Doha Bank Stars League

The two front groups come together with 600m remaining so we now have a strong fighting force on the front with green and polka dot jersey contenders, as well as some superb climbers. They have 1’20” on the next group and 3’40” on the pack.

Paret-Peintre opens up the sprint with Carapaz in his wheel – and they cross in that order, so it’s 5pts for the Frenchman and 3pts for the Ecuadorian. He’s now 9pts behind Pogacar in the KOM standings.

That’s because the summit is only one kilometre away and the chasers are still 12 seconds down on the leaders. The Frenchman will want the 5pts over the summit but it’s going to be tough for him.

That EF-powered third group has been caught by the chasers, so we have around 30 riders 1’25” down on the leaders, who have a 30” lead on the Paret-Peintre/Carapaz group.

Some big names in the third group including Simmons, Tejada, O’Connor, Matthews, Cort, Frigo, Hirschi, Storer, Rubio, Izagirre, Bennett and Barguil.

Given the calibre of the chase group, they could well make the connection before the summit. Bernal has made it into this group, which also includes Vacek, Paret-Peintre, Schmid, Carapaz and Garcia Pierna. They’re 40 seconds down on the eight leders, with a third group on the road 1’15” behind.

The third group contains no fewer than three EF riders in Healy, Baudin and Valgren. Also there are Caruso, Kwiatkowski, Stuyven, Vervaeke, Cort, Rubio, Howson, Martin and Storer.

There’s a fourth chase group of around 15 riders which might bridge over soon, with the peloton seemingly sitting up and now 2’40” down.

The leaders are onto the Cat.2 Cote de Monteynard (9.7km at 5%) and there are groups all over the road. Our eight leaders have around 55 seconds over the chasers, but Healy is paying for his efforts: the Irishman has been dropped along with Stuyven and Vervaeke, whose purpose it was to deliver team-mate Paret-Peintre to the fold.

The Bernal group behind also features Caruso, Kwiatkowski, Cort, Howson and Martin, while the main pack is almost two minutes back now.