Yesterdays break success by Oomen on less mountaineous terrain is now followed by two more mountain stages in a row.
And with the Passo Gavia (16,6 km on 7,8 %) plus the Passe del Mortirolo (12,7 km on 9,1 %) this is one really difficult stage.
The final climb though is on lower gradients only, which might need attacks on the earlier climbs for big gaps. The fight for the KoM though is on for sure on a stage like this.
GC wise no one should have a bad day here as losing contact too early can hurt big time.
As said, the KoM fight will be continued today as we see the leader and lots of challengers in the breakaway of 12 riders. And this also means some well placed GC riders mixing it up as they slowly must decide about their focus on KoM or GC. Goos (KoM 1st 70pts, 11th GC +6'48) Kruijswijk (KoM 5th 42pts, 6th GC +4'22) Oomen (KoM 6th 38pts, 9th GC +6'18) Dekker (KoM 8th 30pts, 19th GC +10'53) Kolesnikov (KoM 13th 20pts, 20th GC +11'47) Vosekalns (KoM 15th 18pts) Konig (GC 17th +9'24) Lunke (KoM 16th 16pts, GC 21st) Majka Helme Jang Turgis
The first climb and we see Olivier having a small gap to the peloton. 14th in the GC and surely under pressure being behind expectations and one of those that got passed by the breakaway climbers such as Kruijswijk, Oomen, Goos, who are again in the lead.
Similar for Bongiorno in 12th GC, who is trying to follow it seems.
In the end though later never got a gap and first is quickly caught again, so not sure what this was for.
Kolesnikov takes the 10 points with KoM leader Goos following ahead of Dekker, Majka and Konig. Surprisingly Lunke one of the first to lose contact and back in the peloton again. Time will tell if not having the legs or saving energy instead.
The following Cat. 3 goes to Kruijswijk ahead of Dekker and Oomen. Dutch day in the break with Goos as well, who is losing a bit remaining at 78.
In fact the Vesuvio co-leader was dropped just like Helme in front of him. Maybe a similar case as Lunke?
The only remaining breakaway riders in the first group are the 3 KoM collectors alongside Kolesnikov, Konig and Majka.
Olivier in the peloton no longer attacked but he put a high pace over the Cat.3 reducing the peloton to 29 riders resulting in lots of helpers being dropped already. Some bigger names in later groups are Nesset, Godoy, Ndayisenga, Kangert, Cataldo, Teuns, Zardini, Novikov, Iturria, Jaramillo, Dees, Koch...either the Aegon leader has great legs today or his tactic is kind of weird right now spending energy that early on a stage like this and basically isolating himself in the favourite group.
The break starts the Passo Gavia and have reached the steeper part with still 16km to go uphill.
Behind the situation relaxed a bit on the flatter terrain and it`s back to 109 riders and 3'20 behind the group of six.
All riders not within those 109 will have a tough day fighting against the time limit. It could really become a bad day for the sprinters.
A mix of Repsol (Pedrero), Vesuvio (Godoy), Isostar (Frankiny) and Puma (Vasyliv) are at the front with the first 1-2 surely being the main workers. As several struggled earlier, quickly the peloton reduces again to around half the size.
Riders in later groups are once again Novikov and several helpers such as Stüssi, Heymes, J.Schleck, Jaramillo, Carpenter...
Also the break starts to split. GC`s 9th and yesterdays stage winner Oomen is too exhausted after his effort and can`t follow. Same goes for Kruijswijk a bit ahead. The Gazelle rider though still fighting to avoid a bigger gap. 4,3km to go to the top.
Konig already looked strongest before chasing the most and he also takes the Cima Coppi, which is surely in favour of Goos as the Czech had no points before todays stage.
Behind him Dekker, Majka, Kolesnikov with ~30s and Kruijswijk, who indeed only lost another 35s, while Oomen is already 2'15 behind Konig in total.
Aru and Goos attacked from the peloton for 5 and 4 points followed by Arndt-Bongiorno-Olivier as first of the peloton, which is down to 30 riders and 5'10 behind.
The break comes together on the descent then including Kruijswijk, who needed a bit longer. Oomen is quite far behind but still makes it half way down.
Most recent dropped riders from the peloton are Ndayisenga, Zardini, Poljanski, Dees, Sequera, Guerreiro, Ciccone or Vysna with Cataldo, Smith, van der Hugenhaben, Carpenter another group behind. So lots of Generali riders but actually most teams only have 1 helper left in the favourite group.
