Greig Leach

Once Chris Horner (Lampre-Merida) had gone off, taking the Maillot Jaune of Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) along for the ride up the road, the rest of the peloton looked around sizing each other up. Both Tejay van Garderen (BMC) and Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) looked at each other and then into the eyes of Alejandro Valverde (Movistar). They must have seen something in the eyes of Valverde that let them know he wouldn't be able to go with another attack. Pinot, sitting in third, could take over Valverde's second place on the GC if he only got just under two minutes on the Spaniard. Behind this group where the other two Frenchman of AG2R, that were high up on the leader board, Jean-Christophe Peraud and Romain Bardet. With just this last climb to gain time in this stage, and an individual time trial yet to come, it was now or never to move up on the General Classification.