Second sprinter stage in a row. Yesterdays final was quite chaotic. Today it looks easier for the pure sprinters and so the favourites are again Swift and Van Heerden.
But surely you cannot forget yesterdays duo Steegmans and Granjel Cabrera.
A group of 4 with an early attack. None of them is a big threat in the GC, so they are allowed to go. Rodriguez Segarra, Kaisen Gilanipoor Caldeira
Interesting tactic by Festina. 2/4 riders in the break although they have one of the big top favourites in the overall. Definitely a good way to spend some energy behind.
KoM leader Tschopp decides that it`s a good day to be in the group. He had luck that he is still wearing the jersey after Kennaugh came very close yesterday.
Also Deignan, Donald and Kadri join the group and now after 20km the final breakaway group of 8 riders stays.
Sprinter teams Sony Ericsson and Bacardi Ignis are doing the early pace with the help of race leader B&O.
Quite interesting to see Sony`s leader and 9th overall Bernhard Kohl being one of the riders doing the work.
Tschopp takes the first two KoM sprints easily and starts to build a nice gap on the next again.
Rodriguez Segarra was 2nd and Deignan 3rd in both climbs.
Bad news. Again a crash. Abal is the unlucky rider. The Colombia captain was one of the most active so far in this race. As 12th in the overall and as one of the better time trialists he surely hopes for something more.
Now he needs to come back into the peloton first. Still 117km to go.
Together with Sarmiento he is back. He just needed 6km and didn`t need the doc that much. So team manager Fenian might be happy that he seems to be fine.
With 107km and a gap of more than 11min the teams need to react soon when they want to get a chance on the stage win.
Vesuvio and Wikipedia are both seen now as many other teams. Still there is no real unity between them and this way it will become very hard to organize the work.
Great news for the breakaway and in especially for KoM leader Tschopp.
With 65km to go the advance is at 14'30.
Tschopp as best placed is just 10'33 behind race leader Pluchkin.
Many Suisse fans already see him as next race leader and push him forwards from the road sides.
3rd mountain sprint and this time it`s Rodriguez Segarra ahead of Kadri and Donald. Tschopp obviously isn`t willing to fight for it and prefers to work hard with the group seeing the chance to make a big jump in the overall.
With 56km and still 14'30 B&O is forced to do something. With 3 riders they accelerate now. Pluchkin surely wants to stay in the lead after today.
Gilanipoor takes the sprint ahead of Tschopp and Deignan. All in the break have the same goal, winning todays stage. Surely one of them will win it and so they are still working together pretty well.
The peloton just gained 50s in the last 20km, so also Tschopp is still 3min in the provisional overall lead.
Last KoM for today and leader Tschopp at least gets 2 points this time. Donald wins it ahead of Deignan but none of them cares.
Gilanipoor sees no chance to win in a sprint and attacks. Festina uses the tactical advantage and so Kaisen is following him. They need to work together now when they want to distance the rest.
But no chance. As last man Gilanipoor is caught again by the rest of the group. It will probably end in a sprint.
In other news the work by B&O had success. With 10km to go the gap is down to 9'24. So Tschopp is no longer virtual leader.
With 3km to go Gilanipoor is the first rider to open the sprint. It will be hard for him in the first position. Also Tschopp and Caldeira are probably too far behind.
Rodriguez Segarra overtakes him on the left with Donal and Kadri being behind him. Deignan looks good but still on Gilanipoor`s wheel.
Still the Festina rider in front but Kadri is coming on the right now and also Caldeira is faster than expected. He found a good gap and is coming from behind.
Spyker`s Kadri with an important win for his team, who must fear the descent into 2nd division.
Rodriguez Segarra holds on to 2nd with Donald not fast enough to overtake him.
Caldeira comes in 4th ahead of Tschopp (+17), Kaisen and Deignan with Gilanipoor following in 8th (+37).
Swift wins the bunch sprint 8'11 later ahead of Granjel Cabrera and Van Heerden. Bad luck as this could have been a stage win for him.
This also means that the jump isn`t that big as the top 20 are pretty close together. Tschopp is 23rd now 2'35 back. No changes in the overall.
