The first of the three stages that are predicted to split things up – todays stage is similar to yesterdays stage only the hills are a bit tougher. We saw Mercedes come close to nicking a win but in the end the sprinters got their day. It will be much tougher for Mohs, Forero and Ciolek today and you would expect some of the big hill climbers to try something.
We are in the west country for a stage that starts in Chard, Somerset goes into the hilly county of Devon before doubling back on itself to arrive in Burnham-on-Sea near Weston-Super-Mare. The climb of Cothelstone hill close to the end of the stage is a hard one and bookies have Schumacher and Ponzi as two of the favourites. The British rider most are talking about is Jonathan Bellis can he take up the ball, so badly dropped by the 100% Me team?
Early on we see a change of tact from Vespa’s tough classics rider as Verbist goes early on to secure the top place at the nasty little Staple Hill ten point climb.
Verbist attacks hard with Holloway on his wheel
Full results here then Verbist, Holloway, Hacecky (Cillit Bang), Jarc (Milka), Barberi (Bimbo Nutella) and Moinard (Pendletons).
No repeat scorers from yesterday here and the top five riders from that climb form todays early breakaway.
Verbist, Holloway (policing), Hacecky, Jarc and Barberi our break
However on the descent more riders are trying to come across to this, the hilly parcours in Devon could make a break difficult to catch. The seven chasers are:
Zingle(Highroad), McEvoy (Youtube), Nydam (Mercedes), Barclay (Youtube), Capecchi (Intesa), Lequatre (Lego) and Lefevre (Cillit Bang).
Seven chasers
Before anyone gets too excited about the veteran French rider he gets dropped as the other six catch the lead five. But not before the first sprint taken by Holloway over Jarc and Hacecky. In the second sprint the six chasers have their day as Capecchi gets the nod over Barcley and McEvoy.
The main event in the middle in the Mile Hill climb which is a hill that climbs up for about a mile in case you were not sure. The break do not really contest it and so the best climber in the break Barberi of Bimbo Nutella takes it ahead of McEvoy of Youtube. Barberi takes the mile high summit
No Verbist or Holloway in the picture, the full results here were Barberi, Capacchi, McEvoy, Zongle, Lequatre and Nydam. This means that Barberi takes the KOM lead.
Back in the peleton following this climb Bozic (Pendletons) and Blythe (100% Me) decide to attack with 75km to go. The peleton has been pretty pacy through out and with 50 to go the lead 11 have 2.10 on Blythe and Bozic and 2.32 on the pack.
Bozic and Blythe launch an early move - it gets brought back though
The break hold the advantage until we get to Cothelstone Hill at which point five riders Nydam, Barberi, Lequatre, Hacecky and Holloway attack away.
Five riders attack away
It would be Nydam who would take the maximum ahead of Barberi in second, the Bimbo Nutella South American takes a good grip on the british king of the hills jersey. Back in the pack 100% Me's keen hill climber Chris Froome attacks on the hill he is being marked here by Sylvian Chavanel... it's on here.
Froome looking to use Cothelstone hill as a launch pad
Other names like make their move in a melee of attacks, every man and his dog are looking to get involved in this move. The break is absorbed in a front group and following the reshuffle we see that Stefan Schumacher, one of the pre race favourites as emerged as leader on the road.
Schumacher leads us now on the downhill
Yes, folks that is the British jersey of Jonathan Bellis behind, he has made the big juncture. The top two from the breakaway Nydam and Barberi are also still here, also Bbox's Thomas Voeckler and a surprise name Ruben Elvira Lobato (Bimbo Nutella).
Six men form front group
No doubt we have three big favourites here in Bellis, Voeckler and Schumacher and they are working together well here into the last 20km. They have a sprint to contest at the bottom and Schumacher takes a tight one ahead of Bellis.
Late sprint: Schumacher - > Bellis - > Voeckler
Barberi is dropped at the sprint, he will be happy with his KOM jersey and helping teammate Lobato.
Back in the pack, a lot of riders are seeing their GC chances disappearing and we are seeing some despairing moves out of the peleton. Ponzi and Chavanel are most active and pull a group clear including Tankirk, Pasamontes and Proni.
Ponzi and Chavanel launch a late chase
10km to go then we have:
Schumacher, Bellis, Voeckler, Lobato, Nydam
Barberi, Chavanel, Proni, Tankirk, Pasamontes, Ponzi at 1.22
100% Me led peleton at 1.48.
The chase group really do need to get moving, Pasamontes and Proni who followed early have the legs to push forward out of this one.
Mercedes and Vespa riders trying to bridge
But you can see the gaps are quite big as our five, aha no four now Nydam is struggling, go under the 5km to go banner. One of these four will take the leaders jersey today, we have to ask is one of these four our Tour of Britain winner?
Four riders can feel this is the big moment
Behind them we have Nydam, Proni and Pasamontes and then a fairly large chase group is forming as more riders bridge from the peleton.
Here are Rabon, Albasini, Ponzi, Chavanel, Vansummeren, Trampusch, Moinard, Froome, Elizen and Hoogerland. They have got to work hard to keep the gaps to a minimum.
Big chase group - surely cannot get back to the leaders
British fans can be excited about their champion being in the lead group - but Bellis makes the mistake of overconfidence here as he leads out the sprint. He is already being passed by Schumacher here.
Bellis leads out the sprint a big mistake
Schumacher is a pretty underrated sprinter and eases past the Brit as does the other two riders, UBS can celebrate a good win here.
Schumacher wins from Voeckler and Lobato
Proni arrives with Pasamontes and Nydam 50 seconds later.
Proni nabs 5th, Pasamantes 6th, Nydam great ride for 7th
The gap back to the next group is not a lot in fact no gaps are awarded as Ponzi sprints home. Their Tour hopes perhaps saved as a result.
Ponzi sprints and does get rid a fair bit of the gap he could have had
Former leader Mohs comes in the main pack just 1.54 down, he surrenders the lead to Schumacher but now has control of the points jersey.
