The first stage has only 92km. So even with some hills on the route the riders should be less exhausted in the end, which is good news for the sprinters as they won`t have that many kilometers in their legs before the tough hill with 1,5km to go.
Favourites are Kennaugh, Lo Cicero and Drujon but we shouldn`t forget Wegmann, Kump or Reimer, who all could do well with the late climb.
Pagoto, Ngue and Hugentobler is the order at the first KoM. Yet no breakaway has been formed.
Hugentobler is the only one to stay in the attack mode. Together with Lund, Nel and Van der Schueren he is having a 2min gap now.
Jaguar and Bpost are the two teams to do the pace in the peloton. First are here with their strong duo Froome/Dowsett, while Bpost is probably hoping for a good sprint by Drujon as also having a great puncheur in Gautier.
70km left and the gap is still not more than 2'30.
Easily Van der Schueren takes the sprint. Behind him it`s much closer with Hugentobler and Lund follow him Nel doesn`t get rewarded.
The 2nd and last KoM is there and Hugentobler wins. Nel comes over as 2nd with Van der Schueren taking the last point.
As Hugentobler is the only rider, who scored at both KoM`s he will wear the jersey tomorrow.
A close fight for the next sprint this time. 3 riders really fight for it with Hugentobler being too exhausted it seems.
Lund wins it just by a tiny bit ahead of Van der Schueren and Nel.
30km left and the gap of 2min is quickly melting.
Jaguar is still doing some work but now also the real sprinter teams came to the front. Vueling have two options. Kennaugh might be the best real sprinter here while Reimer might surprise due to the hill.
Also WWE comes to the front, which wasn`t that expected. Vingerling surely is a quick sprinter but not on the level as the top guys.
Lund, Nel and Van der Schueren take the last sprint just ahead of the close peloton.
The gap is almost gone with 17km to go. But some riders have collected nice bonus seconds here and they might get a decent GC position after the stage when keeping contact.
WWE really impresses me here. 3 riders doing the chase while another two are leading out Vingerling a bit behind. Brilliant team work.
Also Armavia and Kennaugh have their own trains of 3 riders each.
Van Hummel, Wegmann, Vasyluk, Schorn, Van der Lijke, Drujon, Day, Bozic more or less in that order coming next behind the last two mentioned trains.
Now it`s a bit better to see. 3 sprint trains and WWE the only one with 3 riders, while Kennaugh and Lo Cicero already lost their first rider.
Behind them Day, Drujon and Reimer have the best wheels just behind one of the trains each. Also to mention that Vueling is smartly playing their advantage of having Reimer as their joker.
Vasyluk, Schorn, Van der Lijke and Van Hummel are the next sprinters while Wegmann lost a few positions.
And nothing to see from Bozic and Kump at the moment. Both have been expected to have good chances today.
The Vueling train proved to be the strongest. Drujon had Kennaug`s wheel and obviously is in a good position now with Lo Cicero and Vingerling trying to fight for that wheel just like Vasyluk and Day.
2,2km and Pedersen launches the sprint for Kennaugh.
1,3km left and Kennaugh leaves the wheel and starts his final move with the hard wall ahead of him.
Drujon, Lo Cicero, Vasyluk and Day try to keep contact while Vingerling starts to struggle massively. What a pity for his team, that looked super-strong until 2,5km to go.
Vingerling slowly goes backwards while Reimer, Van der Lijke or Van Hummel fight to close the gap.
Kennaugh shows all his power and creates a gap.
Also Drujon and Lo Cicero open a gap and actually it`s already Reimer, who shows that this kind of rider could have done better if better positioned today. Day and Vasyluk lost contact and also struggle now.
No doubt that Kennaugh was the strongest in the end. With a huge gap he wins todays stage and will take the overall lead. What a sprint by him.
Lo Cicero tried to pass Drujon but in the end the Bpost rider keeps in front and takes a nice 2nd for his team with Lo Cicero probably being a small surprise today as the last hill surely wasn`t suiting him at all. But he showed great fighting spirit and all his speed.
Reimer is 4th in the end as he had the best speed on the uphill part. Great team performance by Vueling.
Tyler Day with a good 5th for MTN with Van Hummel, Van der Lijke coming next. Pedersen as 8th completes Vuelings domination and rewards himself for his great job as final leadout. Vasyluk as 9th and Vingerling still as 10th at least in the top10 after falling back a lot.
Also to mention that all breakaway riders lost contact in the end even though the short distance was to their favour. So all their GC chances after this chances are gone already. Hugentobler with the mountain jersey at least takes something from the stage.
