A pure sprinter stage today. No real hill and only 142km lenght. Ciolek won the only sprint so far but with Vantomme, Bazayev or Drujon more great sprinters at the start.
Roy within the first attacking wave. The French is one of the best puncheurs here and with just +2'24 still a big danger as he is also expected to perform decent tomorrow.
But it took quite a while until the real group was formed then. Still Roy made the jump. Roy Müller McLay Ockeloen Van Den Eynde Rast
Venchi seems to be happy with the group and controlls the peloton.
Roy won the first sprint, that was not covered by the media. Rast and Ovechkin followed next.
Maybe today is the day for Vantomme? At least his Rothaus squad is doing the main part of the pace working with 95km left and a gap of 7min.
Roy also wins the 2nd sprint ahead of Ovechkin and Rast. The French is fighting for every second he can get to climb in the rankings.
Also Bianchi is working hard now. Next to Vantomme, Ciolek might be the fastest sprinter and seeing this as his home race he might be motivated a lot. 55km and the gap is down to 4'16.
Again the three same riders but this time Ovechkin ahead of Roy and Rast.
The group is fighting hard. So they still have a 2min gap with 25km to go although the pace making teams already sent their last helpers to the front.
Also Rast takes one sprint with Roy and Ovechkin following.
As last rider McLay is caught with 7,5km to go. Time for the final sprint preparations.
Bianchi and Rothaus is at teh front now next to the race leader Bodnar. Ciolek and Vantomme both well placed.
But Drujon, Vingerling, Wegmann, Dekkers and Bazayev are all just behind.
And with ~6km to go we see how fast the wind is today. With the sprinter teams pushing hard now many riders lose contact due to a split.
Within them obviously Bosisio and Ratiy.
Baumann in the lead, Vantomme with a small gap behind. But it`s still 3km to go. On the left the Bianchi guys with all other sprinters being positioned pretty well.
Instead of making a two men train, Vantomme is immediately passing Baumann and goes into the wind with 2,2km. That`s a pretty early move. Perfect leadout for Drujon, Vingerling and Wegmann of course, who are just behind.
And Wegmann is coming first overtaking the Belgium. Ciolek still not really pushing his sprint on the left side of the road.
Wegmann has a good gap already with Drujon coming now and also Ciolek started his sprint.
Was Ciolek`s move too late?
Normally he sprinted perfectly but due to Vantomme`s early sprint he missed the right moment probably.
Indeed Wegmann surprisingly wins this pure sprinter stage. We knew he was a good sprinter and riding in Germany sure helps him, but winning against these sprinter? Not expected. Ciolek came close and finishes 2nd with Minard coming out of nowhere sprinting on the 3rd. Vantomme as 6th with another really disappointing result.
In other news Bosisio and Ratiy both lose 3'47 today. Horrible race for the Ukrainian.
It is still very exciting. Tomorrow`s queen`s stage will show how many of the former breakaways will stay ahead the climbers and puncheurs, who are favoured on tomorrows uphill finish.
