Next mountain stage, that leads the peloton from Limoux to Andorra: a downhill finish today, but two HC climbs and a final Cat2 climb before the descent to the finish will make for another challenging day.
Valls pretty dominated the opening stage, with a strong Anacona and Penasa as his best competitors. Eastman surely has to bounce back from a rather disappointing day. So does Bennett.
But while two riders (J Thomson and Hardy) try to get away from the peloton early into the stage, the day unfortunatelly kicks off with a shocking crash at the front of the pack:
Eastman Panayotov Solis Tvetcov Bennett Hacecký Diaz
Of 13 riders involved, it's four riders from inside the GC's Top-10. A real shocker just 20km into the stage. With the pace rather high (we're still in the "breakaways try to go and the peloton chases them down" situation), it's certainly not the best moment for a crash anyway. At least, most of the crash victims are back on the bike quickly.
Except of Pereyra, who has to abandon soon after the fall. Further bad news for Aeropostal here.
Thomson and Hardy couldn't go clear and with 126km to go, a breakaway group of two riders had been formed, establishing a two-minutes gap quickly:
De Marchi (GC's 17th, + 3.52) Løvik
Pirazzi would join them a few kilometres later
With 114km to go, the crashed riders would have finally caught up to the peloton! It took them almost 40km to get back into the pack. Surely this might have cost some energy with some notable crosswinds (45kmh) adding some real difficulty to the stage.
Manfred (KoM's 3rd, 16pts) had attacked from the peloton at the bottom of the first HC climb and he quickly bridged across the breakaway group - also taking out the mountain sprint eventually!
Briceno would follow him on the descent from the climb after breaking clear from the pack close to the mountain sprint:
HC Climb #1: Manfred 20pts, Pirazzi 14, Lovik 12, De Marchi 10, Briceno 8, Prado 6, Roson 5, Valls 4
With now 62km to go (we're at the bottom of the next - 32km long - HC climb), the breakaway group (now 5 riders) leads by 4 minutes on the peloton, that is down to 111 riders in the meantime.
Horrible news for GC's 7th Tvetcov, who's clearly suffering from the early crash and the efforts to get back to the peloton: he's been dropped from the peloton and is already two minutes behind with still 65km to go for himself. Lampier and Semple supporting their captain, but with still two climbs to come, he will surely drop off any GC aspirations today.
50km to go, 14km to the next HC rated mountaintop:
Group Belkov/Battaglin couldn't really get away from the pack with just Belkov and Mat Senan holding on to a small gap on the peloton, that is down to 58 riders with just a few hundred metres to the mountaintop (35km to the finish):
Cataldo (GC + 3.52) attacks!
An empty-handed attempt though, as he's been caught on the following descent! 17km to go for solo leader Briceno, 18.5km for the peloton (50 riders):
all of the latest attackers have been reeled in with only Briceno, Manfred and Lovik/De Marchi holding on to their advantages over the pack..
Penasa (GC's 3rd, + 1.25) goes clear from the main group with 7km to the next mountaintop!
And it's a strong move, as Penasa opened up a minute-gap on the group quickly! He already went past De Marchi/Lovik and is less than a minute behind Manfred, who's still about a minute behind Briceno.
Valls doesn't want to let Penasa go so easily and he's attacking the main group with 3.2km to the mountaintop! The group has been reduced to 15 riders in the meantime, as there are more and more riders suffering to follow the pace now. In this group are:
Eastman (GC's 8th) not looking good and he's already 1'35" behind group Valls/Anacona with still 3.9km to the mountaintop! Surely he's now suffering from his crash as well, but it's terrible news for his GC ambitiouns here.
Some other riders struggling as well, though in a group further ahead (44 seconds behind group Valls):
Campero at the front of this group Manfredi Diaz
In group Eastman then: Moschella as the biggest name
A minute behind Eastman: Hacecký and Atapuma
Briceno still leading as he takes the final (Cat2) climb..
Penasa a minute behind, as he also easily went past Manfred, who's 19 seconds behind Penasa now..
Valls latest acceleration gave him a comfortable gap over his former group, where we did see some further attacks in the meantime: Bardet and Bennett try to get away now.
Valls though is already a minute ahead of those riders, but still more than a minute behind Penasa with now less than 12km remaining!
