Brajkovic as the best placed GC contender after a strong show in the prologue. Also König did quite well there. Premium climbers like Pinot, Kiserlovski or Costagli, Ratiy or Pomoshnikov have already some seconds to gain back - today's stage though offers a real chance to do that. Cataldo, Atapuma, Rodrigues, Campero, Hacecký or Hoem as other contenders, who will hope for good legs today.
Like yesterday, we have just three riders in the group, that goes clear from the pack early into the stage:
Cheyne, Fumic, Kangangi, Manfred and Daspuntsag as other riders trying to join them - empty handed though!
Not too much happened until the most crucial two climbs of the day:
Moyano took both the intermediate and the first Cat3 mountain sprint ahead of Rojas Villegas..
..the peloton would never allow the breakaway's gap to grow much bigger than three minutes and as we now jump straight into the Col du Tourmalet, the breakaway's gap is at 2'43" with the peloton led by GCN and Valio for most parts of the second half of the stage:
just 50 riders are left in the peloton with now just 5km to the mountaintop and 39.5km to the finish!
Former race leader Craddock got dropped a few moments before, he's quickly two minutes behind..
Rather surprisingly, also Roe is dropped from main group with now 2.5km to the mountaintop! Currently 6th in the GC after a strong prologue, he definitely should have hoped for a better performance in the mountains - tomorrow's long timetrial could have brought him a nice GC position at least! But so he's already 2 minutes behind the peloton (44 riders)..
Moyano as the strongest in the early break, taking the highest score at the top of the Col du Tourmalet - and now leading solo, as he Appleby got dropped earlier and Rojas Villegas now not able to follow anymore!
The peloton crosses the mountaintop with Belgasem still doing the pace and 3'08" disadvantage on the new solo leader:
Nothing else happens on the descent, except of also Roja Villegas being caught by the peloton (41 riders) and Moyano leading by just a minute with now 11.1km remaining!
At the bottom of the final climb (we're actually not yet quite there and on a slightly downhills sector), we see the first big attack of the day:
Pinot tries to go clear!
Pomoshnikov immediately jumps behind!
And so do Warbasse and Lehtinen, who seem to work for Kiserlovski and König that way..
Indeed they did: Warbasse and Lehtinen managed to close the small gap to Pinot quickly and the attacking duo is reeled in just a few moments later!
7.5km to go now, we're on steep slopes at 11% and Moyano is 38 seconds ahead of the main group (30 riders)..
Lehtinen and Warbasse still setting the pace and the group becomes smaller with every kilometre climbed..
..and so there's also the first real GC contenders being dropped from the main group:
Rodrigues and Hirschlein with 7.9km to go..
Quintana just a few moments before..
Zoidl in another small group further down the climb..
Cataldo can't follow with 7.3km to the finish, where the main group is down to 25 riders!
6km to go and Pinot goes again! He quickly opens up a gap, but Warbasse tries to jump behind for yet another time!
But Pinot stays clear for now with just 5km remaining!
Kiserlovski Brajkovic Atapuma forming a new chasing group..
Costagli Warbasse (who's done with his support) a few seconds behind..
..and then the main group (21 riders) further 18 seconds in arrears:
Pinot goes strong towards a crucial victory though, as he extends his gap to 55 seconds with now 3km to the mountaintop! The spectators go crazy with one of their local heroes leading solo with such a comfortable gap!
Group Brajkovic/Kiserlovski/Atapuma could not yet put any further pressure on Pinot, but at least, they are 52 seconds ahead of a next group..
..where we now have six riders with a 25 seconds advantage on the former main group:
Bardet Hacecký Costagli Ratiy Warbasse Sepulveda
The first chasing trio now already enters the final kilometre with Pinot still a minute ahead, but the next chasing group also more than a minute behind them!
Group Costagli/Ratiy could not stay clear from the main group, that is now back to 17 riders with 1.5km remaining..
..but obivously, there have been some riders dropped from the former group and that's quite a big name:
König really struggles now and he's a minute behind the bigger group with other GC contenders!
Pinot did not struggle at all and he demonstrates his superior climbing skills by taking the first challenging mountain stage! Well needed, of course, as he will definitely lose some time in tomorrow's long timetrial..
The first chasing group did stay together until the final few hundred meters, where the sprint made for a split:
+ 25" Atapuma, who gained quite a lot of seconds on Pinot that way!
+ 46" for a strong Brajkovic and Kiserlovski
That's some second lost on Pinot, but particularly Brajkovic should now fancy his chances to attack the GC lead tomorrow!
Also in the next bigger group, a few riders gain some seconds through the sprint to the line:
+ 2'09" Hacecký (as 5th) and Bardet
+ 2'42" Sepulveda and Hoem
A great result for Sepulveda, who might have taken over the team's leadership that way! His timetrial skills will definitely favor him tomorrow..
+ 3'06" for a bigger group with Pomoshnikov and Costagli completing the Top-10
Also Moyano, Warbasse, Ratiy, Anguilet, Lewis, Alizadeh and Campero in this group
+ 3'33" for a small group with Aasvold, Ahmad Zamri, Stancu and Belkov
+ 4'30" for a group with König
+ 6'20" Cataldo
Both König and Cataldo have to be considered the biggest losers of all main GC contenders today: that's quite some losses for them on this stage and König really needs to bounce back from this day immediately. He should start to bounce back already tomorrow, actually - the timetrial should suit him better than many other climbers after all..
As for the GC:
Pinot did enough to slip into yellow for one day, but Brajkovic (22 seconds and the points lead) ain't too far behind! That's definitely the big chance for him to take over the race lead in tomorrow's timetrial. Anything else would be a big loss, to be honest..
Atapuma (34 seconds) and Kiserlovski (52) within a minute behind.. Kiserlovski as the better TT rider than Pinot/Atapuma and therefore also with some pressure to gain as much time as possible in the ITT then!
Sepulveda something like today's big winner as 7th in the GC (+ 2.38) then. He will surely aim for a great stage result and a nice jump in the GC tomorrow. Ratiy as the next solid TT rider (3.14) not far behind the Top-10.. König (4.22) should at least aim for the same as Ratiy in the timetrial then.
