Next big climb in the race, as the peloton will face the 'Grosglockner-Hochtor' ascent (HC climb) halfway through the stage: 18km in total, 7.7% average slopes. A long flat sector then though, until the riders will fight for the stage-win from a bunch sprint, probably. A slightly uphill finish, that shouldn't produce bigger gaps though.
A breakaway may fancy it's chances today, at least for the KoM competition. Will the big GC contenders also try something here?
A breakaway group of 9 riders is formed right from the start of the stage:
The breakaway goes into pieces 75km before finish - they are on the famous Großglockner climb now:
Izagirre Jones remain in the lead
Lavery is the next to be dropped!
Also Jones looks pretty exhausted now... the peloton (down to 58 riders) has already reeled in all the other escapees and is just 1'32" behind Izagirre with still 4.5km to the mountaintop..
Izagirre easily dropped Jones as well and his gap is growing as he reaches the mountaintop: more than two minutes on Jones, who's still ahead of Lavery and the peloton some further seconds behind.
33km remaining and Jones (Lavery has been caught before) is the next escapee being swallowed by the peloton (that is down to 55 riders):
Fuchs - Kung - Ivars as the guys working for Team UBS, they are narrowing the gap on solo leader Izagirre to 1'12" with still a way to go!
And 11km before the finish, Izagirre has been reeled in as well! No chance for the escapees today, but Izagirre will be happy to slip into the polka dot right after the stage:
Maillet - Krizek - Jumabekov now taking care of the pace, they've been responsible for the latest catch (as well as UBS obviously). It's still all flat roads now and there's no one trying to get away here.
Instead, we will get a messy bunch sprint for today's line honours: the 2km finishing climb up to St. Johann (Alpendorf) ain't brutal, but it does feature slopes at 7% in average. Surely the climbers should be the strongest here and a few of the big names have positioned themselves at the very front:
Amador and Denifl amongst those, who did well with the positioning so far.
And it's those two, who got an early advantage in this sprint! 600metres to go (still 53 riders all in the same time, it will stay like that until the end) and let's see, who's in the mix:
Amador and Denifl in the prime positions
Henao Montoya, Maillet and Saggiorato next (the latter won't compete though)!
Geniez, Barguil and Rojas Villegas
Rolland, Sicard, Poljanski, Ratiy and Duarte
Roglic and Brajkovic, as well as Talansky on some further positions..
It looks like a battle between Amador and Denifl though, as they keep sprinting at the same level here!
Henao Montoya though catching Amador's wheel, Barguil and Sicard (as well as Poljanski and Duarte) as the best of the rest..
Amador sprints to a narrow victory over local favorite Denifl! No gaps inside this group, as said before, but both will gladly take the bonifications for their results.
Henao Montoya adding bonus seconds as 3rd, too. Three of the best climbers delivered in this group sprint today.
Sicard with a strong finish as 4th, Barguil comes in 5th ahead of Duarte, a still strong going Poljanski, Maillet, Roglic and Brajkovic as 10th.
Unfortunatelly, the race organization failed to get the full results working, but the most important news is, that 53 riders finished with the same time eventually. No notable names being dropped today.
Amador growing his lead thanks to the stage-win: 1'09" on Henao Montoya and 1'26" on Garby as 3rd. Denifl made up some seconds on Garby though. It will be thrilling battle for the podium here.
And the next battle will happen tomorrow: the hilly stage! It comes with a hilltop finish, that can surely make a difference. The less strong puncheurs amongst the GC contenders (Henao Montoya, Duarte, Shikai) need to be attentive, even though they may like the rather steep slopes of the finishing climb.
Amador obviously defending the points lead (62pts), growing the gap on Denifl (44pts). The KoM-lead goes to Izagirre though, narrowly ahead of Lavery, Amador and Jones.
