Moscon well placed ahead of queen stage

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- Brett Lancaster

"Today it was important to have someone up there in the break. Luke (Rowe) did a huge amount of work for the team which was amazing as always. It took about 60km for the break to go and the average speed was up about 50kph. So it was a very hard and fast day. We got Leo in the break and towards the end we grouped together and got Kristoffer in position before the small final 1km climb. 

"Unfortunately he didn't quite get over it in the group of 30 but we had Gianni in there, so he's in third place now. It's good that he recovered from his crash and he's in good spirits.

"After we lost David the tactics heading into tomorrow aren't rocket science. We'll try and get Gianni into the best position possible for the climb and he has to just try and hold on. If he's got the legs to attack then he'll do so."

The stage began without David de la Cruz, with the Spaniard forced to abandon the race and his eighth position following injuries sustained from Wednesday’s late crash.

 

Basso’s group were finally caught heading into final 10km, at which point Team INEOS came to the front, pacing the group onto final climb. Moscon was alert on the final ramp and was there as the race came back together into Ventura. Kristoffer Halvorsen was just unable to remain in contact, eventually finishing in the second group home.

 

 

All eyes are on Friday’s stage, with the race winner more than likely to be decided on the steep slopes of Mount Baldy. The queen stage packs in the climbing ahead of the famous summit, which is made tougher by finishing at almost 2000 metres.