The final mountain top finish might be the last opportunity for the GC riders to gain substantial time on their rivals. While tomorrow is incredibly tough with 4 Cat 1 climbs, the final summit is 30 kilometers from the finish, giving potentially distanced riders a good chance to catch up again. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
It’s not the most attractive stage for a breakaway, considering the long final climb and the comparatively limited amount of mountain points. But obviously, there are riders who will try. De Plus is the first to go, then a very interesting name follows: Zimmermann, leader in the young riders classification and fifth in the Kom ranking. He pulls Jones, Juodvalkis and Main with him.
Laengen, Teklehaimanot and Munoz are next, some familiar faces.
We’re not done yet: Dzhus initiates the next move, followed by Bartl, Frankiny and Affonso.
12 people so far, another 4 come here: Tolhoek, Egger, Bizkarra (who is a contender for the polkadots today as well) and Andriafenomananiaina.
Manfredi and Topchanyuk seem to be the final two riders to try for now. The peloton makes no efforts to bring anyone back so far.
The front group (everyone except the two above) are already 2 minutes ahead when Poljanski, Faiers and Seibeb want to join.
With all that movement at the back, we almost missed the first mountain sprint. Jones and Laengen get away and take 6 and 4 points respectively. They now have a total of … 6 and 4 points. Teklehaimanot takes the final 2, which means that Zimmermann and Bizkarra, both at 22 points at the moment, can only tie Lecuisinier’s 34 by winning both intermediate KoM points left.
In addition to the trio around Seibeb, we had additional attacks by Parra Bustamente, Antunes, Tatarinov and Garby. That makes it 25 riders ahead of the peloton, which keeps on chugging at a modest pace. The leaders are already 4 minutes away, which also means that these guys have quite the task to get there.
They eventually do make it and at the first intermediate sprint ( Jones - Dzhus - De Plus), they’re 5’30 ahead. Carrefour and Popo4Ever both have 3 riders in this group, a number of other teams have 2. Almost all of these guys are very capable climbers, Frankiny and Garby on paper perhaps the strongest, but it’s close enough that daily form and regeneration will likely decide who comes out on top - if this group makes it, that is.
It looks like that’s a big if. A bunch of teams combine to work at the front of the peloton and the breakaway enters the second categorized climb of the day with just 5 minutes, having lost some time over the last few kilometers already.
Poljanski opens the attacks close to the summit. This time, Zimmermann and Bizkarra are up there.
But the Minion is strong enough. Zimmermann goes to 26 mountain points, Bizkarra to 24. But given what we have on our plate tomorrow, today will not be decisive anyway.
A few riders had difficulties hanging on. They include Andriafenomananiaina, Bartl, Main, Juodvalkis, Dzhus and Munoz. They would all make it back after a few kilometers though.
Meanwhile, Quispe and Maksimov are already dropped by the peloton. They might not make it in time today, but their job is done anyway.
Not a lot happens over the next few dozen kilometers. At the second intermediate sprint ( Tatarinov - Manfredi - Parra Bustamente), the gap to the peloton stands at 4’30.
Bizkarra takes the mountain sprint ahead of De Plus and Topchanyuk. Their gap has gone down significantly though to just 3 minutes. Unless the favorites take it pretty slowly up the climb, it’s not looking well for these guys.
The final climb is not as steep as we’ve seen before, but very long (5,1% over 27,7 kilometers). In the very first slopes, Moser take complete control in the peloton. Kudus in his polkadots jersey remains a few rows behind GC leader Lecuisinier, but he might plan something today. Remember, the distance between them in the GC is just 58 seconds.
With the peloton already within sight, just 2 minutes away, Parra Bustamente attacks up front. Antunes and Manfredi want in.
Almost at the same time, there’s an attack in the peloton! Wellens makes a move, De Plus follows as does Kudus! But Lecuisinier is very attentive and immediately in his wheel.
Or is he? The French doesn’t quite get there and leaves Dombrowski to chase! Madrazo, Quintana, Pomoshnikov, Haig and Shikai are in that group, then there’s a gap!
Dombrowski reaches the trio, then Spilak closes the gap from the peloton, and everything slows down again a bit.
The attack up front didn’t go anywhere either, it only led to Juodvalkis being dropped. Also, the gap to the peloton went up to 2’30 again.
Just a couple of kilometers later, Kudus now makes his move! Wellens is right there with him, then Shikai and Dombrowski with a small gap!
It’s a big effort by Kudus, he and Wellens quickly get a gap of over half a minute. Shikai and Dombrowski were caught, Masnada leads the chase now.
At the backend of the peloton, a big group was split off that includes half the Amaysim squad including 19th overall Lane, but more notably, 15th overall Uran! The Colombian already had a terrible day on stage 2 and he’s set to lose quite a bit more today.
Kudus flies up the mountain and Wellens does well to hold on, they’re 45 seconds ahead of the peloton! Dombrowski and Lecuisinier lead them now. The breakaway is still 1’20 up the road, 7,5 kilometers left for them.
