Next big mountain stage at halftime of the race. This time onto Mt.Equinox, not as long as yesterdays Mt.Washington but just as steep and this time with quite a bit of climbing already during the full stage.
Can Penasa make the triple today or is Nerz and co. able to beat him today?
Also the fight for the podium/top5/top10 keeps thrilling. Can Garby gain mroe time for a full come back? Can Atapuma come back after one weaker performance? Will Abal/Kuss remain best of the rest?
What about the riders of the 3rd tier? Raileanu, Duarte etc.?
If you want to call it "easy" the middle part is indeed the only area, you might think to have time for a quick recover. Other than that Mt.Equinox is damn tough to climb.
So far the breakaway riders were not lucky but still they try again and again stage for stage.
Also today a group of 5 riders go for it, a mix of decent stage racers and teams, that simply want to be in the break. And it might be a first that no Gjensidige rider is in the break! Shapira, 18th in the GC and who was incredibly strong yesterday leads the group while Sortveit is the best placed just a tiny bit ahead of him though.
Hoehn, Marryatt and Jacobs complete the group but are easily quite a few levels below that duo when it comes to climbing.
Shapira ahead of Sortveit at the midstage Cat.2. It was other way around the earlier two climbs.
This sees Sortveit going into 2nd with 30 points only beaten by Penasa`s 46.
Nerz at 28 followed now by Shapira at 26 and still McNulty at 21 then. Hoehn up to 8th at 20 just like Abal/Kuss.
This shows that as long as the GC riders go for every mountain top finish themselves, the breakaway riders will struggle to really take this competition.
Actually as side note, Ford was doing the main work in the peloton just until the sprint before dropping back and now again riding his own race against the clock! No matter the time of the stage, he always is in the wind.
Either the peloton thought the 17./18. in the GC were too dangerous or they simply are cannibals not allowing anyone taking the stage but the very strongest.
Before the Cat.2 the peloton is about to pass the duo. Unfortunately for their ambitions or support tasks, they are quickly not only caught but passed by the peloton and will lose time today.
Valio has taken over with Kulppi, Lethinen, Kaislauvo and Dulanjana. Gebremedhin sitting inside the big bunch while Penasa is covered by Hasta.
One rider did attack for the 10 points, it`s Mannion who easily takes it and goes into 4th now at 26 points. He soon is caught again as it was not a stage attack.
Again Glanbia is seen around the top doing turns here and there. Will we see Brandt going crazy today?
One reaching the final climb, with 8km to go Kraftwerk is taking over. Bol not yet their biggest weapon but Kiserlovski sitting right behind him with Denz, Geniez, Maillet all around as well.
Though, for a very last effort, it`s green jersey holder Marco Haller doing a couple of meters in the red zone. Soon after he drops back and won`t be seen again until much later. This team really works with everyone supporting the others.
Denz and Geniez were mainly sharing the work until 3km to go. So far the big selection didn`t happen with still 29 riders around and also the amount of helpers for Valio/Kraftwerk is still in balance as Gebremedhin and Dulanjana are in the first positions.
This quickly changes though, once 500m later the duo Denz/Geniez were done and immediately also the Valio duo is struggling to hold on!
Same goes for Duarte and Fraile.
The struggle is getting even bigger once Nerz goes into the lead himself with 1.8km to go. Not even needing the support of Kiserlovski today.
Behind him Penasa not allowing a gap to open and Abal right behind him looking strong once more.
Also Moschella for the first time looking good pulling Brandt with him. Is this his stage?
Burke still up there as well for Desigual making the U25 jersey proud and also Atapuma, Garby, Raileanu, Mannion, Denz, Geniez not far off neither.
One rider struggling though is Kuss, who is sitting behind Kiserlovski at the end of that group or even with a gap already. Next to him also Liphongyu not able to keep contact.
Behind them the Valio helpers as also the earlier dropped Fraile/Duarte.
Boring! Or not? Well not for the fight of the GC title as once again Nerz and Penasa are strongest but not giving themselves a lot of a gap.
But there simply is no one able to even come close to their strength and all other riders can only fight for the final podium spot, top5 or top10.
Abal on podium track being the most consistent of the rest.
Atapuma again doing better with Garby having his 2nd consecutive strong performance but time to gain back.
Moschella and Brandt with great stages here before the first bigger group around Kuss, who is yet to limit his loss, same for Raileanu in there or Duarte/Fraile.
Atapuma has gapped the others, which means, Abal might be for the first time clearly beaten by a direct rival!
Can he even come back to the top 2?
Actually no. The duo accelerates and quickly within 500m the gap widens from 30 to 70 seconds.
Nerz even might start to open a gap there or is Penasa just faking?
He is not! Nerz finally is getting his first win this Tour of America, beating Penasa by dieseling until the line, even throwing up his arms for a tiny second.
The officials give him another 10s of a time gap even, which makes the duel very close.
Atapuma in 3rd losing 1'16 but gaining a bit more than half a minute on the next, where Abal is the first to pass the line. With himm Moschella and Garby, while Brandt is another 18s behind, but this was an excellent performance by the Glanbia veteran as 7th of the day.
Mannion as 8th leading in the first group at 2'38, which is not too much of a time loss. The Azteca rider even collects some KoM points with this result.
Raileanu in there as well just like Kiserlovski, Denz, Geniez and Burke! Strong Kraftwerk team performance again.
Kuss is losing another 30s coming in with Duarte and Liphongyu and losing contact to Abal today. Fraile another few seconds later with Gebremedhin.
Last but not least the judges are once more merciful and allow Ford to continue. He was 33min behind before the climb, losing another 40min during that climb, which is extremely slow, but despite being 79min down and almost 15min later than his team mate Frame, he is inside the time limit!
