Pluchkin showed his class once more yesterday to snatch back the leader's jersey from Lopez, who was somewhat weaker than the previous two days. Sagan looked strong once again on a hard hill stage and kept himself in the Top 5 of the GC.
Today's stage is a climber's paradise, which means the likes Kudus and Gesink, in 3rd and 4th in the GC, will be hoping to make up ground on the likes of Lopez. In fact, same is the case with the current 6th to 10th positioned riders, and maybe beyond, who will wish to usurp Sagan and improve their positions.
Can Pluchkin once again come up trumps on a profile where he is the absolute favourite?
Favourites
MON
HIL
RES
ACC
Pluchkin
84
74
77
73
Kudus
82
77
77
70
Gesink
81
79
77
65
Carthy
81
75
76
69
Bennett
81
76
74
73
Henao Montoya
81
70
78
72
Meintjes
80
78
76
69
Oomen
80
75
77
69
Choi
80
74
76
68
Penasa
80
74
72
76
Intxausti
80
69
75
67
The stage is a go and the peloton keep a hard pace up the first climb which starts almost immediately.
No breaks as we near the first intermediate climb already. Lane, Tratnik and Brenes take the points in the first KOM sprint. King just misses out.
The peloton had slowed down near the summit, allowing more riders to get into the break.
The dust settles on the descent and beyond and we see seventeen riders come together to form the break of the day.
We have seen a lot of these riders before, getting into breaks and targetting the KOM classification. Lane is the overnight leader with 31. He has further increased his lead. Krizek has 19.
Smith wins the first intermediate sprint ahead of Gautier and Tratnik.
Teuns, Gautier, Lane is the order at the second KOM sprint.
In the meantime, five more riders have attacked from the peloton and joined the break - Warchol, Aru, Elissonde, Senni and Gebremedhin.
Gautier and Phelan were dropped on the second climb.
They are caught by the 158 rider peloton, who now trail by 2'35". 105 km to go.
Duarte is dropped and caught with 93 km remaining.
Vosekalns wins the second intermediate sprint, followed by Hirschlein and Lane. The break are about to start the HC climb, Torte, which is 27 km long!
Habtemichael, Vysna, Tvetcov and Hirschlein are dropped in the opening kilometers.
Teuns is the next to lose contact, followed by Tratnik and then Vosekalns.
15 km to the summit, 12 riders remain in the first breakaway group.
The peloton have reduced in size to 90 riders.
Intxausti is in trouble!
Power and Smith are dropped next from the break. Aru suffers the same fate soon.
The lead group has 9 riders who now have 5 km to go till the summit of Torte. The next group has five riders, who are almost 2 minutes back. The rest are in the third group, a further 30 seconds in arrears.
The peloton has shed more riders and now has 75. They trail the break by nearly 4 minutes. The Intxuasti group is more than 3 minutes down.
Dyball takes maximum points on the HC climb. Krizek is second. Gebremedhin, Brenes, Elissonde, Warchol, Bartl, Senni, Lane, Power and Vysna are the riders scoring points, in the that order.
Lane still has the KOM jersey but the gap has been reduced considerably at the top by Krizek.
40 km to go for the peloton now. Xero, MOL, cycleYorkshire, Farfetch and Duolingo are sharing pace-making duties at the front.
Voseklans is caught 4 kilometers later.
27 km to go. 1 km from the summit of 4th climb. Four riders attack and get a gap to the rest - Bartl, Gebremedhin, Dyball, Krizek.
Dyball wins this KOM sprint as well. Krizek is 2nd, and with this, moves into the virtual KOM jersey! Bartl and Gebremedhin follow. Brenes, Senni and Elissonde also pick up points.
Dyball himself moves up to 3rd in the KOM standings.
20 km left. The lead group is still the same four riders. The chase group now has ten riders, about 90 seconds back. The peloton are just under 3 minutes back, and have 68 riders. Still only Intxausti is in trouble among the big names.
15 km left for the peloton. They trail the break by 2'57". Farfetch and Polar doing most of the work now. We haven't seen much of Popo4Ever at the front today. Is that a sign of Pluchkin not feeling well? Or have they felt that the other teams are doing a good enough job of the chase? We can't say for sure!
Bartl and Gebremedhin drop their breakaway companions.
Power joins up with Dyball, and together they drop Krizek and catch up to Bartl and Gebremedhin. Aru and Krizek are in E2. All other breakaway riders have been caught. The peloton are just a minute down now.
Aru and Krizek is caught a kilometer later.
Brenes hasn't given up on the stage win yet and attacks again with 10 km remaining.
He catches the leading quartet a kilometer later, and the break extend their lead once more.
The first attack from the pack arrives with 7 km left. Meintjes, Latour and Karnulin are the aggressors. Bennett and Carthy lead the counter, with Kudus, Gesink, Pluchkin, Choi, Oomen, Henao Montoya, Lopez and Talansky now getting a gap to the rest of the peloton. The peloton behind them are down to 29 riders.
Meintjes trails Pluchkin by 1'51" while Latour is 2'52" behind.
Karnulin does not make it far and is caught a kilometer later. Meintjes and Latour have continued on their way and caught up to the break.
5 km to go. The peloton have 40 riders as the two earlier groups have come together. Masnada is the only 'helper', so to say, remaining for any of the GC men at the front.
Dyball and Bartl are dropped from the Meintjes/ Latour group.
2 km left. The Meintjes group have extended their lead to over 2 minutes. If this persists, and with possible bonus seconds, the cycleYorshire rider could take the lead in the GC! Latour too is riding himself onto the podium. Gebremedhin has been dropped from this group.
Destribois looks to have found his early race form again, and is leading the peloton on.
1 kilometer to go for the lead group. Their lead has dipped just under the 2 minute mark. Meintjes is still well placed to take the jersey tonight.
Latour and Meintjes start to pull away with 500 meters remaining.
Latour is still hanging on to Meintjes as we enter the final 200 meters.
Meintjes is just too string and takes the win! Latour comes home in 2nd. Both riders will be very happy with their decisive move. It is now a nervous wait for both to see how far down the other GC contenders end up, to see how much impact their daring attack has made.
Brenes finishes 3rd with Power in 4th.
500 meters left for the peloton. 11 riders have a small gap at the front. No one has made a move to gain seconds. They look a little shell-shocked to be honest. Ever since Meintjes and Latour got away, they've concentrated more on protecting their positions.
Carthy, Talansky, Ellisonde and Senni are among the riders in the next group.
Gebremedhin holds on for 5th.
Gesink finishes 6th from the pack ahead of Pluchkin. Kudus and Choi are 8th and 9th.
Bennett completes the Top 10, followed by Henao Montoya and Karnulin.
Oomen, Lopez and Penasa make up the rest of the Top 15, just ahead of Dyball.
Today's winner - Louis Meintjes.
The time gaps are in. The Pluchkin group comes in 1'31" behind Meintjes. With the latter getting the 20 seconds time bonus, Meintjes has just tied Pluchkin at the top of the GC! However, Pluchkin retains the jersey on countback! How close is that! Latour moves up to 4th in the standings. Lopez is now 3rd with Kudus in 5th. Talansky, Carthy and Sagan, among others, lose time today.
Pluchkin retains the Points jersey and Meintjes moves up to 3rd. As mentioned earlier, Krizek takes the lead in the KOM jersey and ensures the win with the ITT coming up tomorrow. Meintjes moves up to 2nd with Lane finishing 3rd. Oomen and Generali retain their leads in the U25 and Teams standings.
