Nobody willing to really control the breakaway, as evidenced by the presence of nearly the entirety of Los Pollos Hermanos. Perhaps an early sign that the escapees would be able to secure their first stage win. The twenty-two man break consisted of:

Konig	Vichot	Zukowsky	Bolivar
Olesen	Forssell	Stocek
Cannister	Reynders
Bizkarra
Serry
McConvey
Munoz	Mutsumine	Cepeda
Julajuj	Beltran	Knotten
McNulty	Revard	Hecht
Main

A relatively high pace across the unclassified climbs kept the break from building up a significant gap, and placed their ambitions for the stage in jeopardy. Equally hard hit by the pace were the trio of Roson, Henao, and Bonnin. Caught out by a split in the peloton, they were more than a minute down even prior to tackling the quartet of climbs that made up the majority of the day.

The peloton's tempo up the first ascent wasn't the highest, and it was eventually rewarded with the first real attack in the mountains coming from Brenes. The Costa Rican overcame several elements of the disintegrating break, but was unable to bridge all the way across to the leaders before the summit.

For their part, the break had collapsed due to the heavy toll demanded by Vichot, Revard, and Konig. The peloton hadn't been moving very quickly prior to Brenes making a move, and the other teams were slow to cooperate once he did. Konig made an effort to shake his companions, but was only able to secure the maximum points available for the Category 2 climb. Close behind were McNulty and Munoz. Also part of the leading group were Revard and Bizkarra.

Although Brenes had initially made progress, when things began to heat up at the front it became clear that he was going be stuck in no man's land for a while. Bizkarra was the one to set it off, by putting in an acceleration that only Konig was willing or able to follow.

Munoz responded by quickening the pace; the McCormick pair content to recieve a free ride back into a cohesive group. Unfortunately, Revard proved unable to follow the wheel ahead of him, cracking before the summit.

Konig again took the maximum points in the fight for the polkadots. The series of rapid accelerations meant that the peloton had failed to shrink the gap, so if the Czech climber could maintain his form he was a shoe-in for the stage win.

Evidently the Volcanica - Fox Directeur Sportif was not impressed by Brenes's ride, as he was brought back by his own teammates on the descent. The plan had switched to forcing the peloton apart with a heavy tempo. Herrada was certainly the man for such a job.

Seibeb was the first significant name to go, but others would rapidly join him. Bonnin, having recovered from his earlier troubles, was once again in hot water. Also falling off the back were Nepomnyachsniy, Hoem, and white jersey wearer Almeida.

Pavlic took over when Herrada was forced to relent. This saw Brenes and Salinas both spat out the rear.

Up front, young gun Brandon McNulty had successfully launched an attack to take the maximum points on offer, although a good chase by Bizkarra was keeping him in sight.

Emulating him was Reguigui, who accelerated away from the peloton just before the summit. Dan Martin was the only one able to follow his wheel. Unfortunately for the pair, Potocki was able to bring them back prior to the downhill. Only a jab to test the defences then.

Things came together somewhat on the downhill, with McNulty unwilling to take too many risks, and instead backing his ability to force another gap on the final climb. This meant that Konig was able to bring it back together.

With a gap of around two minutes, and a climb more than 10 kilometres in length in front of them, it was for from certain that the stage winner would come from this leading group. However, considering the inability of the peloton to effectively cut the gap on the previous ascents, the quartet would certainly have been feeling confident by this point.

McNulty quickly took charge on the climb. The tempo he set was too much for Bizkarra, who was the first to capitulate. A hard acceleration was enough to leave Munoz behind. Konig initially matched the move, but while the young American continued to stand on his peddles the Czech veteran was forced to return to his seat.

McNulty crested the Alto Palo Grande for the final time with a gap of nearly a minute to his nearest competitor, and his former breakaway companions strung out beneath him.

While McNulty showed himself the best of the day, the GC favourites were engaged in a struggle to see who would replace Salinas in yellow for the final mountain stage.

A group of 13 found themselves at the bottom of the final climb: Amador, Kuss, Dan Martin, Campero, Potocki, Diaz, De Vos, Gaspar, Reguigui, Pavlic, Girdlestone, Serry, and Mutsumine were set to duke it out. Campero and Potocki were by far the best positioned on GC, with the latter needing only twenty seconds over the former to take yellow; their nearest competitor was a full minute behind.

As the virtual GC leader Campero sought to control the group, taking the lead on the lower slopes. He was immediately thwarted by Kuss, who accelerated with Pavlic on his wheel. Revard, who had just been caught by the group, made a move which will either be described as intelligent or malicious depending on who you support; the result was that Pavlic was forced off the wheel by the need to make defensive maneuvers.

Dan Martin took a quick look at Campero before deciding to bridge across. Amador showed a first sign of weakness when he failed in his effort to follow the Irishman.

Campero decided to up the pace before the situation spiralled out of control. This was enough to reel Kuss back in, but Martin continued to resist. As soon as it looked like everything might come back together, Potocki put in an attack; as he came by Martin the latter made to follow the move.

This was too much for Campero, who promptly cracked. The big surprise, hinted at by his earlier weakness, was that Amador also came tumbling off not much later. Kuss took up chasing duties in their absence, but was unable to bring the leading pair back before the summit.

Without anymore slopes on which to destroy his competitors, McNulty was forced to take some risks on the final descent. Fortunately the youth was more than capable of maintaining the extensive lead he had built up for himself. A very impressive victory for the American talent.

The only other member of the break to survive was Konig, as the others were swept up in the rapid approach of Potocki and Martin. That duo were unfortunate to find that adjudicators were feeling rather conservative as to what counted as a gap, meaning that Kuss and associates were counted alongside them.

A gap of more than a minute was given to Campero however. Good news for others were swept up in the rapid approach of Potocki, especially as Salinas was classified four minutes back. Pavel Potocki had the yellow jersey and a gap of exactly a minute going into the final stage.

On the other end of that gap were Reguigui and Martin. With neither particularly known for their ability on the TT bike, they would need to be aggressive tomorrow if their chance at the overall victory was to materialise. Pre-race favourite Amador sat at +2'20".

An excellent day in the break for McNulty also saw him catapulted into the white jersey. Another mediocre but not brilliant ride from Barta meant he was just over a minute back, whilst Almeida would need to make up more than two. Given that the peloton were likely to be less willing to give McNulty much length on his leash now that he was 8th on GC, Barta making his way into white remained a real possibility.

Despite being nowhere near the front, his two stage wins meant that Salinas maintained his stranglehold on the points competition. His early strength was enough to move Konig into the polkadots.