The yellow jersey worn on his back means that Andreas Leknessund's teammates were forced to take up chasing duties today, despite their lack of a real contender.

Before we could be certain as to the makeup of the days breakaway, the first intermediate sprint was upon us. Despite the fact that there was stil a concerted effort by the pack to draw them back in the leading trio found the idea of bonus points too tempting. Cooperation broke down, as they duked out for the honours. Tore Andre Vabo came through ahead of Joel Yates and Rasmus Iversen.

It took quite a few more kilometres before the breakaway of the day was finally established. The aforementioned trio had joined up with Robov and Sakalou; with the two BWT Hyundai cyclists being outside favourites for the stage win. Evidently the peloton was not happy with the situation, as they continued to push the pace.

This eventually caused a rupture, that saw Yates, Vabo, and Robov successively dropping off the front group. Although they spent numerous kilometres caught in no man's land, the trio eventually amassed together and relayed their way back to the lead. This was enough to convince the peloton that they were better of marking the break for now, and after more than seventy kilometres of hard riding they settled into a more manageable pace.

Some relatively prominent names came to the fore, as multiple teams worked together to keep the breakaway on a tight leash. Given that there is only a single stage left for the sprinters, their directeurs evidently feel that they won't be able to score enough points to secure green. They do their job ably, perhaps aided by a break already exhausted by the earlier fight.

In the first pass of the day's main circuit, it was Yates who went onto the attack. With no King of Mountains points awarded at the finish, this was an opportunity to stake a claim for the polkadots even if the break wasn't going to make it all the way. Unfortunately for the young kiwi, Sakalou was able to hold his wheel before swinging round him to take the maximum points. Vabo was best of the rest.

Given just how hard they had been pushed in the opening kilometres, it was almost inevitable that the break would fold quickly under pressure. One by one they were consumed by the oncoming pack. First Robov, then Vabo and Iversen, with Yates following soon after. The only holdout was one Andrei Sakalou; who might've hoped for some more capable companions if he was to mount a serious challenge.

Indeed, Sakalou lasted couldn't quite manage another twenty kilometres before he too was captured. Doing the work to reel him in were Tafjord Kraft and Project: Africa; an early suggestion that Henao, Lavery, and Seibeb felt their legs were good.

Although the peloton paid vist to this climb four times across the course of the stage, and rode through the KoM barriers each time, it was only categorised on the first and third pass. Heading into that third pass Lavery was hovering around the front. A quick glance over his shoulder and he pushed off. He was too closely marked by Roson to get clear, but did take the maximum points. Girdlestone scored third.

Although it wasn't powerful enough to see him clear, Lavery's attack was sufficient to cause chaos further back. Combined with Girdlestone's rapid descent there were a number of gaps opening in the peloton, with many poorly GC favourites under threat.

Nobody was willing to cooperate with Project: Africa; no doubt fearing for the safety of their own leadership. This allowed the peloton to mostly come back together, with one notable exception. Although he was never likely to contend for victory, Olesen being dropped on a stage that ought to suit him cannot be good news for Carlsberg.

Looking to reward his team's efforts was Costa Seibeb, as he accelerated on the final ascent of the stage's main circuit. The Namibian pulled off a similar move later last year, and against a much stronger field.

This time, however, he was closely marked by Pieter Serry and Dan Martin, who threatened to bring the entire peloton with them. At least until Martin was forced to sit up, allowing the remaining pair to fly down the descent with a small gap.

The chasing effort rapidly mustered by Gregory Daniel and Salinas was sufficient to bring the attack back at the base of the next climb, but only to a select group of favourites. This was limited to:

Barta	Brenes	Pavlic	Henao	Potocki
Reguigui	Seibeb	Campero	D. Martin	Serry
Roson	Salinas	Daniel	G. Martin

The next person to try something was Jonathan Salinas, perhaps looking to make use of his team's numbers advantage. Seibeb was unable to follow the intial move, leaving Serry to bridge across.

Although they momentarily looked dangerous, the move was snuffed out on the final descent. The pace slowed, allowing the group at the front to grow. In spite of this, the situation was still chaotic, and the threat of more gaps opening up remained.

Pieter Serry was the first to launch, coming up and around Lilovski. Barta is the rider visble on the far side of the road; having failed to hold onto the Belgian's wheel he now hoped to outlast him. Salinas also appears in the image, whilst Antunes is just out of shot.

Serry went too early. Although he was able to garner a full bikelength or two intially, his momentum rapidly disappated; leaving him to swing to the side of the road as others came steaming past. Given that the Belgian had already marked numerous earlier attacks before launching his own, it is perhaps unsurprising that he cracked.

Coming through in his place was a fast moving Jonathan Salinas. The home rider had positioned himself well and had the discipline to only incremently increase his pace when Serry accelerated. Barta, who had also positioned well, was fading. Instead it was Afonso, Kuss, and D. Martin coming through to challenge for the win.

The Venezuelan never wavered, he never flinched, and Jonathan Salinas was rewarded with a stage victory in his home race! It was a close thing, as Youcef Reguigui was extremely rapid in the closing few metres, but just came up short. Round out the podium was Sepp Kuss.

A chink in the absolute favourites armor? The Cost Rican's team was unable to prevent gaps from forming ahead of him, and he lost a little over a minute. If it had just been puncheurs it mightn't've been an issue, but the likes of Kuss and D. Martin gained time today. Not the end of the line, but certainly a blow to Amador's hopes of beating the record.

Rasmus Iversen and Tore Andre Vabo fell straight through the peloton once they were caught by it. A loss of more than sixteen minutes renders the Norwegian's efforts at the intermediate sprint somewhat pointless.

Best on the day and, for now, best overall it's Jonathan Salinas.

The only person of note to lose more time than the peloton was Patrick Olesen, who sits at + 6'29".