A transitional stage today through the hills with a small mountain top finish to end the stage.
The break today is
Chiarello (KOM Leader) De Pooter Kloppenborg Kiriakidis Mavrikakis Varotsos White De Witte Van Zyl Sam Rubenis Bayer
Two very familiar names by now and there's potential Chiarello could effectively end the KOM competition today with a few good results on these 2nd cat climbs
Kiriakidis just pips him early one to the first one as Elco try to defend Christapopoulos position in the KOM classification without him having to try and collect points himself which seems smart.
Chiarello grabs KOM 2 and moves onto 54pts overall a massive 22pt lead now and Kiriakidis takes 3rd this time with Bayer 2nd moving those two onto 16 and 14pt respectively.
And amazingly that was that for the breakaway the Peloton never gave them more then 5"00 and were caught with 40km to go before the last KOM sprint of the day.
The peloton has ridden at a conservative pace though and we still have all 174 riders in the Peloton with 35km to go.
Chiarello isn't done attacking and when Soulious goes on the offensive he follows I think the Brazillian must have endless energy reserves after yesterdays heroics.
He can't beat Soulious at the top of the climb but he adds even more points to his KOM lead. There's a big day tomorrow though and he instantly sits up well the man from Greece continues his attack with a "30 second gap over the peloton and 15km to go it's not hopeless.
The peloton led by and chase hard down the climb and keep Soulious within reach so when we get to the final climb with 5km to go he has a 20 second lead but is well within sight.
Huge attack by Quita just as Soulious is being caught Meintjes is in the wheel along with stage favourite Ardila, and Novak who must have his managers angry words from yesterdays spurring him on as he's right in the mix.
Kudus has jumped to but was a little late reacting and is slightly gapped.
Quita sits down and Meintjes follows but Ardila blows right by them Novak is perfectly placed with Kudus still gapped slight but he has opened up a gap to the remaining peloton who are sprinting together.
Meintjes reacts as he shes Ardila go but has lost some momentum.
Meintjes is slowly clawing away at Ardila who has made a 1.5km effort at this point he's holding his pace but is needing the line! Novak finally comes out of the wheel and look to be finishing the strongest.
It's desperate at 200m to go Novak is clawing away inches at a time and Ardila is holding Meintjes but what feels like a width of a tyre its going to be so close!
Ardila looks to have got it on the overhead shot but wait the organisers are saying that Meintjes bike throw has put him in front on the line incredible from the South African he didn't look in front before or after the line but it's the timing that counts incredible show of experience from the South African and a harsh lesson for the young Colombian. Novak needed maybe 10m more but tactically played it perfectly compared to the other two and may just not have had the strength.
Quita is 4th after another attacking ride and Kudus completes the leading group of 5 after having not had the reactions early on they will get a gap though!
20 seconds is given a huge boost for all as Meintjes now 2nd on GC Kudus 4th and Ardila 5th but in the Youth GC lead.
Mas continues his heroic tour by finish 6th and takes the Points lead on countback. Oomen, Leknessund and Rodrigues are next
Soulious is 13th after a great break attempt and Bernal rolls in 14th after using no energy it seemed in the finale. Who knows what he might be planning on the queen stage tomorrow!
[PTHC] Tour De Suisse 
