On paper, a much harder stage than yesterday, which Lopez won, but he's still the top favourite for the stage today
Charles once again attacks early to start the stage and is joined by the Ghanian Kusi though the co-operation is limited to say the least and the young rider from Granada lets him know what he thinks of his limited pulls so far.
Lukcy for those two the peloton see them as no threat and the gap grows to 1"00 quickly three riders bridge across Ayuso and Putti make the early jump and now Wandahl makes the final jump to give us 5 in the break.
Wandahl then beats Putti to the top of the first category climb of the day Charles is last in the group but still manages to grab a couple of points on the 1st category climb as his lead increases to 10pts
The 2nd category climb of the day is next though and that's the end for Charles he needs to hang on now to grab some points at the top but the peloton has given the break a 5"39 lead and that should be possible.
Wandahl impresses again at the next sprint the young Dane is talented and could have a bright future this moves him to 2nd in the KOM. Charles does end up hanging on for 5th place at the top of the climb.
Which gives us a current standings looking like this with 3 category climbs to go
40km to go though and the gap has evaporated quickly to the break and now stands at 1"30 at the bottom of the climb the breakaway are well within sight. Blouwe has been setting a hard tempo at the bottom of the climb
And for the first time in this race we see some gaps appearing out the back.
Schelling cleans out the rest of the break before the top and he's put in such a strong climb that even Areruya is being attentive at the front of the race.
Our first surprise of the day is Müller is dropped as the breakaway is falling from the back. He does have a low mountain stat and this could be the cause but this feels very early to be dropping.
Simmons powers over the top of the climb there's been a very high pace on up here and no attacks at all as we now have just two climbs to go
As soon as we are on our next climbs though another shock McCarthy goes out the back and Manada have plenty of riders trying to bring him back but he looks completely spent the Peloton is now down to 40 riders and this stage is proving a war of attrition.
Just over the top of the final category climb and we now lose De Bie from the group with Geniets its been a battle all day today for those not comfortable on longer climbs.
Blouwe is once again on the front and the pace has not dropped for one second under the 10km to go sign there's gap forming all over the road in the background.
Over our last crest Hirschi makes his bid the elite downhill skills are being put to use Gesbert and Gidich are aware to the danger and races to get on his wheel.
This doesn't stick as somehow Van Eetvelt is now on the front for Bralirwa as they have completely controlled the race today.
We are down to the final 35 riders in the group but we have a bit of a lull before the final 2km climb as we seem to be heading for another sprint finish.
Gidich makes the first jump he's followed by Yates and Hirschi goes with them.
Under the 1km to go banner and Areruya starts to make his move he's alongside Gidich in no time Formolo makes a move on the left as well.
Areruya has gapped the group but Lopez is starting to make ground Meintjes follows him through as Formolo starts to suffer through the middle.
Lopez draws level but Areruya has kicked again Gesbert is finishing fastest but is struggling for a gap through the middle of the leaders.
Areruya !!! the rwanada champion does it again he holds Lopez at the line for a big win. Gesbert never found any room to make a charge and he takes the final podium spot though he is given a 4 second gap from the two leaders. Meintjes repays his teams big workload today in 4th and Phinney once again impresses in 5th.
Morton, Formolo and Yates are next to cross the line Schlegel, Gidich and Kwiatkowski the only other riders to make the first group.
Stannard and Van Niekerk are added to the riders dropped as they lose some time during the sprint.
Lopez continues in the lead of the GC though with 12 seconds on Areruya and already Gesbert 28 seconds back in 3rd on GC
