After nineteen stages, and with two more to go, the most fierce GC battle will be for the fourth spot between Joao Almeida, Mikel Landa, and theoretically Carlors Rodriguez. However the situation at the bottom ranks of the top 10 could provide a true battle as there are four challengers for spots 8-10.
Matteo Jorgenson's breakaway effort wasn't rewarded with a stage win, however a consolidation prize sees the American enter the top 10 in GC. This means that Santiago Buitrago, despite a solid performance on Isola 2000 is currently outside the top ten, 13 seconds behind number 9 Jorgenson and three seconds less behind Lidl-Trek's Giulio Ciccone.
On Friday, Buitrago was able to close the gap to Ciccone as he crossed the line 34 seconds before the Italian. Yet Ciccone didn't much sympathy for the Colombian's performance as he made clear after the stage in an argument captured by Australian TV cameras. "Hey, we were three behind you. We saw everything. With the bottle like this (hand gesture) it's not correct. This is not right, this is the Tour de France," the Italian hinted at a sticky water bottle of his competitor.
Buitrago responded soberly with "I learned that from you," after which the discussion continued for a while. On Saturday we can expect these two to not give each other a meter of road for free. Not only because of the top 10 result in the stake, but also to "prove something" to eachother.
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