It’s day number two here in Austria but not until tomorrow do we have mountains on the schedule. Today’s stage is again more or less flat with a single KoM Sprint after just 7 kilometres. Surely Oscar Freire will be looking to redeem himself after yesterday’s stage, where things didn’t work out as intended for the former World Champion.
Because of the KoM Sprint the attacks started early, but it was the first attacker of the day, Markus Eichler of Mapei who took full marks from the sprint. KoM Jersey-wearer, Mikaël Cherel, didn’t take part in the sprint, but he will still be comfortable in the lead after today’s stage. The first wave of attacks were nullified and things settled down only for a moment.
Yesterday’s two winners side-by-side – Napolitano in yellow and Cherel in polka dots.
Shortly after a group of 5 riders got away and the pack let them.
Roberts (Eurosport), Kovalev (Virgin Media), Willems (Wikipedia), Kozontchouk (Mapei) and Mahoric (Erste).
Luke Roberts won the first points sprint ahead of Kozontchouk and Kovalev.
So with the race underway let’s talk a little about the GC contenders before tomorrow’s crucial mountain stage. The bookies favourite is Domina Vacanze’s Andy Schleck, who is backed up by a phenomenal team of climbers including the likes of Arroyo, Uran and Petrov. Then there’s Janez Brajkovic of France Televisions. His force is of course the time trial and he is not too far away when we enter stage 6, he should be a top contender for the win. Carlsberg has also brought a very competent rider for the overall here in Denis Menchov. If he can’t settle things in the mountains he has the ability needed to win this in the time trial aswell. Then there’s of course Wild Card team, White Bear Steyr’s Bernhard Kohl, who is the defending champion, so he will be extra motivated to put in a great ride here. Other riders to definitely look out for is Phillips – Hummel’s Domenico Pozzovivo, Magenta Allstar’s Ricardo Ricco and Markus Fothen, Festina’s Haimar Zubeldia, Erste’s Perez Sanchez and Accumulax’ Franco Pellizotti.
Let’s turn our attention back to today’s action where Accumulax and Phillips – Hummel have commenced the chase of the 5 guys in front.
I will take back yesterday’s mockery of Phillips – Hummel since I forgot all about Steegmans – so pull away.
There was another points sprint about 20 kilometres from the finish, which Kozontchouk took care off as he had pulled away from the others with Luke Roberts. They would be caught three kilometres later though.
And this is the point where your incompetent reporter has to make a sincere apology. Believing too much in his computer he thought he could take the screenshots from the race replay. It worked out for some as you can see, but as we entered the sprint my computer and PCM06 couldn’t work out their differences anymore and I was back at my desktop. As a consolation I do have the Top 3 from the stage, which the following screenshots taken of the rankings from the info screen on stage 3, will prove.
In the final sprint Mitch Docker of Credit Lyonnais took a surprising win ahead of Gert Steegmans and Francesco Chicchi who will be our new rider in yellow. Docker lost time on yesterday’s stage and that’s why he is not the leader. Oscar Freire and Napolitano lost out today, but they will have more chances to come.
GC
Points
KoM
Again, I’m very sorry about this and from now I will take my screenshots while playing the stage.
Edited by Roman on 17-10-2016 00:31
