Cat.3`s.
The break already shows the KoM ambitions:
KoM leader Sirironnachai (1st, 26 pts)
Former KoM leader Stöhr (3rd, 20 pts) Ruijgh (0 pts)
The first Cat.2 though shows Ruijgh`s ambitions as he attacked the group for the points and neither Stöhr nor Sirionnachai able to follow.
Instead two more riders having bridged to them with Manfred and Vliegen. Both on 6 points which already make a top5 KoM position.
Ruijgh over the top first was sure. Sirironnachai beatign Stöhr then, which sees him excending the gap to 34 points with Stöhr following at 26. Magnusson, who is not in todays break remains at 24th and might even drop behind some of the others today.
Next cat.2 and Ruijgh takes yet another 10 points being up to 20 now. Again Siri... beating Stöhr for the next points.
After the descent a big crash in a corner. Many riders being on the road.
Best placed rider is Othman as GC`s 6th.
Also Gilbert, Wahyudi, Nzeke, Backaert, Ockeloen, Marcato, Panayotov, Nieve and Forcellini on the ground.
Sauber quickly reacts sending most of their squad back to support Othman. 6 riders in total which means only Schurter (10th) and his support Awang remain in the peloton.
And indeed they quickly make it back still ahead of the Cat.1 climb, which soon starts though.
Ruijgh unsurprisingly winning being up to 36 points now. Siri and Stöhr next yet again, then Vliegen, Manfred and from the peloton Reijnen and Kruopis first.
Provisionally this means Siri... at 54 points, Stöhr at 42 being only a bit ahead Ruijgh now.
Also the Cat.1 led to big splits. The peloton of ~110 riders into 4 similar sized groups.
The biggest with 29 being the first including most top 10-15 riders as also Othman, who really made it back to the front in time.
Missing out and being in the next only are: Schurter Hugentobler Cunego Diggle De Marchi Kreder D.Juarez Destribois
Even in the 3rd group are Godoy and Bardet.
Good for the other Sauber riders as also Diggle, Cunego etc. that the first two groups merged before the Cat.3 again.
And it`s not In-n-Out working as Hugenhaben clearly needs to gain back some time.
Kruopis and Le Bon in the lead in front of their leader.
All GC riders more or less in the first 15 position. Only Boily a bit further behind in ~25th-30th.
But the action starts now and hence being in front might be important.
First some smaller attacks but interesting as it`s two Proximus riders in Ockeloen and Wallays.
Ruijgh yet again coming over the line first with Siri in 2nd.
Though no sign of Stöhr this time, who just is caught. Ockeloen already coming over as 3rd. 1 and 3 minutes for the 2 riders in front still with 35km to go.
Ruijgh also taking the next Cat. 3 and Cat. 2 and slowly becoming a real danger. In fact he is up to 58 points and as Siri... was caught before the Cat.3 he remains at...yes...58 as well. Shared KoM and Ruijgh with the chance to get more on the final climb. Still 2'30 for him with 17km to go.
6,5km and the gap is down to 20s though. 50 riders go around the last corner before the road goes uphill.
First rider to attack is Kratochvila being followed by Othman, Chaves, Agostini and Rodriguez Galindo.
Boily, Roux and others though chased and only Kratochvila remains in front.
With 3,5km to go the gap is 30s for him already and hence the next attacks. This time Bratashcuk Chaves Rodriguez Galindo
Roux seems to struggle today just like Boily and van der Hugenhaben.
Says it all when Poorseyedi is the one attacking. Several big puncheurs seem to have a day off here.
But Roux knows about the danger and attacks as well now forcing himself to give it all.
And actually more riders now do their move with 2,5km to go. Wyss van der Hugenhaben Boily Khripta
have passed Poourseydi and are behind Roux now.
Also Schurter as best Sauber today and Agostini yet again as best Repsol coming next.
Flamme Rouge for Kratochvila. Behind Bratashcuk is closing though. Just 20s.
Same gap for Chaves, who lost contact.
Roux only in 6th as the WCC duo Rodriguez Galindo and Boily are ahead of him. Big struggle and huge danger to lose the GC today.
Kratochvila though with a huge win today. A pity that he is only 15th and 2'45 down as his jump forward clearly is not as big and not GC threatening.
Bratashcuk behind him a much bigger threat. 20s later he comes in as 2nd and this is an GC attack.
Chaves in 3rd at 41s. This means 13s behind Bratashcuk in the GC.
Boily next but already +1'20 with Roux and Galindo coming in at +1'33.
So now we know: Bratashcuk takes the GC ahead of Chaves. Roux drops to 3rd being 38s down in total but staying in front of Boily, who is 4th.
Khripta, Hugenhaben and Wyss come in next at 2'08. This means Kratochvila passing them all and up to 5th in the GC.
Wyss 6th, then Hugenhaben and Khripta at 8th as Schurter behind losing another 10s with Hugentobler also another few seconds.
Schurter still climbs in the GC to 9th with Galindo being 10th now.
Godoy, Agostini, Bardet, Cunego, Costa next. Othman in the end losing 5'44 and droping back quite a bit. Not sure if his crash had an impact as he looked good afterwards but maybe a bit.
GC wise Agistini 11th ahead of Hugentobler with Othman dropping to 14th but solid depth points for the team. Cunego up to 13th after a strong final climb by him.
Three riders to lose out on todays time cut in Ivan Garcia Cortina, Nipuna Shira Manamalage and Pascal Acermann.
