A good recovery from yesterday's stage for some riders than make an important effort yesterday. Still the strong wind and the hills in the last half of the stage should bring an intersting finish for the stage.
O'Loughlin, Ciaran Cassidy, Balck, Medici and Jeannesson are in the day's breakaway. Balck is the only rider that hasn't been in any other breakaway so far. Cassidy is clearly there for the KoM jersey, which he lost yesterday to Hermans
The Irish guys from the breakaway seems to be the only ones interested for the KoM points on the first climb of the day
Cassidy had no problems taking the points there in front of O'Loughlin. Jeannesson was third there
The pack is lead by Irn Bru, 100%ME and Nokia - Nike are leading the pack, 3 minutes behind the escapes which means that they won't probably survive to the finish
On the flat portion between the first and the second climb there was a split in the pack due to the wind. But Irn Bru, Wiggle and Starbucks work together, as none of their leaders was in the group that got away, and managed to make the repack
The second climbs started with the attacks from Jeannesson, Balck and Cassidy. They managed to get away from the other 2 escapes
Cassidy was only second there as the climb was Jeannesson, but the KoM jersey seems to be his at least for now
O'Loughlin and Medici don't look too good as they definitly lost the contact with the other escapes and they are about to be caught by the pack
Right after the downhill ended the last uphill of the day start and Cassidy got away to take the last KoM points of the day
Cassidy was indeed first on the climb and he has now 20 points advantage over Hermans in the battle for the KoM jersey
Balck and Jeannesson cracked there but they still managed to take the third and second positions on the climb, while they were about to be caught by a very fast pack
Cassidy couldn't stay alone in front for too long and the breakaway ended with 15 km left from today's stage
Another mass sprint there. Vespa, Wiggle, 100%ME and even Starbucks and EON Ruhrgas are looking good
With 3 km to go, right before the sprint started 4 riders from Vespa and 2 from Starbucks were on the right side (from the riders' view) of the road, with Wiggle in good position on the left side. EON Ruhrgas really lost the control there and they are nowhere now. 100% Me aren't in a good position either as they tried to geat in the slipstream of the Wiggle train but they didn't really manage to do that
Minard was in a perfect position behind the first Vespa rider, Petrie-Armstrong, and after an while he accelerated to geat the lead
Even though they are four there, neither of the Vespa riders seems to be able to keep it up with Minard. Wiggle seems to be the only team that could stop the French rider
Right before the last kilometre, after staying in Rowe's wheel Trusov made his move in order to catch and beat Minard
Trusov seems to be faster than Minard at the moment and it seems that is going to between those two for the win today
Last corner and Trusov seems closer than ever to Minard, but the French man seems to have found his power to maintain in front
And Minard takes a pretty clear win in front of Trusov. The battle for the third position was really strong between Mohs and Gavazzi, but the Irn Bru rider got it
A group of riders, which included Roche and Valjavec, lost the contact with the pack on the last kilometres because of the wind but managed to get back right before they crossed the finishing line
Stage
1
Sébastien Minard
Team Starbucks
3h46'42
2
Nikolai Trusov
Wiggle Pro Cycling Team
s.t.
3
Erik Mohs
IrnBru - RBS
s.t.
4
Mattia Gavazzi
Vespa-Caffrey's
s.t.
5
Cherif Abdallah
AON Global
s.t.
6
Mattias Westling
Team IKEA - Bianchi
s.t.
7
Artur Gajek
Team Ultra Adventure Pro Cycling - Sponsored by Hello Kitty
s.t.
8
Dimitri De Fauw
EON Ruhrgas
s.t.
9
Alessandro Petacchi
Team LEGO - Capri-Sonne
s.t.
10
Mickaël Delage
EON Ruhrgas
s.t.
11
Krzysztof Szczawinski
AON Global
s.t.
12
Luke Rowe
Wiggle Pro Cycling Team
s.t.
13
Giovanni Visconti
Team Starbucks
s.t.
14
Timothy Cassidy
Vespa-Caffrey's
s.t.
15
Mark Renshaw
Team Starbucks
s.t.
16
Gabriele Bosisio
Vespa-Caffrey's
s.t.
17
Daniel Martin
100% ME
s.t.
18
Mark Scanlon
Vespa-Caffrey's
s.t.
19
Matthew Crane
Team Starbucks
s.t.
20
Jaime Alberto Castañeda
Nokia-Nike
s.t.
21
Fabien Bacquet
Team Starbucks
s.t.
22
Adam Petrie-Armstrong
Vespa-Caffrey's
s.t.
