The last stage before the Pyrenees contains a nasty climb that whilst has only been given a 3rd category status is pretty steep. It is the type of stage that looks like it could well suit a break and it is the usual type of names that look to get in one early on:
Lars Ytting Bak Jesse Sergent Dimitri Champion Aleksej Kunshin Steven Cummings Reinhardt Janse van Rensburg
They bridge up but of course once again Webeffect and Carmuese chase it down.
They do get it back, but only after the first sprint won by Champion over Vaugranard and Cummings.
These two teams are determined to only allow a chasable break go clear, it is a case of keep trying and eventually you may be allowed some freedom.
Bak goes once again with Marconi Durán
and Brent Bookwalter
with Vaugranard, Leezer, Kunshin and a couple of other new names bridging to this move in: Florian Stalder Bradley Wiggins Evgeni Sokolov
and former KoM leader Mauro Facci
Leezer takes the second sprint ahead of Bak and Vaugranard, not as ever that these sprints are contested or even that important in the grand scheme of things.
With 100km to go the gap is 7.30, which is going to set up a fairly interesting chase over that nasty looking climb. Santander are lending a hand to the sprinters as well stretching their legs before the big days ahead.
At the King of the Mountains prime both Facci and Bookwalter having got 12 and 16 KoM points in the bag already go for it.
Facci takes it over Bookwalter with Vaugranard back in third. It doesn't alter things that much at the moment but if either rider can get clear in the climbing stages they may finish highly in that competition.
The headlines are behind though as several poorly positioned riders slip off the back on the pack. Just wait until you read the names!
It's a group of 34 riders and it contains some of the biggest climbing domestiques in the Vuelta - possibly looking for a day off today.
The problem is, is that when the dust settles the pack have a good chance of catching the breakaway - with 60km to go they are just five minutes behind. The Arroyo group have slipped to 3.23 behind and the gap is widening and the riders in this group are just looking around at each other. No team leaders have really been dropped so nobody wants to chase.
Wedeffect and Carmuese perhaps unaware that they have a drastically reduced pack continue to chase the breakaway.
With 35km to go the break are 3 minutes up on the pack, with Arroyo's group a whopping SIX minutes down. Santander's chances of three riders in the GC top ten now look like they are disappearing as are perhaps a lot of teams 2nd GC riders.
Meanwhile Steven Kruijswijk
decides to go on one of his late attacks.
Where the Dutchmen goes it seems that a certain Frenchman Jerome Coppel
will follow.
The duo narrowly failed to take a stage earlier on in the race with a move like this and they pass the breakaway and with 7.5km to go they have 55 seconds. They have a chance!
It's a bit of a different sprint set up today, first the familiar Weylandt, Caethoven, Roelandts train but now they have a new threat with De Maar, Valverde, Cavendish trying to do something.
Óscar Avelino
is looking to get on the end of the Carmuese line, whereas Michael Van Stayen
has chosen this new Proximus Trek venture.
But the duo up front with 4km left still have 50 seconds.. so they now look favourites.
As Juan Pablo Forero Maximiliano Richeze
and Dan Holloway
join it is clear that the sprinters still feel there is hope.
It is going to be a close lead out battle between Caethoven and Valverde and indeed one that blows a lot of the sprinters following away as Valverde grits his teeth.
The team had an awful day in the TTT, today they are proving that they can have an impact on the race. Only Roelandts and Van Stayen are close to Cavendish/Valverde after this burst and wil 2.5km to go the lead duo are not too far off all of a sudden.
Richeze moves through the struggling Holloway, Avelino and Forero to take closer order as we go towards the 2km to go marker.
1.5km to go and it is clear that Coppel and Kruisjvijk are going to be caught out again probably.
It has been a really hard turn from Valverde and it has pulled the sprinters plus race leader Angel Madrazo
away from the pack which is spread out.
Cavendish cannot quite hold his teammates wheel as they catch the escaped duo.
Scrolling back we see the oppurtunistic Madrazo in with the sprinters, he and Valverde could gain time here as theses riders have a bit of a gap back to the pack.
Roelandts takes advantage of the hesitation between Cavendish and Valverde to power through the gap.
Van Stayen has no answer as he opts to try and outpace the Proximus Trek pair and Richeze.
Roelandts takes a good win, he almost seemed better off without his lead train!
Richeze manages to weave around Valverde and Cavendish to take a decent third, with Van Stayen doing enough to hold the points jersey by coming second.
Valverde takes 4th, Coppel 5th and Cavendish is 6th. Madrazo takes 9th and the sprinters group are timed at 43 seconds ahead of the lethargic pack.
It means that Contador, Intxausti, Sella, Machado etc. have lost time on Madrazo and Valverde which seems a cheap way to lose time. Though 43 seconds is nothing compared to the TWELVE minutes and FORTY-SEVEN seconds that the Arroyo group loses, expect some fiery manager comments!
Stage results
So the sort of stage that is much feared - decent climbers dropped due to bad positioning and a sprinters group gaining time that contains a couple of GC riders.
GC
So we do get a fair shuffling here, first Madrazo takes another 43 seconds on his rivals this is a plus for Santander. But a big minus is seeing Arroyo tumble from 6th down to 19th - whilst Valverde moves from 10th up to 7th! Serpa goes from 15th to 25th, Samwel 18th to 28th, Suitsou 20th to 30th and so on. These riders are going to have to seriously repay their team back for this lethargy.
Points
Van Stayen and Roelandts begin to move head and shoulders above everyone else, though Madrazo and Valverde sprinting will make it hard for them to compete for green long term. Cavendish and Richeze are up into the top five.
Mountains
Sella and Madrazo may be split tomorrow, there are a couple of 2nd category climbs as well as the final 1st category ascent of the Col de Pal, so chances for a break rider to take this competition by the scruff of the neck.
Youth
Marquez and Faiers were in the naught long ways dropped group. This hurts Marquez's hopes of a high Youth standings place - Maillet also lost time being dropped in the run in.
Teams
Only really Cafe de Colombia lost a lot of time today, they were not big team classification contenders but could have sneaked a top four or five. Expect this classification to alter though in the mountains.
