It was a dramatic day yesterday with crashes shuffling the GC somewhat. The headline losers from yesterday were Gianpaolo Caruso
and John Gadret
with Sylwester Szmyd
and Christophe Kern
losing top 10 places also.
It feels as if Team Bianchi were one of the biggest beneficaries with fourof their riders moving into the top 15 with unfancied Hubert Schwab
up to 4th overall. Not only that but sprinter Gerald Ciolek
took out a sprint win with Mark Cavendish Marco Guillén
and Danilo Napolitano
in his wake.
The sprinters will fancy this one again with Napolitano the favourites as the finale is slightly uphill. It is not a circuit finish so hopes are that we do not get more crashes though one can never tell.
Eleven riders slip away in the days break and it is a windy day so they just may have a chance.
The riders then Ben King Edoardo Girardi Massimiliano Maisto Jarlinson Pantano Gómez Freddy Cruz Roman Kilun Pim Ligthart Yuan Wei Luke Durbridge Michael Vink Henry Raabe
with the latter rider the best placed on GC but no real threat being 30th at 18.34.
Pantano Gomez has 16 KoM points and Vink has 8 KoM points so whilst the sprints were not really contested with Cruz winning both the first two ahead of Durbridge and King both times. The King of the Mountains points did see Vink attacking to take both.
Pantano Gomez didn't score or even bother sprinting for either prime which meant that Vink took the full 10 KoM points to move to 18 points still way behind the leaders on 38 but not so far from 3rd placed riders Matzbacher and Quintana on 26 points. For the record King and Raabe were second and third at the first with Kilun and Maisto filling the minor places at the other.
The pack seem to have decided not to bother chasing in today's fairly fierce winds, with only VolksWagen left out front to keep the gap to the break under control.
They roll through the last sprint with Giraldi beating Cruz and Pantano Gomoez here. Looking at the break if things came to a sprint you would make King and Ligthart favourites for the sprint however the attacking Meiji Fuji have other ideas.
Wei decides to roll the dice with a big attack and the other ten riders look at each other in particular at teams like Hollister and Oz Cycling to do the work. Wei starts to build a large lead!
The co-operation in the ten behind is non existent as they line up behind Luke Durbridge.
They start to sprint early but it is way too late to stop a surprise Meiji Fuji win whose constant breakaway attempts have been rewarded today. Yuan Wei wins!
Behind the three teams who had two in them manage to sweep places 2 through to 4 with Cruz second, Maisto 3rd and Vink 4th. King is 5th with Ligthart 6th ahead of Kilun and Durbridge.
Napolitano had an incline that looks like it would have suited him all he can do is show that as he sprints to win the bunch sprint some 2.43 behind the race winner ahead of Ciolek and Cav.
