Second mountain in-a-row, and this time we have climbs all over the stage. Within the first 30 kms of the stage, we have Puerto de la Ragua, a Cat.1 climb. Then a couple of minor climbs, before a Cat.2 climb that is 50 kms away from the finish. But the most important climb is the final, Sierra de Lujar, as the full climb is around 25 kms of length.
Yesterday we didn’t see really big gaps after Herklotz’s win, as 10 riders finished within a minute of the German in Hazallanas. I think we could see a similar outcome in Lujar, with only the final 8-10 kms being really decisive, and also riders thinking on tomorrow’s timetrial
This is a pretty big move from the beggining of this mountain stage, as while Vosekalns, Prado and Lammertink are riders that could be part of a breakaway like this, we have Galta (21st GC, +10’50) and probably the best climber in the race, Jose Alarcon, who sits 30th in GC, more than 11 minutes behind race leader, and needs something outstanding to overcome this deficit
Strangely, it’s Volvo trying to chase down the breakaway, after Destribois and Chevrier attacked too, though the latter has fallen into no-one land. Either Abal feels great today, or they want to defend their 17th place in GC...
Once the race arrived at the bottom of La Ragua, Azteca took over from Volvo. Hard to understand these tactics. Chevrier and Lammertink didn’t even started the climb with the leading group, so just Vosekalns, Destribois, Prado, Galta and Alarcon left in that group
Alarcon obviously does a lot of damage in the breakaway, as Vosekalns and Prado get dropped with still 8 kms left in La Ragua. Meanwhile, Azteca rhythm is seeing almost half of the bunch getting dropped already. Using a rider like Mannion now can do a lot of damage in the peloton
And this is really weird now, as Azteca has broke free from the bunch with 4 riders including Eastman, and Phinney is the only other rider in that group. And this group has gained already one minute over the bunch
Anyway, they stopped despite the clear advantage and the rhythm in the bunch slowed so much that the leading trio’s gap rised to over 4 minutes. Also, very weird that neither Alarcon or Galta fighted for the KoM points, with Destribois crossing the summit of La Ragua first without making an effort for it
Puerto de La Ragua - Cat.1
Destribois 16
Alarcon 12
Galta 10
Stetina 8
Phinney 6
Eastman 4
Majka 2
With 100 kms to go there are only 90 riders left in the main peloton, and none of them are Kirsch, 22nd in GC and 3rd in U25, with a rider like Aru even in further groups down the road.
Meanwhile, Alarcon, Galta and Destribois hold a 1’30 gap over the bunch, where Azteca keeps pulling. The breakaway neither fought for the intermediate sprint, again won by Destribois
And Eastman attacks with 95 kms to go! And this isn’t even a climb, just “false flat” roads. The rhythm in the bunch inmediately drops, as RBC isn’t interested in keeping the pace high, just because they are running out of domestiques
Again Destribois goes first in a climb, this time a Cat.4 one, just in the moment when Eastman catches up with the group. And the gap has rised to almost 3 minutes
El Atajillo - Cat.4
Destribois 5
Galta 3
Alarcon 1
Only 50 riders remaining in the bunch after RBC increased the rhythm in this Cat.3 climb, with Destribois getting dropped from the breakaway as well. Without the African there, it was Galta winning this time
Collado de las Monjas - Cat.3
Galta 6
Eastman 4
Alarcon 2
The riders are now in the penultimate climb of the day, Hoya del Alcornoque, and the three riders in front only have a 1-minute gap over the bunch, where several riders have rejoined the group to be a total of around 75 there
Chiarello and Faiers attack around mid-climb, trying to join the trio ahead, as the rhythm was going down in this climb, and their gap was rising to almost 2 minutes
Marquez and Canty tried to follow them, but only the Spaniard was getting closer to the duo, as Canty isn’t a great climber, at least in this field. Anyway, these three riders have opened one minute on the bunch, but they are still 1’40 behind Alarcon’s group
And as the leaders again didn’t fight for the KoM points, Marquez was able to connect with them in the top of the climb. Faiers and Chiarello are struggling more, but could join them in the descent
Hoya del Alcornoque - Cat.2
Alarcon 10
Galta 8
Eastman 6
Marquez 4
Faiers 2
The bunch would reach the summit four minutes later, probably saving energies for the final climb that awaits the riders now
3’30 is the difference between the leading group and the leader’s group at the start of Lujar. Ahead of them, 24 brutal kms, with only a “rest zone” around mid-climb
Faiers can’t follow the pace with still 20 kms left, but the breakaway’s chances of getting the win today rise by moments, as the gap is now over 5 minutes. No one works in the bunch, with RBC having used up all his team, and only Phinney left with energies
With 18 kms to go, once the gap reached six minutes, Brown went back to the front to pull for a while, finally catching Canty, who had been barely ahead of the bunch for a long time
After one km Brown stepped aside and in that moment, Martin saw a chance to attack
Herklotz tried to follow the Irish rider, and obviously Phinney went after the young German rider, but neither fullfilled their hopes, at least initially, and both are left in dangerous places, as the rest of favourites have decided to keep together and trust on their domestiques
Meanwhile, Marquez has decided that he doesn’t want to drag other riders with him, and that he wants to win in Lujar, so he even drops Alarcon, with the other riders a bit further behind with 15 kms to go!
The gaps between Martin, Herklotz and Phinney are keeping constant, but it keeps increasing to the bunch, and now it’s the very own Madrazo pulling from that group.
