Second part of this hellish last week, and even though the finale in Madrid is closing in, nobody can still be sure to be there, as there are four hard days to survive before.
Today, it’s 155 km, two category 3 and three category 1 climbs that the riders will have to tackle.
The race begins in Pravia, known for having inspired a soap. We’ll stay in the Asturias, to finish on top of the Puerto de la Cubilla, over 1680 m, at the border with Castilla-y-Leon.
The favorite’s list is pretty much the same as yesterday. Dombrowski could repeat yesterday’s performance, when his accelerations were to strength for anywhere else. Or maybe a sharper opposition will challenge him and his team.
There are only 12 km of false flat introduction before the first climb, the Alto de Mallecina (cat. 3, 5,1 km, 6,2%), beginss. The wannabe escapists don’t wait, and there are numerous attacks. The best young rider, Higuita, was the frist to go.
All of Gazelle team is at the front of the peloton. They’ve probably understood that they won’t get much help from the others today.
The break isn’t totally formed yet, as the climb begins.
Thirteen other riders are 24 seconds behind: Main (38th, 8 points) Lastra (21st, 16 points), Vingegaard Kastrantas (6th, 34 points) Lehtinen, Blums, Petelin (43rd, 6 points) Jaramillo (2nd, 52 points) Quita (32nd, 12 points) Uran, Rybalkin Parra Bustamente Schelling
A group of 4 is 48 seconds behind: Sequera Vlasov (51st, 4 points) Munoz (67th, 2 points) Dina (25th, 14 points)
Williams is 1’20 behind the leaders.
The peloton nearly 2 minutes late.
Others tried to go, but Gazelle didn’t allow them.
This is a break that could win today, with riders who already were in winning ride!
That could be bad news for Inkelaar, who is the only contender of the yound rider classification that is not in the break.
We’ll also have a tough battle for the mountain classification, as the top 7 is in the break (with the obvious exception of the red jersey Dombrowski). There are 60 points to take today.
In the first climb, Higuita launched the first attack, with the 31 men together. The points are for Williams though, and Jaramillo can’t profit of the work of his teammate, as Nesset takes the last two points.
The gap with the peloton is 5’36 at the top. Aegon and EA lend some forces to the chase.
130 km to go, 11,2 before the next climb.
The gap is down to 5’20 at the foot of the Alto de Cabrunana (cat. 3, 5,6 km, 5,5%).
Williams is once again the 1st on the top. I’m not sure what he’s looking for here: he’s the only one of his team in the break, and he can’t catch on Schinnagel. The Puma rider is 2nd, and Vosekalns is 3rd.
But somehow our cameras missed that!
The gap with the peloton is up to 6 minutes when it crosses the top.
More and more teams work in the pack: Polar joined, and EA brought one more rider.
The gap is down to 5’30 as the leaders finished the appetizer and will begin tyo climb the Puerto de Marabio (cat. 1, 11 km, 6,8%), its slopes above 15% and its Ermita de Santa Ana. Kastrantas probably won’t win the mountain classification today: he’s dropped from the break with 4 km to climb.
In the pack, the usual suspects, Lutsyshyn and Sterbini, are dropped. At least they’re together…
Williams feels styrong today: he takes the 3rd climb, with some gap over Jaramillo, Higuita and Munoz.
Schinnagel takes 6 points, and keeps an advance of 36 points over Jaramillo (108 against 74).
67 km to go, and the race has exploded. A group of 22 is leading.
Petelin, Uran, Papanov, Vingegaard, Schelling, Vlasov, Lastra, Kastrantas and Main are dropped.
The peloton is 7’18 behind the leaders, with only 74 riders still in.
There is no sprint in Cortina. 60 km to go for the leaders, 7 km before the beginning of the Alto de la Cobertoria (cat. 1, 7,7 km, 9%). Aegon, Polar, Moser and EA are chasing.
The break is back at 31 guys at the beginning of the climb. The gap is down to 5 minutes with 51 km to go. Papanov, Kastrantas and Main are quickly dropped.
Williams did try to take this one too, but he went too early. Schinnagel is brought up by Zwiehoff and takes 16 more points to strengthen his jersey. Vosekalns only takes 2 points, and Jaramillo none.