Only 15 riders remain in the Lecuisinier group. They are:
Dombrowski
Pluchkin
Lecuisinier
Madrazo
Sosnitskiy
Quintana
Eastman
Oomen
Spilak
Haig
Shikai
Preidler
Pomoshnikov
Galta
Arndt
The more prominent riders left out, in addition to Uran, are 16th overall Denifl, 20th Berhane, 21st Henao Montoya and 25th Aular, who does not look likely to regain the white jersey right now.
Wellens and Kudus pass some of the dropped breakaway riders including all three Carrefour guys. Behind them, Madrazo attacks!
We’re already inside the final 5 kilometers. Madrazo gets a decent gap, Lecuisinier still defers responsibility to Dombrowski while Sosnitskiy and Pomoshnikov struggle at the end of the group.
Without too much of an effort, Madrazo reaches Kudus and Wellens. The two have slowed down a bit, evident by the fact that Garby and company managed to stay with them. At the same time, they’re not ceiding anything to the other favorites, who still trail this group by 50 seconds. The remaining 19 breakaway riders are 55 seconds ahead - a decisive attack could be enough to hold off the GC riders, as the final kilometers aren’t all that steep!
Lecuisinier still doesn’t do much work here, despite the gap to Kudus crossing the minute mark now, meaning the Moser leader is in virtual yellow! Does the French not have it today, or is he waiting for a last minute push?
Laengen, Frankiny and Seibeb lead the breakaway into the final kilometer. With Kudus, Madrazo and Wellens likely far enough away, the group defies my expectations and will actually fight for the stage win! Following the leaders, we have Egger, Teklehaimanot, Antunes, Zimmermann, Manfredi, Parra Bustamente, Dzhus and Topchanyuk.
The final few hundred meters are really steep and Egger falls out of contention. Still no decisive acceleration at the front.
Meanwhile, Lecuisinier has finally taken over, but the gap to Kudus is up to 1’33!
Laengen finally attacks and immediately gets a gap. Seibeb tries to follow, the others seem to be too tired.
Laengen looks like he has this in the bag, behind him it’s very close. Frankiny is currently the fastest, trying to catch up to Seibeb.
Seibeb is too far ahead and will take second place, but the stage win today belongs to Vegard Staeke Laengen!
Frankiny indeed finishes third ahead of Zimmermann. Another brillant performance by the German, who not only extends his lead in the young riders classification, but also enters the GC Top 20 and takes the mountain jersey! What a day!
Parra Bustamente finishes 5th, then Antunes, Dzhus, Manfredi, Teklehaimanot and Topchanyuk. Egger finishes 11th with a small gap …
… and then come the three attackers. They still have the energy to sprint towards the line. Wellens will make a jump up from 11th overall, Madrazo dominantly defends his 3rd place in the GC, but the big question is of course: Will Kudus retake yellow? The clock stops at + 47, he needs 59 seconds on Lecuisinier.
Lecuisinier is still a good ways away from the finish and he’s struggling to navigate to through former breakaway riders. It’s going to be very close. With the exception of Sosnitskiy and Pomoshnikov, all previously mentioned GC riders are still in this group, also an indication that the pace hasn’t been that high.
Next to Munoz, Main and Pluchkin, who has his best day yet, Lecuisinier sprints to the line. Munoz saves him maybe two or three seconds, but it’s not enough! He loses 1’34 on Kudus, who takes yellow by 36 seconds!
Dombrowski finishes with the same time, as do Spilak, Oomen and Eastman. Shikai and Galta lose 28 more seconds.
Another 20 seconds for Quintana, Haig, Arndt and Preidler. Pomoshnikov loses even more time, he drops to 10th overall.
The Denifl / Aular group finishes at + 5’17, a pretty big chunk of time.
But still not as much as Uran, who has to bury any Top 10 dreams he might have had before today and even drops out of the Top 20!
Maksimov and Quispe actually end up within the time limit with more than half an hour to spare. The final climb just wasn’t that tough, but you have to wonder how happy they are to be “allowed” to tackle that brutal stage tomorrow.
With a second really strong stage, Kudus returns to the top of the GC. As I’ve mentioned before the stage, it would take a lot for Lecuisinier to retake yellow tomorrow, given the stage profile. Wellens is another winner of today, jumping to 5th overall. Spilak enters the Top 10 at 9th, while Quintana and Preidler, each losing 3 spots, drop out of them.
Zimmermann is once again a story of the day, moving all the way up to 15th overall, and also now 7 minutes ahead of Aular, not to mention the polkadots jersey - though he might not defend that tomorrow, given the huge amount of points available, and he’s at this point probably not allowed into the break anymore. Tatarinov, another breakaway rider, moves up to 18th overall.
While we’re on the topic of jerseys, Hodeg actually remains in green with Lecuisinier ending up without points today. Given that tomorrow could very well go to a breakaway again, he has a realistic chance of keeping it all the way. Finally, despite Aular’s disappointment, MOL returns to the top of the team classification.
Vuelta a Colombia 
