The famous stage up the 'Kitzbüheler Horn' must be considered the queen stage here: the average slopes of 9% in the tough way up the summit finish are simply brutal. Anyone with bad legs could potentially lose all his ambitiouns in the GC.
Amador rode to an impressive victory yesterday, with Barguil and Duarte as the next strongest on the day. Sicard, Denifl, Shikai, a strong Van den Broeck and a stunning Poljanski did well enough as well. Henao Montoya surely wants to bounce back from a rather disappointing 10th place yesterday.
The usual business first though - a first breakaway attempt from 9 riders was shut down quickly:
Eeckhout, Le Court, Quaade, Höög, Izagirre, Fomiynkh, Laengen, Valencia and Bialoblocki with an empty-handed attempt eventually..
The next big wave of attacks succeeded though, a group with 10 riders will make up the break of the day:
Izagirre (+ 12.08 as best placed in the GC/58th) Oka Logar Varga Oomen Lavery Olsson Er Rafai Fabbro Eeckhout
They do not care about the intermediate sprints, but for the minor KoM sprints:
Again no real chance for the breakaway group though: just like yesterday, teams like UBS (with a bit support from Ferrero, SPAR and Orange) would keep up a rather high pace throughout the stage and with now 15km to go, the escapees are soon to be caught.
The 'Kitzbüheler Horn' is approaching.. when will the real action kick off?
It takes quite a while, actually: already 7km into the climb (5km to the finish), there's finally some attacks after the race settled down for quite a while now.
Roglic Garby went first
Henao Montoya follows soon after!
The trio opened up a 52 seconds gap quickly! 3.5km to go and it's already looking quite promising for those three riders at the front of the race.
Denifl Amador Duarte and Hudecek Poljanski Brajkovic De la Cruz Sicard Shikai
as those riders at the front of the main group, now showing something like an acceleration. Denifl surely putting some pressure on Amador that way, but he looks attentive.
3.3km to go for the leading trio and Garby accelerates again! Roglic jumps after him quickly, Henao Montoya looks in trouble for a moment!
Henao Montoya could follow the latest acceleration though and the trio is now 57" ahead of the first chasing group (that is still quite big):
Denifl with his first real attack now, 3.1km before the finish!
Duarte and Amador at the front of the group, at least Duarte looks like he's trying to jump behind Denifl!
He can't though: Denifl established a small gap with now 2.5km to go for this group:
Amador accelerating with Duarte and Sicard at his side. The group is getting smaller now, Barguil next in the row, but he looks in troubles.
1.3km to go for the leading trio, that is still together and now 36" ahead of a strong chasing Denifl!
Amador getting away from Duarte and trying to bridge across Denifl. Behind him, there's a group of 6 riders formed: Poljanski, Duarte, Sicard, Brajkovic, Van den Broeck and Ratiy.
A next group with 11 riders and Barguil as the biggest name is further 25" in arrears. Also Shikai in this group, just like Contador and Talansky.
Final kilometre and the leading trio holds on to a 34" on Denifl, who's now accompanied by Amador:
Garby appears to be the strongest at this point and it looks like he can open up a gap on Roglic/Henao!
Indeed, Garby is getting away from Roglic and Henao!
Denifl/Amador still with the same disadvantage and 22" behind them, there's some action again:
Van den Broeck Brajkovic Poljanski on the attack, getting away from
Duarte Sicard Ratiy
Further 19" in arrears, a group with GC's 2nd Barguil, who's in serious danger to lose valuable time today!
Roglic and Henao Montoya are trying a late acceleration, but Garby (looking dead empty now) has established a solid gap there..
..which is enough for a phenomenal victory on the 'Kitzbüheler Horn':
Garby does not celebrate, but he will surely do so later. A stunning ride up this brutal climb and since he didn't do that bad yesterday, he can definitely expect a nice jump in the GC today. Will he even be of danger for Amador eventually?
+ 14" for Roglic as 2nd and Henao Montoya
Both significally better than yesterday, which should be good news. Henao Montoya might have hoped for beat those two, but you can't have everything. There's definitely still a clear gap to Denifl and Amador..
+ 57" for Denifl and Amador as 4th and 5th
+ 1'09" for an again strong Van den Broeck
+ 1'17" for an again impressive Poljanski and Brajkovic
Denifl gave Amador a good fight today, even though both lost almost a minute on Garby eventually. Still, given his advantage prior to the stage, Amador might have done fine enough to keep his yellow shirt for another day!
+ 1'57" for Duarte, Sicard and Ratiy
A rather disappointing day for Sicard, who finishes 10th on the stage. He didn't exactly shine yesterday, so a low-key performance like today surely won't help his high ambitiouns for the GC here..
+ 2'19" for a group with Barguil, Shikai and Contador
Barguil paying the price for yesterday's efforts? Well, his 13th place today definitely ain't disastrous when looking at his pre-race expectations. But he lost quite some time on guys like Garby, Roglic or Van den Broeck. Shikai will probably be more disappointed though. That hasn't been his best day.
Warbasse, by the way, again losing 4'56" as 45th on the stage. Clearly suffering from yesterday's crash and efforts afterwards.
One DNF today: Lilovski from Podium Ambition. Another disappointing day for Talansky (24th on the stage, + 3.33) won't help the manager's mood improving.
Finally some time to celebrate a prestigous victory on a world-famous climb: Garby certainly had the best ride of his still rather young career. Well done. Who's Contador, by the way?
Quite some changes in the GC today, as to be expected of course:
Amador indeed succesfully defends yellow thanks to Barguil and also Sicard in troubles today. The premium climber now leading the GC by 57 seconds on Henao Montoya, who moved up to 2nd thanks to his efforts today.
Garby an so far impressive 3rd, about a minute down on Amador. Denifl 4th ahead of Van den Broeck, Poljanski and Duarte - they are all in a similar range of time. More than two minutes for Roglic, who moves up to 8th ahead of Barguil and Sicard. The latter definitely needs to find a way to gain back time in one of the following key stages. No more summit finish though, just a hilltop finish on day five and of course the timetrial.
Shikai 11th ahead of Brajkovic, Ratiy, De la Cruz and Contador.. Amador defending all classification leads: GC, points and KoM.