Sosa leads a group of three downhill: Higuita is in another group, 45 seconds behind.
In the group between, we have three Evonik riders as well as Zwiehoff. At the top of the climb, the gap with the 59 men peloton is 7’45.
20 men now lead the race. Higuita and Jaramillo are back in this group. 30 km to go for the leaders.
8 km later, here we go for the finish! It’s the Alto de la Cubilla (cat. 1, 22 km, 5,4%). Not the hardest climb, but a long one, after an already hard day.
15 km to climb and Tolhoek is the first to attack!
The peloton is 6’14 behind. Moser strong at its head.
At the front of the race, the chasers didn’t panic: Zwiehoff calmly brought back the five attackers. Already a strong race by the German.
The gap with the peloton is 5’45 with 12 km left to climb. All the top 20 is in the red jersey’s group or ahead.
Sosa has 1’13 to take on Higuita if he wants to lead the young rider classification. He’s the next to attack!
The riders really want to challenge my ubiquity capacities! In the peloton, Godoy and Bongiorno attack!
10 km mark for Sosa. He has 30 seconds on the white jersey’s group, led by Zwiehoff.
Godoy and Bongiorno have caught Khodayari, Dina and Schelling. They have 20 seconds on the red jersey group, led by ELCO and Gazelle.
Sosa has 8 km left to climb. The gap with the chasing group is 50’’, with Zwiehoff still working. He has three Evonik riders in his wheel.
In the peloton, at the 10 km mark, Godoy and Bongiorno have been caught. Kudus and Latour don’t want to let too much respite to the red jersey and they attack!
Mavrikakis isn’t able to bring them up, and Kudus accelerates again.
The gap between Kudus and Sosa now is 4’52.
The King Power rider is at the 5 km mark and he still has a 37’’ gap. Lehtinen is working in the chasing group now.
Kudus is alone, and he has 1’22 on the red jersey’s group of 18. Between them, a group of 3 is chasing with Eastman, Yates and Latour.
Three last kilometers for Sosa! For now, he manages to keep the gap over 30 seconds!
Kudus manages to take 1’30. He’s 26’’ ahead of the chasing trio, and 1’40 ahead of the red jersey’s group. The gap between Dombrowski and his runner up was 3’56 this morning.
2 last kilometers, and Sosa put on another acceleration to have a gap near to the minute.
Kudus is 1 km behind. Schelling is dropped from the red jersey’s group.
Flamme rouge! Sosa’s gap is over the minute now, hard to think that the victory will escape him.
And he does win it! All alone, after a 12 km solitary ride, what a victory!
Now we’ll have to watch the time. With 20 bonus seconds, the King Power rider is in a good position to take the white.
Schinnagel comforts a bit more his best climber jersey, with a 2nd place, ahead of Blums.
Higuita is 5th, 48 seconds behind Sosa. he’ll keep his jersey another day.
In the GC fight, Kudus now has 59 seconds on Eastman under the red kite.
Dombrowski now is leading his group.
This time, Kudus manages to be ahead of his main opponent. He’s 15th, 2’12 after Sosa. He’ll strengthen is 2nd place. Munoz is behind him, and Burke is 17th.
Eastman will take some seconds on the red jersey, coming strong behind him.
Yates will not win much. Good ride by him though.
And Dombrowski can still lead the rest of the favorites group to the finish line.
They arrive 3’34 after Sosa. Inkelaar will lose much in the white jersey fight.
Carthy was dropped in the finish, and he loses more than a minute.
And Schelling loses 2.
Everyone manages to finish under the time limit.
The GC begins to take its final shape, even though there are still three mountainous stages until the en.
Schinnagel is more than ever the best climber, as he managed to take most points today (as much as Williams). He’s 60 points ahead of Jaramillo.
Inkelaar lost all the advantage he won yesterday. The race is not finished for the young rider jersey, but he can’t repeat a day like today. Sosa is now only 8’’ behind Higuita.
With two guys in the winning break, Isostar is back at the top of the team classification. Gazelle is more than 7 minutes behind, but we’ve seen how fast that can change.
