Luis Espinoza defended his lead on the penultimate stage of Ruta Mexico which included a climb to the national park of La Malinche (alt. 3,000m). Miguel Arroyo, with the stage going through his hometown Huamantla, attacked unsuccessfully several times on the climb. The only real danger to Espinoza was that his team-mate Rangel, fourth on GC at 52 seconds, had at one time a lead of 45 seconds before Espinoza and Rico started chasing.