Another day for sprinters, at least on paper. In the previous stage, Vanderbiest and Granjel Cabrera showed they are above the rest and today we should see them again at the top. But the final 2 kilometers of the stage are not entirely flat and that should bring us some rather interesting battles between the sprinters
After a lot of attacks at the start of the stage, four riders made it into the day's breakaway: Hulsmans, Nooytens, Scheunemann and the race's best climber, Pires
Pires added some more points to his total after crossing first the top of the first climb, even though Nooytens was clearly not happy with that
In the following kilometers due to the strong wind the breakaway group started to break apart and as a result Scheunemann and Nooytens lost the contact with the other two escapes, while Hulsmans took the first intermediate sprint of the stge
A few kilometers before the start of the last climb of the day, we had some interesting moves in the pack. Tennant and Ardila went away and soon joined Pires and Hulsmans in the lead
Pires and Hulsmans weren't able to stay in the lead anymore and as soon as the first slopes of the climb were reached they were dropped off. Tennant wasn't able to hang on to Ardila's wheel for too long either and the Colombian took the race on his own
After taking the summit, Ardila stayed in front and won the day's last intermediate sprint as well but that meant nothing after the time that the Festina rider had lost in the previous stage
The Colombian was the only rider left in front of the pack and 30 seconds behind him, Granjel Cabrera arrived second at the sprint, in front of yesterday's stage winner, Vanderbiest
Ardila put in a very good fight but he had no chance against an angry pack, led mostly by Sony Ericsson and he was caught inside the last 10 kilometers of the stage
5 kilometers before the finish we had 2 very strong sprint trains in front of the pack. One made for Granjel Cabrera by Mori and one for Martin Pedersen made by Reime.
Duque was following the Sony Ericsson train, while Carmeuse's main sprinters were divided, each following a train. Caethoven was behind Duque, while Roelandts was following Pedersen's wheels.
There was no sign of yesterday's winner, Romain Vanderbiest, even though his lead - out man, David Vitoria, wasn't far from the leading positions in the pack
Sony had a great position in the sprint but not everything went their way as one of their riders went down in the nervous moves that were made in the pack. It was their GC leader, Marco Marzano. A few other riders went down as well, but the Italian was the only name went mentioning
In front, his team - mates, were doing a great job though, leaving the Philips train behind them. Duque was still in Cabrera's wheel though and now Caethoven was leading Roelandts into the sprint
When the actual sprint started, with less than 3 kilometers to go, Mori was still in front of the pack and Granjel Cabrera was in a perfect position to go for the stage win
And inside the last 2 kilometers, he made his move and took the lead, with Duque, Marinangeli and Phinney being the only riders able to at least follow him
Phinney was looking good on the slopes but as the final kilometer was rather flat it was clear that he had no chance for the first two positions and a new stage win, with Granjel Cabrera and Duque being too far away
Inside the final kilometer, Duque did everything he could to stop Granjel Cabrera and bring the stage win to Energie Diesel, while Marinangeli took the third place from Phinney
But Duque had no chance and Granjel Cabrera brought yet another victory for the team that is dominating the Pro Tour at the moment! Duque and Marinangeli followed him on the podium
Not everything was perfect though for Sony Ericsson, Marazon lost 2 minutes and 41 seconds, right before the queen stage of the race and now his chances for a good placing the GC are almost non existent
Only one distinctive jersey chanced today as Granjel Cabrera took over the points jersey and Pires is now a big favorite for the KoM jersey even though we still have the La Punt stage, while Visconti and Summerhill are still wearing the yellow and the white jerseys won after the second stage's amazing breakaway
