Today is Montelupone day. In the 197km stage it's climbed not once, but twice. Not only is this the toughest stage of the race, this is also the last chance for the puncheurs to gain time on the time trialist who get their stage tomorrow. Favourites to snatch victory on this feared climb are Ricco, Di Luca and Ginanni. Anyone making the rigth move in the rigth moment could win here though, since the hill is so steep, you need to have some juice left to get up.
In the break of the day, only Lobato is interested in the KOM points, and he has no problems collecting them. With him are Bosisio, Hoffman, Brandt, di Maggio, Talabardon, Schwab, Lagutin, Chtioui and Herrero Llorente. Manarelli just missed out and keeps chasing for the entire stage, never getting any closer.
With 114km to go, Herrero Llorente takes the intermediate sprint, in front of Lagutin and Hoffman. Looking between the first two riders you can see Manarelli chasing all by himself. Hes 2'50 behind, while the pack is at 7'30.
Their gap peaks at 8'30, and then American Suzuki descides it's enough, as they start chasing for the race leader Karpets. Klier gives the orders up front, as their team in this race consists of some less gifted and unexperienced riders.
Now hold on, what is this? With 66km to go, Bak (Philips) and Kloden (Eurosport) attack, almost immediatly followed by Rolland (Philips) and Velits (Eurosport). This looks like an arranged team attack! Judges?!?!
Before the judges reach them though, it's already obvious their 'coupe' is failing, as it seems the Philips riders just arent strong enough.
As they are caugth we are approching the Montelupone for the first time. Let's take a closer look at the gradients. As you can see it goes all the way up to 21%, which is enough even for the motorcycles to get in trouble.
As the break reaches the Montelupone, their advantage remains 3'30.
Lobato takes the KOM points again, as some riders are getting dropped from the groupe. 1'50 for the pack.
In the pack, all favourites wait until after the Montelupone, as they attack on a small hill in the descent. Nibali, Zaballa, Di Luca, Pozzovivo... They're all there, but only Sanchez and Vastaranta(who attacked a little earlier) get a gap. They quickly gather 40 seconds, but do they know they've still got to ride up the Montelupone again?
On the final flat section though, most of the other favourites go again as well, with Ricco leading them; Hagen, Bettini, Nibali, di Luca and Ginanni all follow.
Sanchez and Vastaranta meanwhile have almost reached the remainings of the break as we reach the foot. More attackes are coming from the peloton.
Vanendert, Grivko, Kolesnikov and even Bennati go, as Karpets follows a little later. Up front the riders caugth up with the break, and Hagen is now in the lead.
But not anymore though, going into the final K. Di Luca went past and while Hagen is trying to follow the Italian, Nibali, Ricco, Ginanni and Sanchez are all trying to make their move as well. Brandt and di Maggio are the last riders from the break to be passed.
600m and it's going to be a battle between Di Luca and Hagen, with the 'Killer' being in the best position.
And it is indeed Danilo di Luca who holds on to victory on the Montelupone, with Hagen second.
Race leader Karpets watches Ricco takes third as he struggles to follow trying to hold onto his jersey.
The pack is lead in by Pozzovivo, 1'40 back.
- Not a stage without PCM.exe. We're working on a solution trying something each stage -
