The hilly parcours around Minami-Shinshu is surely a first key stage for the main GC contenders - and probably the most challenging road race here in the six days. A flat finish, but several times up a short, but steep climb.
Ignatiev rode to an impressive stage-win and the GC-lead yesterday and obviously, he became a serious GC contender that way. He will definitely suffer in tomorrow's mountain timetrial though, so for today, his goal must be to both defend yellow against some stronger puncheurs like Kinoshita, Kwiatkowski or Sicard and also to gain further time on climbers like Denifl, Kudus or Shikai.
Like yesterday, the early break is formed quickly:
Ssabagwanya (GC + 0.43) Schlegel O'Connor (GC + 0.39, 4th in KoM with 2pts)
O'Connor with his second breakaway attempt in two days, but let's keep it short: he's already been dropped after the first Cat2 mountain sprint, that is won by Ssabagwanya (10pts) ahead of Schlegel! Rinner taking 4pts from the peloton.
Ssabagwanya also takes the second sprint to move up to 2nd place in the provisional KoM ranking: Tanovitchii 22, Ssabagwanya 20
Close to the third mountain sprint (60km before finish), the breakaway duo is only 54 seconds ahead of the peloton, that is going for quite a high pace so far! A first major split happened, also caused by a big crash inside the pack - just like yesterday. Just 59 riders remain in the main group and we have some notable names hitting the turf here:
Given the high pace in the main group, that's horrible news for all those riders involved. They will face quite a big gap once they are back on their bikes..
Ssabagwanya also took the third mountain sprint ahead of Schlegel then, but the duo is swallowed by the pack soon after! At least, Ssabagwanya did enough to take the KoM-lead with 30pts gained today:
Shushemoin - Tolhoek - Kolesnikov are setting a ridicolous pace for Ferrero now. Still 52km to go here and the peloton (56 riders) ain't given an easy time so far. As said before, that's bad news for the dropped groups and crashed riders, who are already more than two or three minutes behind now!
No more attacks until the final 20km of the stage - the pace may be simply too high: a further selection made the leading group go down to 39 riders with now 18.5km to go.
Shikai has taken over the pace setting from Ferrero! Also Eritel showing it's colours again - working for Kudus now.
Rolland and Cunego as the latest big names being dropped from the group, with the already mentioned crashed riders being more than six or seven minutes in arrears now:
Quintana in a fourth group behind the pack.. that will probably destroy all his GC ambitiouns here. The crash and the high pace from Ferrero/Meiji/Eritel obviously as the unlucky reasons for his suffering here..
Bartl/Vogt and a big group with Teklehaimanot are even further behind.. a huge bummer for Berg, losing both one of today's most promising puncheurs (Vogt) and a possible GC threat (Bartl) that way..
Just 10km to go now and it's the last time, the riders go up the steep climb: the leading group is down to 32 riders with Sanchez Gil as the most notable name being dropped most recently:
Kinoshita and Cataldo on the attack now!
Palini jumping behind to close the gap
Khederi Ignatiev Kwiatkowski with a small gap on the group then!
Kinoshita dropped Cataldo on the climb and the local favorite enters the final 9km with a 17 seconds advantage on the first chasing group:
Palini Ignatiev Kwiatkowski Cataldo
with a small advantage on a next 4-men-group:
Sicard Roche Kudus Khederi
Denifl now trying to bridge across this group Sicard/Kudus from the remaining main group with Roglic, Shikai, Dennis, Zardini and Moazemi:
6km to go for the Austrian, who's about 17 seconds behind group Sicard/Kudus and almost a minute behind solo leader Kinoshita (5km to go for him):
3.5km left for the first chasing group, that is still 23 seconds behind Kinoshita:
Palini pulling the strings hard for his captain Ignatiev. With Kinoshita being down by 35 seconds in the GC, he's definitely a real threat for Ignatiev's yellow shirt now. Kwiatkowski and Cataldo might just save their energy for the sprint then..
17 seconds behind group Ignatiev, we now have 5 riders fighting to close the gap: Denifl has caught up:
Group Dennis/Roglic now alredy 56 seconds behind group Sicard, with Sanchez Gil making his way back to the 15-men-group in the meantime:
Dennis Roglic Shikai Sanchez Gil Zardini Moazemi Duarte Schachmann Shushemoin Lavery Hatsuyama Fernandez Jang Edet Reguigui
Marcato got dropped now and suffers big time.. the next group are already more than two minutes behind..
It's looking good for Kinoshita, who enters the final kilometre with a 28 seconds gap on group Ignatiev now! He's not only fighting for a prestigious stage-win, but also for yellow..
..but first of all: he rode to line honours, which must have been the first goal for Kinoshita here. It's his second stage-win in the Tour of Japan, after he took the final stage last year. With the bonifications gained as well, he may even slip into yellow today..
The latest reported gap has grown to 32 seconds, but Ignatiev obviously won't just give up on his race lead too easy: Palini has done his work and Ignatiev launches a strong sprint ahead of Kwiatkowski and Cataldo!
Palini losing ground quickly and not too far behind, there's Sicard sprinting away from the next group..
Ignatiev though takes a strong 2nd place today, but where's the clock stopping?
25 seconds! This is a few seconds gained back from another impressive sprint finish for Ignatiev.. it will be a tight decision for yellow today!
Kwiatkowski outsprints Cataldo to complete the podium. With the same time as Ignatiev. Both should be happy with their performance today.
Palini 5th ahead of Sicard, who's strong finish actually closed the gap between the two chasing groups eventually!
Roche, Kudus, Denifl and Khederi round up the Top-10 on the stage and thanks to Sicard, they all finish with 25 seconds off Kinoshita..
+ 1'50" for group Roglic, who sprints to an 11th place.. Shikai and Duarte as the best climbers in this group.. Sanchez Gil did well, too. They lose quite some time on the Top-10 finishers, but should remain the only real Top-10 contenders for the GC.
Opposing to every further groups, that are crossing the line minutes later:
Vitor Rodrigues and Kolesnikov 5 minutes
Cunego more than 6 minutes
Teklehaimanot/Quintana more than 8 minutes
Bartl/Vogt more than 10 minutes
Poljanski (clearly suffering from yesterday's crash) more than 12 minutes
Four riders DNF the stage: Crncevic, Bruno Santos, Belkov and Robert
What a narrow decision for yellow: Ignatiev's runner-up on the stage made him defend the GC-lead by just two seconds on Kinoshita! Obviously, he also defended the points lead comfortably. A huge effort from both today. Credit where credit is due.
Kwiatkowski (31 seconds), Sicard (37), Denifl (39) and also Cataldo (41) and Kudus (43) not too far behind though and with tomorrow's Mt Fuji timetrial, those climbers will probably fight for yellow then..
Shikai as the next best climber as 12th in the GC (2.04 on Ignatiev)..
