Without a nasty puncture, Spanopoulos wouldn’t be in this block. He shows that by overcoming quite some competitors during the block, and while he was the 10th man starting the day, he’s the 5th finisher, and easily takes the hot seat: 28’25, which is 7 minutes better than the closest follower.

Durbridge and Terada then are 5 minutes off, while Voisard demonstrates his qualities with only 1’30 lost.

Turgis parades in the polka dots, a jersey he should keep, while his breakaway companion Natarov is close enough to Spanopoulos in the intermediate check. So close that he takes the hot seat: 28’24. Garby is 7 seconds off the pace, while the future star Ayuso loses 1’48.

Vosekalns (+0’28) and Van Gils (+0’32) are the last of this block.

Riders in this block are between 51 and 28 seconds behind Kalaba in the GC – not that the yellow jersey will play a role today.

In any case, there is time to gain on the sprinters and time-trialists.

Padun is in this block and seems on track to take the lead. That is, if he can resist to Godoy climbing.
The Ukrainian indeed smashes the best time by 40 seconds: 27’45. Godoy is 6 seconds short.
Some strong climbers finish next: Barguil (+0’12), Quintana (+0’16) or Olivier (27’43).

Masnada had a good first apart, but the climbing is in the end quite hard for him (+0’35).
Johannessen (+0’09) makes a step toward the best young rider classification and Yates finishes provisional 3rd, 4 seconds off.

The 1st rider of the block is one of the true specialists of this discipline: it’s Ranaweera! He sets a new best time of 27’30, which is 12 seconds better than Olivier. Misbah loses only 17 seconds, which isn’t bad. It’s 19 seconds for Lasinis.

One of the other specialists is Rodrigues, and he’s 5 seconds faster than the best time.
Tenorio is on the look for the promotion push. 5 seconds off isn’t too shabby in that regard.

But soon we have new leader in Reis! 27’16 is 7 seconds better than the previous. Meintjes can’t match that and loses 31 seconds. It’s 26 seconds for Giannoutsos.

Cattaneo will try to replace his teammate as the race leader. But he won’t, as he loses 11 seconds to Reis. That should be enough for 2nd tough.

Speaking of which, Kalaba is obviously having a hard time in the mountain. But his manager surely is happy of him, and he’ll have another chance to shine tomorrow.