23
Rubens Bertogliati
Nokia-Nike
s.t.
24
Ben Swift
100% ME
s.t.
25
Stefan Radochla
Team LEGO - Capri-Sonne
s.t.
26
Geoffroy Lequatre
Team LEGO - Capri-Sonne
s.t.
27
Eduard Vorganov
AON Global
s.t.
28
John Nilsson
Team IKEA - Bianchi
s.t.
29
Grischa Janorschke
Team LEGO - Capri-Sonne
s.t.
30
Aleksandar Flügel
Team IKEA - Bianchi
s.t.
31
Adam Blythe
100% ME
s.t.
32
Ciaran Kelly
Vespa-Caffrey's
s.t.
33
Remco Te Brake
Team Ultimate
s.t.
34
Yannick Stoltz
Team Ultimate
s.t.
35
Iljo Keisse
EON Ruhrgas
s.t.
36
Salvatore Mancuso
Team Ultimate
s.t.
37
Gediminas Bagdonas
EON Ruhrgas
s.t.
38
Francisco Lara Ruiz
Team Starbucks
s.t.
39
Zakkari Dempster
IrnBru - RBS
s.t.
40
Joseph Cooper
Wiggle Pro Cycling Team
s.t.
41
Chiaffredo Grippo
Wiggle Pro Cycling Team
s.t.
42
Wilson Rincón
Team Ultimate
s.t.
43
Aleksandr Serov
AON Global
s.t.
44
Lucas Schädlich
IrnBru - RBS
s.t.
45
Julian David Muñoz Giraldo
EON Ruhrgas
s.t.
46
Christopher Sutton
IrnBru - RBS
s.t.
47
Martin Elmiger
Team LEGO - Capri-Sonne
s.t.
48
Charles Dionne
Ernst and Young / Apple Computer and NBC News
s.t.
49
Ben Hermans
Wiggle Pro Cycling Team
s.t.
50
Phillip Thuaux
Team Ultimate
s.t.
51
Thomas Murray
100% ME
s.t.
52
Richard Ochoa Quintero
Nokia-Nike
s.t.
53
Damiano Caruso
Wiggle Pro Cycling Team
s.t.
54
Jörg Jaksche
Team LEGO - Capri-Sonne
s.t.
55
Muradjan Khalmuratov
AON Global
s.t.
56
Damion Drapac
Nokia-Nike
s.t.
57
Ronald Harvey
Nokia-Nike
s.t.
58
Gianni Meersman
IrnBru - RBS
s.t.
59
Dan Craven
IrnBru - RBS
s.t.
60
Sergiu Cioban
Team LEGO - Capri-Sonne
s.t.
61
Ruggero Marzoli
EON Ruhrgas
s.t.
62
Richard Cleaver
100% ME
s.t.
63
Junya Sano
Team Ultra Adventure Pro Cycling - Sponsored by Hello Kitty
s.t.
64
Jonas Ljungblad
Team IKEA - Bianchi
s.t.
65
Yoshiaki Shimada
Team Ultra Adventure Pro Cycling - Sponsored by Hello Kitty
s.t.
66
Evgeny Wacker
Team Ultra Adventure Pro Cycling - Sponsored by Hello Kitty
s.t.
67
Danilo Kupfernagel
Team IKEA - Bianchi
s.t.
68
Hubert Dupont
AON Global
s.t.
69
Nicolas Brolin
Team IKEA - Bianchi
s.t.
70
Kensyo Sawada
Team Ultra Adventure Pro Cycling - Sponsored by Hello Kitty
s.t.
71
Steven Burke
Nokia-Nike
s.t.
72
Gert Rajala
Team Ultimate
s.t.
73
Peter Williams
THE CONTROL TEAM
s.t.
74
Tom Diggle
Wiggle Pro Cycling Team
s.t.
75
Kristian House
THE CONTROL TEAM
s.t.
76
Michael Creed
Ernst and Young / Apple Computer and NBC News
s.t.
77
Shaun Lewis
IrnBru - RBS
s.t.
78
Ciaran Power
Ernst and Young / Apple Computer and NBC News
s.t.
79
Ananias Ananias
THE CONTROL TEAM
s.t.
80
George Hincapie
Ernst and Young / Apple Computer and NBC News
s.t.
81
Tadej Valjavec
Ernst and Young / Apple Computer and NBC News
s.t.
82
Anthony Charteau
EON Ruhrgas
s.t.
83
Nicolas Roche
100% ME
s.t.
84
Keir Plaice
Ernst and Young / Apple Computer and NBC News
s.t.
