The penultimate stage is something like the queen stage: 206km in total, today's profile features one long almost 50km long ascend up "Alto de Minas" and a 10km summit finish up Medellin Las Palmas.
It's definitely a huge challenge for GC-leader RodrÃguez, who may fear Siam's Rodrigues the most. Other premium climbers like Arroyo or Iglinski need to make up more than two minutes, but should be of course amongst the most promising riders today.
The break of the day is again built early into the stage:
Chu Sayar Taciak Yemane (GC + 3.15, KoM 8pts) Safarzadeh
Yemane as something like a minor GC-threat in case the peloton fails today. Like all others in the break, he's also a threat for KoM-leader Wu (30pts) thanks to the HC-rated climb later into the stage.
We're making a rather huge jump, as we now have "just" 73km to go: the peloton - led by Azteca, Euskaltel and also Live Nation - started to chase and narrowed the gap back to 5 minutes in the meantime.
Safarzadeh got dropped by the breakaway after he went down with a nasty fall. Back in the bunch, we see the first more serious attacks now:
Orozco De Greef Moreno Montenegro
try to go clear on today's longest ascend! Those four are all + 2.39 in the GC, while Moreno (last year's runner-up here) may be the biggest threat for RodrÃguez so far.
It ain't surprising to see also Nutresa on the attack again: Beltran (+ 4.23 in the GC) jumped behind those four riders a few moments later and caught up soon.
All of those five latest attackers bridge across the leading group just at the HC-climb's sprint. Sayar takes this sprint though:
KoM-competition Wu 30 Sayar 30 Valencia 28
With now still 49km remaining, this new 9-men-group leads by 3'50" on the pacing bunch (67 riders)..
The peloton though keeps pacing hard on this downhill/flat sector now: Bonsucro as the most notable team in the chase.
14km before finish, with the finish climb nearing, the leading group already went into pieces with just Taciak/Chu and Yemane/Sayar holding on to a 40"-gap on the pack. They are all soon to be caught!
Right in time for the big guns to set the agenda on the 10km summit finish! And we see early attacks:
Iglinski Rodrigues Moreno
go first! Moreno obviously feeling strong after his first empty-handed effort. Rodrigues (+ 0.25 in the GC) surely as the biggest danger for yellow now.
A few moments later - the trio opened up a 40"-gap quickly - three more riders attack:
Saggiorato Parra Bustamante Orozco
Teams like Bonsucro, ONCE and of course Azteca felt the pressure soon and tried to keep the gap at a minute. Anyway, we definitely notice that we might have seen some crucial early moves here.
Thanks to a now higher pace back in the bunch (which is down to 25 riders in the meantime), group Saggiorato/Orozco/Bustamante is pulled back! We see some other riders now trying to attack:
establish a small gap on the bunch with RodrÃguez, Ochoa or Sorensen!
4km before finish, we're getting a clearer picture of the situation: Rodrigues/Iglinski unsurprisingly dropped Moreno and still have a 46"-advantage on Arroyo/Kulhavy!
Race-leader RodrÃguez is likely to lose yellow to Rodrigues and also Godoy and Duenas put some serious pressure on him..
Rodrigues attacks Iglinski 3.8km to the line! On his way to his second stage-win here?
He established a 45"-gap quickly!
Arroyo now dropping Kulhavy to catch up to Moreno.. his 40"-gap on a new 8-men-group looks comfortable though:
as those 8 riders trying to drop group RodrÃguez!
Less than 2km to go for Rodrigues, who goes strong towards yellow and another stage-win..
RodrÃguez already 2'20" behind, but still fighting to avoid a huge drop down the GC. Godoy/Duenas just 18" ahead and all those other riders ahead do need to gain more than two minutes on RodrÃguez today!
It's still quite close between those two bigger groups, but we see RodrÃguez in trouble to follow guys like Castano or Txurruka. Also Diniz is still going strong to defend his Top-10 in the GC maybe..
Rodrigues soloing his way to a huge victory.. 1'10" on Iglinski with a kilometre to go..
Arroyo 29" behind Iglinski, but dropping Moreno easily!
The Spaniard needs to gain something like two minutes on Godoy/Duenas though, at least if he wants to make the podium already today.
Group Godoy/Duenas/Ochoa is down by a minute at this point...
Rodrigues crushed it today, grabbing his second stage-win and yellow. What a showing, he definitely enjoys an awesome season.
+ 1'19" Iglinski
+ 1'43" Arroyo
+ 2'34" Moreno
+ 2'44" Zurita Kulhavy Godoy
Godoy with a strong effort and definitely holding off Arroyo in the GC!
+ 3'10" Schwab
+ 3'19" Sorensen Duenas/Infantino Alizadeh Ochoa
+ 3'55" Diniz Esquivel Txurruka
Also Diniz finishing quite strong, while Txurruka might have worked just for Godoy today..
+ 4'25" for a group with RodrÃguez then!
Surely yellow is gone for him, but where will he end up in the GC?
Rodrigues made a huge step towards another GC-victory: his 2'55" on Godoy, who kept his 2nd in the GC, are quite comfortable, even with one hilly stage to come. Duenas also keeping his 3rd (3.34) quite close ahead of Iglinski (3.41) and Arroyo (4.09).
So RodrÃguez dropping from 1st to 6th (4.20), but it was still a great fight. Ochoa, Diniz, an aggressive Moreno and Kulhavy round up the Top-10 with tomorrow's challenging hilly stage concluding the tour.
Sorensen (13th), Txurruka (17th) or Alizadeh (15th) maybe as the most underperforming riders so far.