In the front, Marquez’s move didn’t stick and he was caught by Eastman and Alarcon
A full stage in the breakaway was too much for Alarcon, who with 10 kms to go has to give up on the stage win dreams, with the fresher guys like Marquez and Eastman riding away from him
Herklotz has caught Martin using his great descending skills, with Phinney staying 20 seconds behind this duo. But the biggers news are Kritskiy, Úran and Madrazo have opened a gap to the rest of the favourites’ group, being 35 seconds behind Phinney and around 30 ahead of Tenorio’s group
Just when Phinney and Madrazo joined the duo of GC riders ahead of them, with the Spaniard leaving Kritskiy and Uran behind, Martin decided that with 7,5 kms left this was a good timing for his attack. The first riders in the race were 3 minutes ahead, so he couldn’t wait more if he wants the stage win
That’s a very powerful attack by Florentino Marquez, that just before the 5-km kit leaves Eastman behind like the American wasn’t a climber. Martin has already gained 40 seconds to the leader’s group, where no one is really working to catch the Irishman
Herklotz could be starting to struggle a little, and Madrazo doesn’t hesitate and attacks with 6 kms to go! Phinney tries to follow the attack, but as in every attack today, he seems to lack a little to be with the best climbers, which should be a normal thing, let’s be honest
Martin has seen his gap reduced to nothing after Madrazo’s attack, which Phinney has able to hang on, but Herklotz has gotten definitely dropped and is likely to lose big time today. Martin is only 2’30 behind Marquez at this point, and while the Spaniard has looked really strong to lose that much time in just 5 kms, with how hard the final kms are, we can’t assure that the GC riders aren’t fighting for the stage win too
Phinney cracks!!! The race leader can’t follow Madrazo and Martin anymore, and there are still 4,8 kms left. Herklotz seems to have played the smartest strategy and pace himself up the climb, instead of following attacks and cracking because of it
Madrazo and Martin have in sight all the remaining breakaway riders. The first ones, Chiarello and Galta, just a few seconds ahead of them. Phinney is already losing 50 seconds in less than a km, and the American rider is facing the loss of his Red Jersey
Herklotz has catched and passed Phinney, and both are already one minute behind Madrazo and Martin, who finally caught the duo of Galta and Chiarello, and are after Alarcon now. Behind the GC and U25 leaders, there’s a group of 6 riders one minute behind, with Tenorio, Kritsky, Abal, Barguil, Uran and Olivier
Marquez is inside the final two kms, and while it looks a small gap, he has 45 seconds over Eastman and 40 further to Madrazo and Martin, who now catched up to Alarcon. Herklotz’s tactic seems to be paying off now, as he’s reducing the distance to the leaders, being now only 35 seconds behind, after dropping Phinney, who looks that will finish in Tenorio’s group sooner than later
Herklotz has joined the duo of Madrazo and Martin just when under the final km kit, but Marquez doesn’t look like losing this, having still 1’10 over Madrazo, who increases the pace like he has measured the distance he needed to do a full attack
Wait wait wait, all three riders are coming really fast, and are about to swallow Eastman like he wasn’t there with 500 metres to go. Marquez has taken thing slowly, but he needs to up the pace if he doesn’t want to lose this so close to the finish...
.. omg, Marquez is celebrating so early...
Meanwhile Herklotz cracks and leaves Madrazo and Martin to fight for the ¿second place? In the stage
But Florentino Marquez has done it, and the T-Mobile rider wins this epic stage in Sierra de Lujar!
Madrazo beats Martin in a drag sprint after both timed badly their sprint, finishing 28 seconds behind Marquez both
+ 41 for Eastman, who finish fourth after a weird but great stage by him
+ 55 for Herklotz, who could have lost way more time after getting dropped with 6 kms to go, but paced himself greatly to recover ground and finally only lose time in the final 400 metres
Alarcon finishes sixth, with Chiarello and Galta close to him, after a full stage breakaway. Not the outcome he would have hoped for, but while gaining for sure a lot of places in GC (not so much in time though) he could set the KoM jersey as a goal for the rest of the race, same for Galta, who is actually the one that will wear the KoM jersey in tomorrow’s timetrial, despite being both tied in the lead with 31 points
+ 2’26 for Phinney, who lost big time today, and could even lose the GC lead to Madrazo, but tomorrow has a great chance in Tarazona to win his second stage and retake or increase the GC lead. Probably at the level we expected from him in the harder mountain stages, but played a bad tactic, and paid a lot for it
+ 2’56 for Tenorio, who was the best of the rest today. Four riders standing out and then the Spanish all-rounder
+ 3’05 for a group of riders which includes big climbers as Kritskiy and Uran, and some surprises like Abal or Olivier
+ 3’34 for Barguil who lost a lot of time in the final hundreds
+ 4’25 for Cattaneo who might have done better here
+ 4’34 for Haig’s fantastic effort. Dropped very early into the climb, outpaced his rivals in the final kilometres to get a fantastic result like this one. He’s going to regret so much those four minutes lost in S7...
+ 4’57 for Carapaz, Quintana and Intxausti
+ 5’16 for Schelling and Keinath
Always being in PCT teams, he has missed a lot of times in the oportunity to get GT stage wins like this, as his palmares is made up of HC/C1 wins (over 20 in PCT level). But today Marquez showed why T-Mobile gave up on Cattaneo to trade for him and have a second climber behind Taaramae which has his own calendar and gives the team great results
And we have a leader’s change! Angel Madrazo takes the lead by just two seconds over Taylor Phinney, who anyway is the favourite to retake it tomorrow after the timetrial.
Herklotz is 54 seconds behind Madrazo, while everyone else is more than 2 minutes away from the Spanish climber. Martin and Kritskiy are tied at 2’22, Tenorio at 2’44, Uran at 3’50, and the rest is at least 7 minutes behind Madrazo
With this brutal stage, a lot of riders won’t be able to continue in the race. A total of 21 riders have finished OTL today, with Minions losing 3 riders, and teams like Air France, Berg, Festina and Moser losing two