85
Fabio Ciccarese
Team Starbucks
s.t.
86
Matt Booth
100% ME
+ 2'10
87
Arnold Jeannesson
Team Ultimate
s.t.
88
Ciaran Cassidy
Vespa-Caffrey's
s.t.
89
Sebastian Balck
Team IKEA - Bianchi
s.t.
90
Kevin Barclay
Nokia-Nike
s.t.
91
David O'Loughlin
Ernst and Young / Apple Computer and NBC News
+ 3'42
92
Esteban Mardones
AON Global
s.t.
93
Kazuki Aoyanagi
Team Ultra Adventure Pro Cycling - Sponsored by Hello Kitty
+ 4'02
94
Matías Médici
Team Ultra Adventure Pro Cycling - Sponsored by Hello Kitty
+ 4'42
95
Jonathan Tiernan-Locke
THE CONTROL TEAM
+ 16'42
Overall
1
Rubens Bertogliati
Nokia-Nike
13h37'23
2
Ben Hermans
Wiggle Pro Cycling Team
+ 8
3
Nikolai Trusov
Wiggle Pro Cycling Team
+ 29
4
Sébastien Minard
Team Starbucks
+ 33
5
Ben Swift
100% ME
s.t.
6
Mickaël Delage
EON Ruhrgas
s.t.
7
Cherif Abdallah
AON Global
+ 41
8
Erik Mohs
IrnBru - RBS
+ 45
9
Dimitri De Fauw
EON Ruhrgas
s.t.
10
Artur Gajek
Team Ultra Adventure Pro Cycling - Sponsored by Hello Kitty
s.t.
11
Mattia Gavazzi
Vespa-Caffrey's
+ 53
12
Mattias Westling
Team IKEA - Bianchi
s.t.
13
Krzysztof Szczawinski
AON Global
s.t.
14
Alessandro Petacchi
Team LEGO - Capri-Sonne
s.t.
15
Jaime Alberto Castañeda
Nokia-Nike
s.t.
16
Fabien Bacquet
Team Starbucks
s.t.
17
Grischa Janorschke
Team LEGO - Capri-Sonne
s.t.
18
Joseph Cooper
Wiggle Pro Cycling Team
s.t.
19
Geoffroy Lequatre
Team LEGO - Capri-Sonne
s.t.
20
Mark Scanlon
Vespa-Caffrey's
s.t.
21
Stefan Radochla
Team LEGO - Capri-Sonne
s.t.
22
Luke Rowe
Wiggle Pro Cycling Team
s.t.
23
Mark Renshaw
Team Starbucks
s.t.
24
Iljo Keisse
EON Ruhrgas
s.t.
25
Martin Elmiger
Team LEGO - Capri-Sonne
s.t.
Points
1
Nikolai Trusov
Wiggle Pro Cycling Team
94
2
Sébastien Minard
Team Starbucks
87
3
Erik Mohs
IrnBru - RBS
81
4
Mattia Gavazzi
Vespa-Caffrey's
74
5
Cherif Abdallah
AON Global
69
6
Dimitri De Fauw
EON Ruhrgas
67
7
Krzysztof Szczawinski
AON Global
67
8
Mattias Westling
Team IKEA - Bianchi
66
9
Ben Swift
100% ME
65
10
Alessandro Petacchi
Team LEGO - Capri-Sonne
60
Mountain
1
Ciaran Cassidy
Vespa-Caffrey's
50
2
Ben Hermans
Wiggle Pro Cycling Team
30
3
Rubens Bertogliati
Nokia-Nike
26
4
Krzysztof Szczawinski
AON Global
25
5
Kensyo Sawada
Team Ultra Adventure Pro Cycling - Sponsored by Hello Kitty
25
6
Phillip Thuaux
Team Ultimate
23
7
Arnold Jeannesson
Team Ultimate
22
8
Damiano Caruso
Wiggle Pro Cycling Team
22
9
Aleksandr Serov
AON Global
18
10
David O'Loughlin
Ernst and Young / Apple Computer and NBC News
16
Young
1
Ben Hermans
Wiggle Pro Cycling Team
13h37'31
2
Nikolai Trusov
Wiggle Pro Cycling Team
+ 21
3
Ben Swift
100% ME
+ 25
4
Mickaël Delage
EON Ruhrgas
+ 25
5
Cherif Abdallah
AON Global
+ 33
6
Erik Mohs
IrnBru - RBS
+ 37
7
Artur Gajek
Team Ultra Adventure Pro Cycling - Sponsored by Hello Kitty
