Todays 196km are rates as flat, but they are far from that. Even the final line to the finals rises sligthly. Pozzato, Hagen and Bennati are the favourites for today.
In the break of the day are Kloden, Moletta, Jacobs, Hoffman, van Aelbroeck, Ford, Reckweg and Sys. Behind them, Festina and Warnes Brothers control the gap.
They control the gap, but dont chase. Because of that, the gap is over 11 minutes, with 115km to go. That's a very big gap... This is the sign for LCL and Vespa to start speeding up, with the French champion Sinner relaying as well.
This results in the gap coming down to 8 minutes with 90km to go.
Meanwhile, the break doesnt challenge any sprint. Kloden takes the intermediate sprint, while Reckweg and Ford both take a KOM sprint, not changing much in the classifications.
Then, at 50km, as the gap was 3'30, P. Vila crashed, and won't be coming back in the pack again.
And the gap kept coming down, as with 8km, they are caugth. There's a few tains up the road: (from left to right)
Popov with Vastaranta, Bernucci with Napolitano, Gavazzi with Bennati - Vantomme - Pozzato - Hagen - Hushovd and Da Dalto with Chicchi.
At 5k, the trains are all overtaken by the relaying train. None of the leadout men are strong enoguh it seems.
As we head into the sprint, Vinokourov leads. All the sprinters are there, but the leadouts are very poor for all.
As a result of that, Bennati had to go early at 1.5km, taking Vantomme, Napolitano, Pozzato and Hushovd with him.
0.5km left, and Vantomme and Pozzato are closing in on Bennati. Will his desicion to go early kill him?
Yes, it does! Pozzato beats him by a centimeter! Vantomme takes third.