Bardet as the only one getting a small gap on group Anacona/Krasnoperov, that is now at 16 riders (with Campero and Manfredi re-joining the group in the meantime)!
Bardet catching up to Lovik/De Marchi, the trio has a 29" gap on the next group..
Valls, who's been catching up to Manfred now, is 1'25" ahead though!
As said, 16 riders in group Anacona/Krasnoperov now: Bennett at the front with Panayotov and Cataldo looking good as well:
Campero as the latest rider, to bridge across from a next group.. opposing to Diaz and Salinas, who are 1'18" behind..
Group Eastman further 42 seconds down to the road! This will be a tough day for Eastman..
On the downhill to the finish, Penasa catches up to Briceno!
The new leading duo has just 2km to go and there's still a clear gap on Valls!
59 seconds, to be precisive: Valls fighting to defend yellow against Penasa and there's certainly a good chance that he will do so.
Manfred is 33 seconds behind Valls now..
Group Bardet, Lovik and De Marchi with a 27" gap on the group with Anacona, Krasnoperov, Solis and Bennett! GC's 9th Bardet with a chance to improve today, but he's still got 4.5km to go now..
In the group behind, Pozzovivo and Panayotov got a small gap on the others. Will they hold on until the end?
Group Eastman has caught up to group Diaz and those 17 riders are 1'43" behind group Anacona!
The sprint between Penasa and Briceno has been kicked off and it doesn't come as big surprise, that Penasa seems to have more power left for this one. He easily goes past Briceno, who had been in the leading position prior to the sprint..
..and takes the stage! Penasa with a great ride today and even though Valls seems to have narrowed the gap a bit, he certainly put some real pressure on the GC-leader with his attack on the final climb. Well done!
Briceno with a great result as 2nd, too. A bit unlucky though, as he both missed the stage-win and the KoM-lead so close today. Still: with just a 3.52 disadvantage on Valls prior to the stage, he will definitely make a huge jump in the GC today!
+ 29" Valls, who had a strong finish as well
+ 1'34" Manfred, who will slip into the polka dot
+ 2'28" for group Bardet, De Marchi, Løvik
They maintained a small gap on the first bigger group and that's good news for particularly Bardet. But of course some good results for two early escapees here!
+ 2'51" for Pozzovivo and the first bigger group:
Pozzovivo and Panayotov couldn't get away from this group, so they finish all with the same time eventually.
Most notable names: Anacona/Krasnoperov/Manfredi, Bennett/Antón, Karnulin, Solis, Cataldo, Campero
Also Destribois as 9th on the stage, Degand, Lewis, Nakane and Rujano with some good performances today.
+ 5'01" for group Eastman, surely one of the big losers after his early crash
Moschella, Salinas, Diaz, Stetina as some other names in that group..
Tvetcov eventually losing more than 22 minutes. Obviously suffering the most serious injury from the early crash victims. The others like Eastman may actually hope to be fine tomorrow and given the difficulties to catch back to the peloton today, this might have been the main reason for his big losses in the end. Tomorrow may tell us more.
Again two DNFs: Eg and as already said, Pereyra.
Valls keeps the GC-lead thanks to his great fight today. Penasa obviously gaining back time, moving up to 2nd with 44 seconds off Valls now. Both look very strong so far in the tour and they share the points-lead (41pts) for a day now.
A clear gap on the 3rd in the GC already: Briceno! His efforts paid off and he's on the provisional podium, 3'19" behind Valls. Anacona and Krasnoperov dropping to 4th and 5th, but did well enough again. Solis 6th ahead of Bardet, who indeed improved today. Karnulin, Panayotov and De Marchi completing the Top-10. Also De Marchi with a great jump after his breakaway efforts here.
Nakane 11th ahead of Manfredi, who is 6'22" off Valls to lead a bunch of GC contenders, who are at the same time as him: Pozzovivio, Cataldo, Campero, Rujano and Bennett. Still everything's possible for their Top-10 or even Top-5 ambitiouns, but the gap to Valls/Penasa is quite huge.
Eastman obviously way behind his own expectations: 20th in the GC with 7'57" disadvantage. The crash today didn't help, of course, and he now has to recover quickly. Still three stages, where you can potentially gain back minutes.
