The sprinters had to grind over a lot of mountains in the previous week in order to have another crack at a bunch sprint finish. Although it was a somewhat diminished field, Mads Pedersen was the pedigree Great Dane of the day. He’s worked so hard to keep that green jersey from the predations of the climbers, so really earned the stage win after his Trek team slogged the whole stage to give him a chance. That’s his first stage win after 2 second places on stages 2 to 4.

Team of the Day

It’s those ThinFatBoys with top points and stage winner Mads Pedersen (also in Team Ciclominaccia) and Primož Roglič in 9th. David’s team haven’t starred since their monster points haul in Stage 4. This was enough to put ThinFatBoys top of the mini-league rankings.

When in Montilla …

… you find yourself in a town of about 23.000 people – slightly less then Ryde, but MUCH prettier. [“Ryde the town on the Rocks Beach”!] The town lies in the municipality of Montilla, in the Province of Córdoba, within the Autonomous Community of Andalusia, in the Kingdom of Spain. At which point you need a bigger envelope before you write “Europe, The World, Solar System, etc. etc.”

The two riders in the top 10 for ThinFatBoys also means they take the lead in that competition. They are tied with Cuchara de Madera aqui on 21 but are ahead on the tie break by 8 podiums to 7.