After yesterday’s surprise, with Kevin Ista taking over the GC thanks to a breakaway, today’s stage is quite flat, meaning we’ll most likely see a sprint finish, therefore making
Danilo Napolitano Maxime Vantomme Erik Mohs Mark Cavendish Peter Kennaugh
The biggest favourites. Specially the two Britons will be eager to perform, as none of them has got a podium place yet. Today should be interesting GC wise as well, because, even though there’s no climbs to make the race hard, with the race being so close, and with 4 intermediate sprints, if Francesco Reda or Aleksandar Flügel go for the bonuses, they could make Ista struggle.
Not just this, this stage features the last KoM sprint as well. The winner there will be handed 5 points, so
Olivier Le Gac 26 points Haijun Ma 22 points Pieter Ghyllebert 21 points
Are still in the fight, although then Frenchman’s advantage should prove to be enough.
We’re already in the first intermediate sprint, and no breakaway has been formed yet. Three of the last attackers go through it first
Taiji Nishitani Luis Pasamontes Jonathon Thire
Are trying to open a gap.
Finally, we seem to have an established breakaway – and it’s a big one! Besides the aforementioned Nishitani, Pasamontes and Thire, the other 9 men are
Graham Briggs Gatis Smukulis Niki Terpstra Fabrice Jeandesboz Travis Meyer Chris Sutton Luke Durbridge, King Lok Cheung Joeri Stallaert
The 12 have a 3’16’’ gap at the moment.
There’s no fight for the second intermediate sprint, so Jeandesboz takes it, with Meyer second and Thire third.
Third intermediate sprint, and, again, no fight for the points or bonuses. The order is Nishitani, Smukulis, Briggs, and surely Ista will be happy that, barring a major surprise, none of his closest rivals will get a time bonus today. The gap is up to 6’49’’.
The breakaway reaches the KoM sprint now, and Terpstra takes it ahead of Pasamontes and Meyer. And, although this was obvious already, now it’s official, Olivier Le Gac will win the mountains classification, providing he finishes the race. But let’s not jinx the young French!
85km to go, and the peloton is just cruising along. The gap has grown up to 9’57’’, so we could have another breakaway win. One would expect the sprinters to be hungry after three hard stages, but it doesn’t look good for them.
55km to go, and (SAA) Saab – Scania’s work is cearly having an effect, the gap is down to 8’24’’ now. They’ll need to gain a further 3 minutes to keep Ista in the lead, as Meyer is just 5’25’’ down in GC, but it shouldn’t be too hard if they keep working well.
Last intermediate sprint, and Stallaert gets it ahead of Cheung and Jeandesboz, although none of them really went for it. The gap is now at 7’48’’ with 47km to go, so Saab has this under control, apparently.
With 25km to go, the gap has gone further down, and Meyer isn’t in the virtual lead anymore. The sprinter teams are working now, but it’s too late for them, although they’re going insanely fast.
But look there, we have echelons! The wind is pretty intense, and the insane pace of the peloton has caused a split. Notable riders missing out are
So most of the top 10, plus other of the stronger riders have been caught behind. Will they be able to come back?
It’s been a hard day for the breakaway. Always rainy and windy, now they’re almost done, and the peloton is going very fast. The gap is still at 3’15’’ with 20km to go, but if they keep losing ground so quickly, this will be close after all.
And we have the first attacks in the breakaway! Pasamontes, Terpstra and Cheung are unconvinced about how the breakaway is going, and try their own luck.
15km to go and the second peloton is chasing desperately. The gaps are as follows:
Pasamontes
<-18''->
Cheung
<-28''->
Briggs
Terpstra
Thire
Meyer
Jeandesboz
Stallaert
Nishitani
Sutton
Smukulis
Durbridge
Briggs
<-2'03''->
Peloton
<-1'03''->
Chase group
Thire
Meyer
Jeandesboz
Stallaert
Nishitani
Sutton
Smukulis
Durbridge
10km to go, and Cheung is almost there with Pasamontes and Terpstra. Behind, the rest of the breakaway has given up, and is 1’19’’ back. The first peloton is now 2’57’’ behind the front pair, but have increased their gap with the second peloton to 1’37’’, this could be a disaster for many riders.
Clearly the pace is not enough for some, as Tiziano Dall’Antonia and Óscar Freire attack now. It’s too late to go for the stage now, but they seem to want to show their colours a bit.
3km to go, and the front three are preparing the sprint. Terpstra seems to be at the right place, while Cheung looks cooked, as he’s lost contact in the flat right after he arrived.
In the peloton, Unicredit is setting up the sprint for Napolitano. They are about to catch the first chase group, which now includes Dall’Antonia and Freire, and have opened the gap with the second peloton even more, now it’s at 1’48’’, and it’s confirmed that this stage will be a disaster for Reda, Flügel, Vermote et al.
The chase group is finally swallowed by the peloton. Once Terpstra and Pasamontes went, the stage was over for all these guys, so it’s not surprising that they have lost a lot of time in the last few kilometers.
Pasamontes is still leading in the sprint, but just as they enter the last kilometer, Terpstra makes his move.
And he easily leaves the Spaniard behind. Terpstra is faster, and was at the right place, so at least some good news for Pokerstars, now that they’re losing Vermote’s 5th place and white jersey.
Great win for Niki Terpstra, in a bittersweet day for Pokerstars. Luis Pasamontes takes the second place.
Cheung just holds off Cavendish, and takes 3rd with a good effort. Napolitano is 5th and Kennaugh 6th, so still no luck for the British sprinters.
But, hold on, Kevin Ista has been gapped as well! The wind has caused havoc, and the riders are all over the place, and now the race leader is some seconds behind after being dropped in the last km!
His team mate Kenny Van Hummel helps him, but the time loss could be too high. It indeed is, he loses 1’05’’ with the peloton, so now Daryl Impey is the new leader, and Jonathan Bellis goes up to 2nd in GC!
Behind, Flügel has attacked the second peloton, in a desperate attempt to limit his losses.
And he arrives 3’ behind the stage winner, and just in front of the second peloton. That is enough to close the gap with the group of Kevin Ista, so the likes of Flügel, Reda, Martin, Sutherland or Vermote have finally limited their loss quite well.
The weather has caused that a stage bound to be dull becomes a total mess. And the big winners from this mess are Impey and Bellis, now 1st and 2nd in GC. The rest of the top 10 hasn’t changed much, because of the quite unusual circumstance of most top 10 riders being dropped today!
The GC is still very close though, even more than before today’s stage, so look up for more action in the next stages of the Tour of Britain!
