Big day ahead as the 1st week ends with the first proper mountain stage. Flat first half, then 3 climbs of which the first two aren`t the hardest but might reduce the peloton a bit before the final (not very steep, but rather long) climb will see the big names fighting it out.
Nerz vs. Penasa today or will someone surprise?
The support teams are similar strong for both, while other riders are more isolated such as Garby, Kuss. Desigual today needs to decide between Fraile or Abal and also Nordica`s riders are a questionmark while Fablok and Europcar might hope for a strong showing by their riders before Azteca is mentioned as last here with Mannion as leader.
8 riders in the break today Wilson Lafay Bostner (12th GC) Stetina Medvedev Sortveit Lovik Siddikov
Couple decent one dimensional climbers in Stetina and Medvedev while Bostner stands out as most complete and highest placed rider in 12th!
The peloton keeps the gap at around 3min only, knowing that Bostner and co are too dangerous. Haller, Young and Bennett seen within the chasing. Tough days for the sprinters here.
Mentionable that both Sortveit and Lovik relax at the end of the group as their team mates Medvedev and Lafay chase for them.
In especially Eddie Stobarts order is surprising as the Russian is the better climber but Lovik indeed might be a smarter option seeing his allround skills are much better.
The Cat.4 goes to Bostner ahead of Stetina and Wilson. So far no danger for McCormick.
Special mention to Ford. Since day 1 and his podium in the ITT he finishes as last day for day ahead of team mate Frame.
Both are working hard for most of the day and then fight against the time limit.
Today might be the hardest task for the Aussie as his climbing is bad and still 46km to go with already 8min down. GC wise he is 67min down, Frame at 40min and all others within 28min, which shows how many solo kilometers he is doing here AFTER chasing in the wind before!
Quite realistic to say that probably none of them two is reaching the end of the Tour of America in 2 weeks.
Lafay first, then Medvedev drop from the break. Both have done a lot of work though.
Not much later only the two Norwegians, who saved the most are left. Lovik and Sortveit did attack to take the points and now move on.
Stetina, Bostner and Wilson try to come back with the peloton not that much behind neither though.
13,4km and onto Mt.Greylock. Just 5.5% in average but having a few harder sections in between.
Fablok`s Plucinski is the first rider of the peloton and only the duo left in front down to 30s though.
Krasnoperov is the first big name to be dropped alongside breakaway rider Stetina.
More surprisingly though that 4 Valio riders are dropped! Basically the full support team for Penasa!
A quick count and only Gebremedhin is left for him in the first group of 41 riders! Fair enough, they did a lot of work today but this is far earlier than expected with 11,7km to go.
Let`s compare. Kraftwerk has all 8 riders in the group of 41! Which is impressive as this also includes Haller and Park. But it shows the huge difference today, when everyone was expecting a 50:50 balance of their lineups.
As Moschella is about to be dropped as well, this is a bad day for Nordica`s GC ambitions. Also Burke for Desigual might drop early today and lose the U25 lead.
9km to go and despite Kraftwerk still having 6 riders in the group of 33, it`s the last Valio support in Gebremedhin chasing!
Plucinski and Denz behind him and the duo in front almost caught now.
Now also Kraftwerk is slowly losing support riders. Surprisingly it`s the better climbers. Former GC winner Kiserlovski and Maillet are their riders behind despite not having worked a lot today.
The biggest surprise so far and the first real leader though. Garby is losing contact with 8km to go and still 24 riders in the first group! Wow. Hopefully just a bad day and he can come back and not a sign of what to expect from him on the following mountain stages.
Ahead of him also Liphongyu seems to have reached the maximum.
Good for Kraftwerk that Denz and Geniez are on a strong day and can still accelerate with 7km to go when Gebremedhin ends his shift.
Immediately more riders are dropped and only 14 riders are left.
Fraile now losing contact as well just like Shapira with Brandt just hanging on.
With 6,2km to go, this might be quite a time loss and more than the time trial can make him comeback. Good for Desigual that Abal is still up there showing great spirit.
Zielinski and Brandt also having lose contact now while Garby/Mannion are already 1'30 behind.
5km and Kraftwerk still having the energy to keep the pace up not allowing anyone to come back!
Well, still as Geniez is the last helper with Denz now falling back as well.
1km later though Geniez is also done and drops back, just like Penasa`s last support in Gebremedhin. All isolated now but also not ideal for Fablok and Azteca as their riders Raileanu and Duarte are dropped.
Just Kuss, Abal and Atapuma left with the two top favourites.
Atapuma was on a good ride but with 1,5km he can`t follow the others and has to let go.
Same for the other two with 1,2km where Nerz and Penasa open a small gap.
Abal and Kuss dropped.
500m and the two are fighting for the stage. Abal actually close to come back! At least clearly gapped Kuss as well.
Despite being one of the worst sprinters, Penasa proved strongest today and takes the stage. He might not have had the best team around but still takes the stage and defends the yellow jersey.
Nerz in 2nd actually is given a 10s gap and so is Abal in 3rd at just 26s, which is a fantastic performance by the veteran.
Kuss as best home rider on a good 4th at 45s ahead of Atapuma at 1'13. Those 5 clearly stronger than the rest today.
Gebremedhin brings in the next group at 2'13 already. Geniez, Duarte and Raileanu with him.
Brandt, Zielinski, Denz, Shapira next losing another minute.
Biggest loser today is Garby. Instead of a top5-10 he comes in as 19th and more important losing 4'42! Even behind breakaway duo Lovik/Sortveit as best of their team.
Fraile at 14th at 4'02 also having lost quite a bit in the end.
Krasnoperov/Moschella down at 6'18!
And last but not least. Ford made it! Losing another 38min, Frame 32min but still in.
