Lots of KOM points available today with four category 2 climbs on the course. Those however are all in the 2nd half of the stage so the breakaway will have to be good to contest them. We expect to see some action from the GC contenders as well.
We start the coverage with 90 km of the stage completed and we join the riders at the front of the race as they start with the first categorised climb of the day. For a quick recap of what happened beforehand. A big group of almost 20 riders went into the breakaway. The peloton mainly led by Karthago weren't happy with the situation so they have been and still are chasing the escapees.
Most of that breakaway has already been caught, but remaining are the following riders:
Berthet Jele Doubey Jasim Al-Ali
Jele comfortably wins the first KOM ahead of Berthet and Doubey. Behind them the peloton has now settled into its pace. They are 3 minutes behind the leader. Jasim Al-Ali is back in the peloton.
Doubey is dropped on the next climb as Berthet takes 10 points this time.
After Karthago did most of the work in the first part of the stage, we now have Billstedt-Horn and IncaLine setting the pace. It's been a hard stage from the start. Two riders not in the 80 rider peloton are Ciccone and Bilyi.
Jele takes 10 more points which moves him into the KOM lead.
The duo is caught as we start the final categorised climb of the day. We are 19 km from the finish line.
No attacks on the final climb. Van Bekkum is leading the peloton into the downhill. There is another 1.5 km long kick to the line.
Here we go. Near the front from left to right we have Smith, Cras and Carcueva. In the 2nd row we have Galta and Schlegel. 3rd row most notably has Burke and yellow jersey Shikai.
Smith, Carcueva and Rohendi are the leading trio with 500 m to go.
It's Rohendi who's the strongest ahead of three Fincantieri riders in Masnada, Smith and Aebi. 5th place also goes to IncaLine with Burke.
In the GC the top 6 riders stay as is, but the two huge losers today are Pira and Ciccone who aren't even in the top 30 anymore. Jele has only a 2 point advantage over Berthet in the KOM classification. No changes in point and U25 with Obando now looking more secure in white.
Vuelta al Tachira - Stage 7 