The peloton is still lead by Pedrero and Godoy with Isostar`s Roman/Frankiny, Generali`s Sequera/Latour, Puma`s Vasyliv/Arndt and also Ndayisenga as 2nd Repsol lining up behind them.
Some riders make it back again being 36 in total and more about to re-join soon with the groups behind not giving up on supporting their team leaders.
Their descent was rather fast, so the gap to the break is down to 3min now and only Aru still in between.
With 5km to go on the Mortiolo Oomen once again can`t follow and is dropped again. This time surely won`t make it back.
Surprisingly the next to be dropped is Dekker 1km later while Kruijswijk is still hanging behind the others.
Behind Generali`s Latour is chasing now as luxury domestique for Gesink and the gap is at 2min.
2,6km to go and the break basically is caught with Puma moving to the front. And in fact it`s Herklotz himself putting the high pace with Arndt behind. He surely tried to surprise some riders but Spilak and Gesink both were attentive and are right behind just like Schleck, Alarcon, Olivier (+Dekker), Formolo, Latour, Bongiorno, Henao Montoya, Haig, Hirt, Goos, Quintana, Yates in this order and actually the only riders in that group and all riders starting from Formolo are in one line surely being the ones struggling the most.
This also means that only Gesink +2, Puma/Aegon/Vesuvio +1 have helpers left with Gazelle having +1 in the break.
Riders that are dropped now are Oomen, Aru, Lunke, Nesset, Vasyliv, Vosekalns...
And also Schleck is losing his last support as Goos drops with 2km to the top.
All but Konig are caught and except for Kruijswijk all the breakaway GC riders are about to lose time today.
Konig takes the KoM at the top moving into the KoM top10 with 38 points now.
Goos remains in the lead with 82 points followed by Aru`s 61, Kruijswijk`s 56 and Dekker`s 54. None of those got any points here though as the GC riders passed the line next.
Konig not giving up and fights for the stage win. He is just ~30s ahead with Majka being behind him still together with Herklotz. They have a small gap to the rest of the break.
While Herklotz moved back into the group, Majka indeed bridges to Konig making it 2 in the front with 15s coming to the end of the downhill.
And also Kolesnikov back with them despite not being known as a good descender. Apparently the former break did not spend enough energy yet and still feels fresh.
The pace behind is not the fastest though as Goos +49s and also the group around Nesset/Lunke/Vasyliv is slowly coming back.
And indeed with 6km to go the peloton is up ot 21 riders with Puma`s Arndt/Vasyliv controlling everything.
More riders from behind are about to come back while the trio in front is allowed to extend their gap being presented the stage win basically.
Kolesnikov won`t make it another one though as he was dropped with 4km to go.
And comparing those two here, Majka clearly suffers more.
Surely not the ideal climb to attack but Alarcon has to sitting in 15th only. 4.4% is not steep enough and all the others are following with Herklotz being the first.
In the end some helpers and lately rejoined riders are struggling by this move.
With 1.6km to go though it`s Hirt opening a gap with some kind of early sprint. It`s almost flat up here and less than 1%.
In front it`s 500m to go and Konig vs Majka, who was able to remain but not looking to contest. He might not win but a 2nd is a fantastic stage result nevertheless.
Big win for Indosat. The stage, KoM jump and also a small GC improvement surely as the gap is more than 1 min at the moment.
Hirt kept the gap until the end and comes in 3rd but officials not giving him the time gap. So it`s 1'18 for all the others where Herklotz leads the group in.
Some such as Yates, Formolo, Haig also lucky to avoid a time loss as they struggled towards the end.
Same for Kruijswijk, Quintana, Nesset or Lunke even behind them.
First to lose time was Dekker as support rider.
The first GC rider losing big is Sam Oomen in 41st and more than 10min behind the GC group which must hurt but breakaway efforts have paid back today.
And seeing that gap, obviously more riders struggled a lot more. Stepniak in 164th was already 81'20 behind and the last to be kept in the race, which is good news for sprinters Swift, Van Poppeö, Vesely, Howard, Gaviria, Kemboi and others, who finished ahead of him.
Several though are losing their leadouts and some lead sprinters also have to leave the race such as Guardini, Stauff, Goss.
