Pluchkin won the satge yesterday and captured all the individual jerseys bar one, the U25 classification, which is on the shoulders of Oomen. Berg leads the team standings. The Top 7 are all within a minute of the leader but riders like Tenorio and Eastman have more than 2 minutes to make up. One thing is for sure, this race provides enough opportunity for any rider to make a comeback if they're daring enough. Today's stage will be no different.
Favourites
MON
TT
STA
RES
REC
ACC
Tenorio
84
80
78
76
79
67
Pluchkin
84
78
77
77
77
73
Eastman
82
77
76
75
76
69
Wellens
82
72
79
80
76
68
Uran
81
77
74
80
75
70
Kudus
82
72
79
77
79
70
Monsalve
81
72
79
80
77
73
Denifl
83
71
73
69
74
63
Henao Montoya
81
70
74
78
75
72
Choi
80
75
77
76
79
68
Oomen
80
74
78
77
78
69
Carthy
81
67
77
76
78
69
Yesterday saw some hesitation in the pack before the break was formed but there's no such problem today. 20 riders make the jump off the front in close succession and form the break of the day.
126 kilometers to go and 2 kilometers from the first KOM sprint, there's a split in the pack. Martinez, Robov, Barthe and Covi are in the first group. Seboka, Van den Berg and Coronel are riding next, but singly, and the other thirteen riders form the fourth group.
Barthe wins the KOM sprint ahead of Robov and Martinez. Covi, Seboka, Van den Berg and Palini also pick up points.
Battistella, Assaholin, Moniquet and Coronel have been caught by the peloton.
110 km to go. The other 16 breakaway riders are back together and have a 4'35" lead over the pack.
80 kilometer to go for the peloton. Fablok, Repsol, Bralirwa and Aramco are at the front. Their gap is down to 2'41".
Martinez wins the first intermediate. Seboka and Barthe come through next.
12 km to the second KOM summit and 42 kilometers from the end, the pack are still together with Bralirwa at the front. Repsol and Aramco have a presence as well. The gap is down to 1'13".
Venchiarutti is dropped and caught.
The same fate befalls Nareklishvili and Van den Berg some time later.
The peloton have started shedding some riders as well. Nibali and Suaza are among the bigger names to have been dropped.
Ahmad Zamri launches an attack from the pack 7 km from the summit. He wants to add more points to his KOM haul yesterday.
He can't make the bridge and is caught. So is Hindley, Knox and Covi from the break.
Tenorio, Kudus and Carthy launch an attack 5 kilometer from the summit. Here they are passing Covi.
They catch the 10 remaining breakaway riders. Primozic is getting dropped.
The peloton behind has 78 riders and trail by 54 seconds.
Pibernik is dropped next from the break. Him and Primozic are soon caught by the pack.
Martinez, Robov, Avetsiyan and Barthe are dropped 2.5 kilometers from the summit.
There's a split in the pack with Wellens, Konig and Abal, among others in the second group.
The Martinex group is caught by the pack.
Look at this, the breakaway riders are actually dropping the GC favourites near the summit! Seboka, Eyob, Bablidze and Palini are in the first group now. Tenorio, Kudus and Carthy are in E2.
There's more action behind as Pluchkin, Denifl and Martin have broken away from the rest of the pack. Martinez has somehow found the legs to hang on to them,.
The peloton has 17 riders.
A1 has 11 riders including Konig, Scarponi, Garby and Soler, among others.
The group of Wellens, Abal and 54 others is next.
The Tenorio group come back to the front before the summit. Tenorio wins the KOM sprint ahead of Seboka, Kudus, Carthy, Palini, Eyob and Bablidze.
First the Pluchkin group minus Martinez, make it to the first group.
The Konig group then makes it back to the peloton, making it 27 riders strong.
The Wellens group is 1'46" behind the peloton.
The peloton catch the lead group on the downhill, with 27 kilometers to go.
Nine riders are dropped from the front group - Scarponi, Garby, Soler, Kiserlovski, Bernal, Bernard, Uwizeyimana, Andriafenomananiaina and Ahmad Zamri.
The Wellens group is at 1'55".
15 kilometers to go for the 29 rider peloton. The riders in this group are: Padun, Pluchkin Hadi Avetsiyan, Eyob, Seboka, Bablidze Kudus De Plus, Oomen Barthe, Latour Tenorio Carthy Henao Montoya Denifl Monsalve Choi, Pomoshnikov Borisavljevic, Martin Nerz Eastman Konig, Robov Uran, Martinez Palini, Ratiy
The nine dropped riders are 49 seconds behind. The Wellens group is a further 26 seconds behind.
The three groups would come back together with 12 kilometers remaining. 94 riders would make up the pack.
10 kilometers to go. 4 kilometers to the third KOM summit. Tenorio leads them on. Wellens has moved right to the front with help from his team. That's a great salvage job from Fablok.
Tenorio wins the third KOM sprint. Kudus is next, with Pluchkin, Poljanski and Denifl following. 5.5 kilometers to go.
Tenorio had an iron grip on the pack up this climb. He's surely feeling a lit better today. 83 riders remain in the pack.
Kraftwerk and Fablok move to the front with 3 kilometers to go. Tenorio goes back to rest on the downhill.
There's almost a leadout here by Kraftwerk. 1.5 kilometers remain.
Into the final kilometers and we have a sprint of the climbers. No one expected this stage to end like this I think.
600 meters to go and Kraftwerk still hold the front with Gonzalez Cortez, Tatarinov and Kiserlovski.
We're past the final turn and just 400 meters remain. Poljanski is gaining on the front. So is Wellens and Hadi.
200 meters to go and Gonzalez Cortez still leads ahead of Tatarinov. Kiserlovski has faded.
100 meters. Still the same at the front. Hadi is on the left of Tatrinov with superman Martimez coming through.
The others run out of road to make the pass. It's close between the Kraftwerk dup for the win here! Hang on a minute, not sure I agree with this decision. The judges have awarded the win to Tatarinov (middle) over Gonzalez Cortez! We see just one angle here but the former didn't look to be ahead on the line from any angle!
Hadi has the legs to take 3rd ahead of Martinez.
Krizek takes 5th ahead of Wellens. An incredible recovery from the Fablok leader here. Poljanski is 7th.
Pluchkin in his leader's jersey is 8th. Pedrero and Tenorio complete the Top 10.
Today's winner - Gennady Tatarinov.
Today's result does not effect the GC much but there will be some serious discussions in the Kraftwerk quarters. Not that the team will mind particularly with a 1-2 finish! Tatarinov will probably owe Gonzalez Cortez a drink and a huge favour as afters of this judges call. A good podium from Hadi should make his team happy as well.
Pluchkin continues his hold on the GC and Points classifications but Kudus takes over the lead in the KOM standings. Oomen and Berg hold on to the lead in their respective classifications.
