Never a day without Ernst & Young attacking, Powers goes after them
Dyadichkin took the first 2 climbs as he looked to gain the KoM jersey
Weening and Medina went on the attack towards the top of the 2nd climb looking for minor points placings
They got caught again, theres more attackers who catch Powers (the American has been riding 2nd on the road) - Colby, Moreno, Rabou and Cardoso Espanola.
Dyadichkin still leads over the top though, and thats enough for him to take the jersey
Colby is 2nd, at 50 seconds
In the descent that follows, it took 13km, but Colby was able to bridge up to the Kazakh
Moreno, Cardoso Espanola and Rabou are still chasing them, at 1 minute, with the pain peleton just under 2 minutes behind the two leaders
Moving onto the 4th climb of the day, with attacks from the peleton - Stubbe, Valjavec, Weening, Petrov and Tschopp.
They pass Moreno, Cardoso and Rabou, with the trio then being caught by the peleton. Valjavec is also caught having been unable to put in a strong attack.
Petrov, Tschopp and Stubbe catch Colby and Dyadichkin - with Weening not too far behind
Tschopp continues on and Petrov looks to counter
Mercado now attacks from the peleton, with Valjavec following
Tschopp takes the full points, Petrov in pursuit
Weening takes 3rd ahead of Dyadichkin, still going strong
Colby, Stubbe, Mercado and Valjavec are with them
Tschopp and Petrov lead by around a minute
But the group of 6 are brought back by SL Benfica and Nespresso-Sportzone
Pushing in the descent, the leading duo increase their lead to 1'40
Weening takes advantage of a flat section to get a little gap over the pack
He stays clear for 3 minutes, and as he is caught the riders are still 2 minutes behind the two up front.
Not long has he been caught than he is off again along with Mercado and Valjavec
The attack lasts 4 km, but as they are caught they go again
They last another 4km before being caught with 15km to the finish,
The lead of Petrov and Tschopp is now down to 1'20 but they are not giving up
In a stretch of downhill at 4.7%, the pace of the peleton is 50km/h
But the leaders are going at 57km/h, and thus the gap is shooting upwards again
Its all the way up to 3 minutes with 4.5km to go as the road starts to flatten. Mercado is immediately off again
Valjavec follows again, and for the first time in the stage we see an aggressive move from Marquez and Vasquez
With a gap of 3 minutes, Petrov is 20 seconds away from the race lead if he manages to win the stage as well. He and Tschopp cant be separated as the sprint begins
Into the final kilometre - here goes Tschopp!
No response from Petrov and Tschopp takes it!!
Both are set to make gains in the GC - and the clock is now ticking to determine how much
As the chasers go into the sprint, Mercado holds an advantage
The 8 seconds time bonus for 3rd is particularly important for Mercado and Vasquez with so little between them in the GC
And Mercado takes it, being in front from the start so important in a downhill sprint. The gap? 2'20.
At 2'53 the peleton comes in, led by the Jack Wolfskin pair of Traksel and van der Hugenhaben
