A mess at the finish again....it's great when the chaos is uncontrolled....a nice win for IAM and especially van Genechten who took a wonderful opportunistic victory.
I mentioned the chicane in the preview for a reason...we saw why with the crash....
Villalpando / La Camperona. Valle de Sabero, 181.5 km.
For a stage that is flat for more than 90%...this is a special mountains finish. The whole day is all about the climb to the finish...8.5 k.long climb at 7.4%...this is a real leg breaker. This kind of.....experience is what we all love about cycling...it's not about beating the people whom you're riding against...it's about conquering the voices inside of yourself...the doubting voices that tell you.."you haven't got this in you boy". We all love the...purity of this combat, of yourself fighting the incline whilst also fighting your inner demons.....this is what the finish here today is all about. The finish is a deceptive climb with an easy opening section with little in the way of gradients....1-3% with that 25% ramp in that section. It's on the last 3.5 km that the roads rears up and it does rear up with gradients between 8% and 22% and almost all the time, the riders face gradients in double figures.
We first saw this finish in 14, I think....when Zaugg was caught by Hesjedal in the final few K...Froome took seconds on Purito and Contador.
This is a good day for a break, yet with it being a stage that should be able to be controlled easily by the GT teams it's possible they will fancy the stage victory.
The break..it's possible as always....with the GC teams more concerned with their own ambitions I can see it sticking..a decent make up...riders like....Frank, Durasek, Zeits, Cataldo, Zeits , Hardy, Rolland.Fraile, Geniez again......Latour would be nice, as would Dombrowski...I'd love to see...Carthy, Goncalves, Roson as C-R are a decent outfit on a stage like this, as we've seen in a few races this season...with that in mind..maybe it's a day for Pardilla. He did a great ride at Burgos and took the overalll there.....who knows it's all guesswork.
As I say above Froome was able to put a few seconds into his rivals on this finish in 14...does he attack here...I think so.
Who can answer that attack.....it's time Quintana showed up on a climb, even if he is here for Valverde-send him off first and there has to be a response from all in the GC fight as an in form Quintana will be one of the best on this finish, this can only help Valverde, whom I think might struggle today as he did in 14 when he went too fast too early and lost a chunk of time to Froome as a result..once bitten.......even if he has looked to be amongst the best on the climbs to this point.
Chaves. This is obviously a big target for the lad, and in last year’s race he went hard on the first big mountain to announce himself as a strong contender. I expect he will make a move today. I hope Yates can stay with his leader as he will be a great ally on this ascent.
At this point I've no idea as to how Contador is....I do now he appears to be a bit lacking in pace....as of right now it’s still unclear as to whether he’s suffered any serious injuries.....
Outside of those....Meintjes....how tired is he...Samu, he's here as the leader for BMC...no. Anton, the same. Atapuma. Climbs well enough,..he will lose the leaders jersey tomorrow.
If it comes down to the GC riders......
Heart says Chaves....head...Froome.
The maximum temperature at the bottom of the final climb will be 29 degrees and there is no chance of rain.
