Enough for the sprinters, now the GC fight starts and with a tricky stage actually. More hill than mountain and hence the nightmare of pure climbers.
The top favourites won`t care a lot such as Pinot or Warbasse.
One rider though must like the look of this, Teuns as best puncheur and not so bad climber is favourite even though around the same chances for the other two mentioned probably on such mixed stage.
Jim and Quispe are todays breakaway duo. In case they make it to the finish, first is by far the better climber and hence once going uphill, going solo is likely to happen fast.
3 teams work behind and let Festina rest after days of chasing.
It`s the expected team of GCN for Pinot, Campari for Cataldo and Compal for Atapuma most likely, might be for Henao as well, who is the better allrounder and another of todays favourites.
With 56km to go we almost hit the climb. For now it`s that small bump only but Jim already solo as expected. The gap though is tiny as GCN with their sprinters Opie, McLay, Gibbons chase enough to be under 1min.
And likely for the last time of this stage also Kip comes to the front again to say goodbye to the leader jersey.
Once going uphill Anguilet is taking over and also Andorra is showing themselves. Warbasse already in 3rd position with former star climber Rujano in front of him.
Elissonde then in 4th position, Pinot with Belgasem next alongside Cataldo. Teuns and Grmay next to each other for Cerveceria, hence team order is another question today as later is only 5th best climber in the team and the full race is a mountain event.
Anguilet still owrking at the Cat.4 and takes the points as Jim is caught by now. Behind him Teuns in 2nd position and Pinot in 3rd. Who will attack first?
Shock moment for some GC riders. Brajkovic and Costagli with a small gap to the favourites group of 38 riders and also Medvedev and other pure climbers in the later group.
With the help of Briceno though, Brajkovic and the others re-join a bit later though.
Still 32km and that`s 2km to the top of the Cat.2, when Degand attacks. He already lost 2`50 and hence is no big danger and for now is allowed to open a bit of a gap.
His leader Bardet safely in the pack in 30th position.
Ikibe another rider being far behind in the GC and today on the climbs he feels a lot more comfortable. He tries to follow Degand. Fight for the KoM maybe?
Both go over the climb in 1-2 while Mat Senan of Mitchelton attacked for the 6 points while Cuming and Anguilet for GCN pass the line next.
Mat Senan also in the 2`50 GC group has not joined the duo in front and they have 50s over the peloton.
But Anguilet is working for 5 today. Alone he did chase the Cat.3 and caught them all and also did take the points which sees him in the KoM lead even! 3 points ahead of Degand and a few more over Ikibe.
More important though that Anguilet was chasing as fast that only a few riders are behind him. Anguilet Pinot Cuming Elissonde Khripta Dahlberg Lundberg
It`s now Domagalski for Compal and Costagli for Cerveceria vs. Telia and GCN as Elissonde can relax for now isolated in that group. Khripta himself actually doing most work right now.
Both Telia helpers and Anguilet are dropped and Cuming as well fighting.
They have almsot 1min advantage as Khripta is going all-in.
Behind Warbasse himself chasing now being afraid of the gap.
4,2km to go and the last uphill section reached. It`s not yet as steep as on the last 2km but Pinot sees his advantage over the other two and attacks. Elissonde trying to follow but he is a bit weaker in both mountain and hill climbing and hence can`t follow while Khripta is right behind the Oberfranken rider.
It`s not like the names behind are small. They simply struggle to close the gap as the pace in front is equal.
1.3km and Pinot starting the steepest bit now with ~11%. He is having 30s over Elissonde/Khripta and another 40s to the 25 rider favourite group.
Teuns really accelerating behind though and hence the gap to the duo in between quickly is bridged. Many riders now struggle to follow this high pace of the best puncheur in this field.
Warbasse, Campero, Cataldo, Grmay, Bardet, Potocki, Henao, Aasvold, Seibeb the names that follow immediately behind the Belgium but most are still there.
400m and the duo is caught. Pinot though still having about that gap as his pace is still strong.
And the French leader of GCN ProTeam wins todays race. His strength but also the great team work and a bit of luck with Khripta working that much for him make him take a big advantage and marks him the big favourite even more now.
Behind Teuns solo with a gap actually closing a bit.
37s in the end for the Cerveceria rider, who surely wanted to win that stage as it`s one of two opportunites to win for him more or less.
The "peloton" comes in at 1'04 and hence losing quite a bit on Pinot. Warbasse, Campero and Khripta lead them in. 23 riders in this group including most of the big names such as Cataldo, Bardet, De Marchi, Atapuma, Brajkovic, Grmay, Elissonde, Roe etc.
Will be interesting to see how Cerveceria handles this multiple leadership now. Teuns in pole position now but not as strong on longer climbs as team mate Grmay, who was in the big group and also sitting well placed in 7th of the GC.
Some pure climbers today struggled on those shorter up and down climbs in the end and lost some time.
Ratiy, Costagli, Medvedev to name 3 big names. Others in the later groups are Anguilet, Cunego, Contador.
