First hilly stage and it's probably one of the tougher key stages here: the finishing climb is part of a circuit and has to be climbed five times today. Surely a good day to haunt the KoM-lead and of course an even better day to underline your GC aspirations: Chaves, Boily and Roux as the best puncheurs. Per will probably struggle to defend the GC lead.
Crosswinds again, this time up to 50kmh. And it's an action packed and quite fast race right from the start!
Several attacks on the first climb:
Costa would again take the first mountain sprint!
Partridge again 2nd, but already distanced by Costa..
Also Jung, Vandewalle, Vila, Konwa and Koch tried to get away from the pack, but they all struggle to open up a bigger gap on this climb.
First descent and the first crash with notable names. In addition to those, there have also been the first riders to be dropped due to the high pace:
as the crash victims! They would all be back on the bike soon and while it's too early to say, if someone has suffered an injury, they are all brought back into the pack by mainly In-n-Out's domestiques.
Kruopis Chavanne Salleh Kip
amongst a 14-men-group, that has already been dropped after the first climb!
A few more riders tried to join a possible breakaway group, but it's only Partridge and Jérôme, who were able to join Costa:
Costa Partridge Jérôme
lead by just 1'08" on the second climb (125km to go).. Jérôme would outsprint Costa at the mountain sprint, but Costa keeps the lead:
Provisional KoM: Costa 16, Partridge 10, Jérôme 8
Next descent, next crash with some GC contenders involved:
Just like the first crash victims, also those guys are brought back to the peloton quickly: they are back in bunch about 104km before finish. Just a moment of shock or is there anyone, who may suffer from an injury later on? Time will tell. But it's been definitely some notable crashes so far.
With those 104km to go, the peloton is still going for quite a high pace and group Costa is still just a minute ahead of the pack! They are not allowed to establish a bigger gap so far.
Third climb, 82km remaining: Costa dropped his two companions, who are already swallowed by the peloton, that is still just a good minute behind the leader.
Costa going strong so far and his mission to defend the KoM-lead for another day has been succesfull so far:
Provisional KoM: Costa 22, Partridge 10, Jérôme 8
He would also take the second (and last) intermediate sprint about 52km before the finish, where Per sprints for 4 bonus seconds as 2nd at the sprint.
Costa would also take the last mountain sprint to grow his lead further:
Provisional KoM: Costa 28, Partridge 10
35km before the finish though, Costa has been swallowed by the pack (118 riders)! Kulczyk, WCC, Azteca and cycleYorkshire showing their colors at the front of the pack. The winds are still blowing, but the race settles down for a few moments.
Only for a few moments, really: Hugentobler attacks the pack with 32km to go!
Passalacqua tries to follow, but he would fail. Hugentobler establishes a small gap quickly.
It ain't a bad move, really: Hugentobler opened up a 1'16" gap with now 18km remaining. The peloton (95 riders) is still strong in numbers, even though more and more riders get dropped from the pace. Most importantly, the GC-leader amongst those being dropped now:
Per can't follow, just like Haller, Van Zandbeek, Andriato or Kruopis. The race lead will be gone today.
Finally some more action though:
Geschke tries to bridge across Hugentobler! He's 45" ahead of the pack, but has still a way to go here..
No luck for Geschke, who's been reeled in by the chasing bunch about 6.5km before finish: 68 riders remain in the peloton, where Lampier is setting the pace now. Azteca and Xero also strong in numbers. Their ambitiouns should be clear enough.
Costa has been dropped from the pack after his efforts today. Same goes for Jérôme, Vandousselaere, Trillini, Mullen, Timmer.
3.5km to go and Hugentobler is caught! The pace in the pack has been impressive on the final few kilometres, even though the group is still 68 riders strong..
..the next attacks are launched:
Vichot and Roux try to get away!
Monfort Squire Tvetcov
right behind them and following the acceleration immediately. Just like a few other riders!
Monfort and Roux couldn't get away, but the latest attacks made for some selection in the group:
29 riders still left in the leading group though and we now only have 1.5km to go! No one really tried to get away again, but Monfort and Roux, as well as Vichot are still in the leading positions.
Most notable names being dropped:
Thill Cunego are 50" behind in the next group!
Gatto Othman Besada Juarez Passalacqua Lejman Wahyudi Bole further 11" in arrears..
Godoy Durasek Khripta another 24" behind.. clearly suffering from crashes!
Just 1km to go and still no more attack, as we now got an overview of the positions in the front group. Let's have a look who's inside the group:
at approximately 50 seconds, yet fighting to limit the losses - a grouo with those guys:
Thill Cunego Juarez Schoonbroodt De Clercq
It took the leading group quite a while to finally kick off the sprint and so the order is quite similar to what we've seen before:
Monfort still in the prime position with the finish already approaching!
Chaves and Boily unsurprisingly as the best of the rest so far. Vichot/Hollenstein, Zoidl, Roux, Gaimon/Pellaud/Smukulis and Wyss on the further positions..
But Monfort holds on to his small advantage and takes the stage! The earlier attack didn't quite work, but it was enough to keep the prime position until the end. Crucial bonifications at least.
Chaves and Boily complete the podium, no further gaps between those three though!
Zoidl comes in as 4th and even though there was a small gap between him and Boily, there's no official gap rewarded: they finish with the same time as Monfort!
Hollenstein and Vichot coming in next, just ahead of a Goldcorp trio Gaimon - Pellaud - Smukulis.
Roux has to settle for a rather disappointing 10th on the stage, but he's inside the group to at least lose no further seconds except of those bonifications.
Same goes for: Wyss, Uwizeyimana, Cuming, Nzeke, Anderson, Wallays, Gilbert, Taborre, Rodriguez Galindo.. behind them, there's a clear gap to a next group though!
+ 56" for Tvetcov, Thomson and Simon
They got dropped on the final few hundred metres and also a few more notable names had a bad finish here..
+ 1'13" for a group with Bennett, Diggle, Squire, Cunego
Cunego fought his way back to the 29-men-group, but as a further split occured, he's still amongst those GC contenders, who lost more than a minute today. Thill, De Clercq, Grippo, Hugentobler, Agostini, Kneisky, Juarez and Schoonbroodt finish with the same time as Bennett, who will be disappointed with his performance today.
+ 3'00" for a group with Othman, Gatto, Bole, Kasa, Lejman, Besada, Godoy, Geschke, Passalacqua, Khripta
+ 4'37" for an dead empty Durasek (see picture above), who's been amongst the crash victims today
+ 7'40" for race-leader Per, who couldn't compete today. 105th on the stage. But at least, he moves up to the points-lead thanks to 8pts collected during the stage!
Three riders DNF: Kip, Ratto and Quispe
Monfort slips into the leader's shirt: 8 seconds ahead of a strong Uwizeyimana, who does benefit from a good prologue! Chaves on 3rd with 13sec on Monfort. Cuming, Gilbert, Zoidl and Gaimon on the further positions.
Boily 12th at this point (24sec), Vichot (25sec), Roux on 19th (36sec). A first bigger gap to Tvetcov as 20th (1.09 behind Monfort) and surely guys like Diggle (1.30), Cunego (1.40) and Bennett (1.41) have to bounce back in the remaining key stages.
