A smaller group despite yesterday's success. Perhaps they feared that the parcour of continous ascents was less favourable than the mixed peaks and valleys that granted the break a win. Present were:

Faiers	Antunes	Jacobsen	Johannessen
Lopez Nolasco	Mutsumine	Veyhe	Vichot
Akhmaevi	Stocek	Juntunen

Evidently there was very little interest in chasing the stage win; in the absence of a threat to the general classification the peloton was content to let the gap grow. For their part, the break kept the hammer on and relayed through both intermediate sprints.

It was Faiers who lead the breakaway up the first ascent of the day, and an attack from Faiers which would splinter the group. Unfortunately he wasn't able to capitalise, with Jacobsen instead swinging around to take the Second Category climb. Sticking with the pair was Vichot and Antunes.

Although the escapees would regroup on the long flat section, it was again Faiers who was sat on the front. This time it was Antunes who came through to snatch the win, with the break remaining largely intact.

Behind them, Sauber Petronas began to show themselves at the front. An early sign that Campero's legs felt good, perhaps a promise of attacks to come.

At this point, the race had truly reached the business end, with two back-to-back ascents seperated by a flat section of little over two kilometres. Inevitably splits began to form.

The biggest name caught out was yesterday's winner: McNulty. He was joined by fellow U25 favourite Almeida, as well as Bizkarra and a quiet Liphongyu. Hoem and Olesen later also began to fall down the order.

At the front, Antunes forced his way into the lead early on, but was unable to hold it. Instead Jacobsen came storming through for yet more points.

Not content with the pace being displayed at the front, Campero was the first to launch an attack; looking to profit from his domestique's earlier work. Aasvold was able to bring him back, but the effort certainly burnt a decvent few of his matches.

This meant that when Kuss launched an attack of his own the Norwegian domestique was not in a positon to chase it down. Instead Campero and Amador follow the move, which quickly began to build up steam.

In the mean time McNulty had managed to fight his way back into the main pack; while Brenes was faced with yet another disappointing collapse.

Out the front, Faiers launched an attack at the base of the final climb. Nobody was willing to follow that initial move, and so instead resolved to grind him back.

Unfortunately, that didn't work out very well for them; became impatient and elected to bridge across alone. This left the pair of Jacobsen and Mutsumine struggling to stay ahead of the encroaching pack.

As above, so below. Salinas, not content with the pace of the chasing group, and desperate to restore his GC aspirations, attacked his companions. The only one quick enough to respond was Konig, but he eventuall relented and fell back among the chasers. This had the effect of bringing the chase down to a select group consisting of Dan Martin, Novak, Bonnin, Konig, McNulty, Aasvold and Serry. Barta, who was looking like the only one capable of challenging McNulty for white was yo-yoing off the back.

Campero had fallen away under the relentless pace of Kuss, instead resorting to his own calmer tempo. This saw him link up a charging Salinas, only to be promptly dropped by him as well.

Despite his strong pace Kuss was unable to dislodge Amador by simply grinding away. Instead he demanded the Costa Rican come through to take a pull, and when that was met with a refusal he attacked out of his seat. The elastic between the pair rapidly snapped, with Salinas instead drawing up to the latter rider.

Further back, Konig had continued the chase. Despite his his inability to retreive those who had escaped him earlier, he did enough damage to reduce the group to just four. Himself, Martin, Novak, and McNulty; although the latter was already yo-yoing and would latter drop off completely.

There was one man who had no clue about the situation that was evolving between the GC favourites, and he didn't need to because all that mattered was who was in front of him: nobody! Thomas Faiers rode hard, attacked his breakaway companions, and then continued to extend the gap throughout. A great stage win for his ProContinental outfit.

Jacobsen had enough gas to catch up to the back of Antunes, but not outsprint him. The pair completed the podium.

With a display nearly as dominant as the stagewinner's Kuss came through in fourth, and started the clock ticking for the yellow jersey. He started the day 1'42" down, with both Martin and Campero in front of him; albeit by less than a minute. The American needn't have worried though, as the only person who even came close to touching him was a charging Salinas who had dropped Amador in the final kilometre.

Kuss would wear yellow at the start of the final day. However, with just over half a minute seperating the top three, and 17 kilometres of timetrialing ahead of them, there was still all to play for.