A brutal mountain stage awaited the peloton before the final rest day, which concluded with the Cuitu Negru climb, the first HC category climb of the race. The finale saw a thrilling duel between Pablo Castrillo and Aleksandr Vlasov. Castrillo went clear from the break at 3 km before the finish, before Vlasov was able to close the gap again in the last kilometre of the climb. Castrillo and Vlasov fought a neck-and-neck race over the last 900 meters of the ascent. The Red Bull BORA - handsgrohe rider finally had to admit defeat on the steepest section of the climb right at the summit and finished in a very strong second place. A little further back in the race, Primož Roglič was able to make up more time on the leader Ben O'Connor with an attack 2 kilometres before the finish and is 1:03 minutes behind the Australian ahead of tomorrow's final rest day. Florian Lipowitz again put in a very strong performance on the stage and improved to 6th place in the GC after finishing twelfth on the stage. This also puts him back at the top of the young rider classification.
Aleks Vlasov:
I felt quite good today. The first hour of the race was pretty chaotic and fast. There were a lot of attacks, but I was able to keep up well. In the end, I found myself at the front of the race. After that, I waited to see if the group of favorites with Primož would catch up and then I wanted to help him gain time in the GC. If that wasn't the case, I could then aim for the stage win. In the end, Castrillo was simply faster and more explosive in the finale. I simply didn't have the legs to follow him. Now we're looking forward to the rest day tomorrow and to really stepping on the gas in the final week.
Florian Lipowitz:
The whole day was pretty tough, it was a super fast pace right from the start. On the last climb I tried to stay with the best riders. I then launched an attack for Primož in the last 3 km and gave it my all. Primož fought hard and we also had Vlasov in front. We all performed well today and got a lot closer to the red jersey, so pretty pleased.