A great victory by Nordstrom’s Boivin in the first stage, but now the peloton heads into the mountains.
Those names are the favourites for the stage of today. Let’s see if they can live up to their status, as the peloton is ready to start the shortest stage of the week, with a distance of less than 140 km.
Almost every team that didn’t have a GC favourite tried to be in the breakaway, but only eight succeeded, they now lead the way with 105 km to go. The riders at the front are KoM-leader Christian, Tatarinov, Girdlestone, Koch, Helme, Ivanov, Affonso and Villella. Behind them we can see Roman trying to close the gap and join them.
Roman closes the gap on the first real uphill sector of the day, which isn’t categorized for some KoM-points. Two more riders use this sector to make the transition to the head of the race: Shapira representing Fablok – Chocolate Jacques and Martin being the second rider of Air France – KLM in the group of eleven riders.
Shapira wins the intermediate sprint ahead of Tatarinov and Helme. The peloton is 2’45” behind with exactly 80 km to go.
The work in the peloton is mostly done by the teams of the dangerous outsiders instead of the biggest favourites: here we see the domestiques of DK – SVA Zalgiris, Rakuten Pro Cycling, Moser – Sygic and Team UBS, although most of the work is being done by Zalgiris and Rakuten for Denifl and Quintana.
The Alto del Tenebredo (2nd cat.) is the first categorized mountain of the day. KoM-leader Christian gets dropped quickly, he won’t be wearing the polka-dots tomorrow.
It might be Helme, as the loanee from Valio now scores ten points for himself and his temporary team Puma. The other points go to Martin, Tatarinov, Ivanov and Koch. The peloton crosses the summit 3’45” later with 63 km to go from there.
Close win for Koch at the second intermediate sprint. He just holds off Villella and Tatarinov. As the leaders enter the last 40 km, the peloton is 2’15” behind. The finale isn’t easy, with the Alto del Cordal (1st cat.) and the Alto de Angliru (HC). Some riders have lost touch with the peloton, with sprinters Mohs, Hodeg and Lutsyshyn losing over ten minutes already.
The domestiques of the big favourites are taking over now. 30 km to go and the peloton is 1’45” behind the ten leaders. eBuddy and Aker – MOT bringing the peloton closer.
Ivanov places an attack with 4 km to climb on the Alto del Cordal! Girdlestone is the first to go overboard, but in front of him we see more riders in difficulty and losing touch with the head of the race, it looks like it’s game over for Villella, Helme, Shapira, Affonso and Roman.
Looking to the right, yellow jersey Boivin could see the head of the race with the remaining four riders. He himself is dropped by the peloton now, which isn’t a surprise. Still around 70 riders in the peloton, no big names have dropped but there are at least twenty riders with the yellow jersey who should be expected a bit more up front. Naming them all would be a waste of time, but more could be expected from guys like Nitu, Bonnin, Kratochvila and Panayotov.
It’s the German Koch grabbing the 16 points at the top of the Alto del Cordero. The other leaders, Ivanov, Martin and Tatarinov take most of the other points with Shapira, Affonso and Roman taking the last points a bit later.
The peloton has slowed down a bit and reaches the top 3’30” later! With 20 km to go this might be a perfect opportunity for one of the leaders to win it!
To get that win they will have to survive this monstrosity though: 12.8 km at an average gradient of almost 10% with a maximum gradient of almost 20%!
The four leaders have started their ascent of the Colombian Angliru while the peloton only has 65 riders left. Anacona dropping out before they even start the final climb, manager Scorchio won’t be happy!
The leaders have only just started their ascent and it’s Martin who attacks! The other leaders are looking at each other, of course teammate Koch won’t be the one bringing him back!
So far, so good for the Frenchman of Air France – KLM! Teammate Koch still letting Ivanov and Tatarinov doing the work, with Martin now leading 50” while entering the last 10 km! Peloton at 3’, there we see names likes Uwizeyimana and Majka being dropped now. Still 65 riders strong though.
8.5 km to go and Martin loses a bit of his advantage on the three chasers! The riders are now on the steepest parts of the mountain, the peloton is coming closer very quickly! Some more domestiques have been dropped there, a group of 50 is now at 2’30” from the head of the race!
Tatarinov leaves the other two chasers behind and catches Martin with 8 km to go! Between the four leaders and the peloton that’s at 2’15” now, the only early breakaway rider left is the Israeli Shapira.
While teammate Tatarinov is leading in the upper right of this image with 7 km to go, Kiserlovski is being dropped together with another 20-ish riders! 7 km to go and this is the race situation: Up front Tatarinov and Martin, 30” behind them are Koch and Ivanov, another 50” further we see the peloton with 32 riders in it.
6 km to go on this monster climb and we have four leaders again! The peloton of 33 riders now following at exactly one minute with still a lot of steep parts of the climbs to go!
Could one of those four still win it? Their hopes are up again as they extend their lead to 1’15”! Behind them the GC favourites are looking at each other for the moment!
Ivanov has to let the other three leaders go, every movement he makes hurts more than the last one and the Minion is out of the race for the stage win! Peloton following our three leaders at exactly one minute now with 4 km to go!
Koch going solo now in the last 3 km! Taaramäe bringing what’s left of the peloton closer, but still 45” behind the German!
Well, this isn’t just bringing the peloton closer, this is a full on attack by the Estonian! 2.5 km to go and with the steepest parts of the mountain behind us he is trying to deal the first decisive blow in this Vuelta a Colombia! Koch feels him coming closer rapidly and makes place for the GC guys!
Dombrowski doesn’t give the Estonian an inch, which leads to a slower pace again! The riders enter the last 2 km and there are still 25 guys having a shot at taking the stage win and yellow jersey today! Diaz, Vasyliv and Godoy as the biggest victims of Taaramäe’s attack, but Godoy will still capture that white jersey as there are no U-25 riders left in the first group.
Kozhatayev and two remaining breakaway riders are dropped with 1.5 km to go. Monsalve now at the back of the first group of 22, not the best placement by the Venezuelan of Bakkafrost!
And there you have it! While the head of the group prepares their sprint, he gets dropped together with Koch, Nesset, Ji and Salinas! The next riders who seem to be in trouble are Hirt and Denifl! Can they hold on?
Taaramäe, Dombrowski and Wellens have a small gap over the other favourites now while they enter the last km!
And it will be between those three for the win! The Estonian starts the sprint, but seems to be overtaken by Dombrowski with 500 m to go!
They are right next to each other with only 200 m left! Arndt now with a strong sprint as well, but that should be for the fourth place!
Astonishing performance by Taaramäe, who holds his ground and is the new leader in the Vuelta a Colombia! Dombrowski and Wellens complete today’s podium!
Arndt finishes fourth, the rest of the top-10 is completed by Venezuelan champion Alarcon, Amador, Schleck, Berhane, Pluchkin and Roglic. The rest of the group coming in at the same time is formed by Mamykin, Nerz, Uran and Quintana.
Around 45” after Taaramäe three more riders cross the line: Pantano Gomez, Denifl and Hirt. If they are lucky the jury might give them the same time as Quintana though, but probably not.
Monsalve is the loser of the day, coming in 19th, 1’20” later than Taaramäe.
This was a very long day for Lutsyshyn. He crosses the line 45 minutes after the Estonian and closes the line for today.
