Welcome to the second hilly stage and it`s a pretty tough one. There aren`t many flat pieces here and the final circuit on the last 50km has 5 passings of the Cauberg. This probably says enough. So probably another chance for the hilly specialists such as first stage winner Gilbert, Van Garderen, Efimkin or to improve his advantage Pozzato.
No group has been formed really. So the first KoM is a fight between the high placed. To remember: Einsle still leads by 4 points ahead of Mancuso.
Here Mancuso already wins these 4 points as he is first ahead of Mertens and Einsle.
So it will surely be an interesting fight on the many sprints on this stage.
11 riders form todays break. And the top 3 of the KoM ranking are in there. Mertens, McEvoy Florencio Portal Christensen Franzoi Einsle Mancuso Atapuma, Vangheel Barrio
Just like yesterday Florencio is the best placed rider as 16th with 10'39 behind race leader Pozzato.
Typical picture in the peloton. 3 riders by Festina are doing the early work and the gap widens. We have seen Sentjens, Voss and Ostergaard doing this on most stages now and so far they did a good job.
Next KoM and this time surprisingly it`s Portal taking the big points. The French is the 4th rider with some points so far as 7th.
Mancuso follows ahead of Barrio, so he overtakes Einsle.
Milka Vittel is coming to the front doing some work. Not sure yet if they try to control the peloton to give Bewley a chance or if they will go for Efimkin, who has a realistic chance to win this stage here.
Also Carmeuse can be seen working for Cancellara. Today the Swissman should try to avoid a time loss like on the first stage.
With 113km left and more than 8min it`s time now to do something if you want to have a chance to win.
3rd KoM and again Mancuso takes the points. Obviously the Bacardi rider is fresher than Einsle today who follows at least as 2nd ahead of Barrio.
Although Milka-Vittel is now working the pace is not much higher than before. 102km and the gap even widens on more than 10'40. This means we have a new virtual leader in Florencio and a good chance for the break to win this stage if the peloton keeps sleeping.
Finally Einsle gains some points again. He wins the 4th ahead of Mancuso and Portal but he still needs some points if he wants to defend the jersey.
Festina stops sleeping seeing the danger by Florencio. 82km and 14'25 for the group. So Florencio has a realistic chance to improve a lot today and might enter the top5 after this stage if not even the lead.
Next KoM was on a pretty narrow road going up the Eyserbosweg. So positioning was key for collecting more points.
Mancuso obviously did the best and wins ahead of Barrio and Portal. Einsle again with a 0 pointer can`t be happy with the actual situation.
The same climb 12min later also splits the peloton the first time due to Festina`s high pace now.
A group of 20 including Pozzato has a small gap the the peloton.
Missing the split are Devolder, Gusev, Summerhill, Ballan, Boonen and Gilbert of the top10 while Bewley, Cancellara and the Festina duo Pozzato and Steurs managed to stay ahead.
But the gap is not that big and the chance to fusion again is pretty big.
Again Einsle can only gain 2 points on Mancuso with Portal following. So the KoM goes to Mancuso, who was stronger today. Congrats for Bacardi.
Soon we are coming to the final circuit and still we see the 20 rider group having a gap. Maybe I was wrong and the peloton gave up although lots of well placed riders are in there. Next to the 4 mentioned top10 riders we also see Efimkin as only real puncheur and Steegmans as Bacardi "leader" while Burghardt seems to be in the 2nd group.
But coming to the first passing of the Cauberg we see that the group became a bit bigger again. But now the riders need to come to the front quick as new splits are common after the climb.
42km to go and Pozzato already sent his luxury team mate to the front. Steurs is working hard keeping a tough pace no matter his own result as he is 5th at the moment. But on the other hand the breakaway still is 11'30 ahead and still Florencio is the virtual leader.
As expected a new split after the Caubert. In the first group again Pozzato, Steurs, Bewley, Cancellara, Steegmans and Efimkin but this time also Gilbert, Posthuma, Burghardt and Summerhill.
1`30 later a group around Boonen.
Even 2'15 behind Van Garderen, Devolder, Schreurs, Gusev, Kolobnev, Baugnies or Ballan. So in especially Spyker and Tinkoff have been very unconcentrated this time.
2nd climb:
The Boonen group found contact again but groupe Devolder/Ballan are still a bit behind fighting for finding contact again.
Somehow the pace was a bit slower on this pass and so the Spyker guys are all back in the front group.
Still back the Tinkoff riders and also a bit further Hoogerland. All other favourites back in one group but 3 more crosses to go.
Just 12km to go and that the breakaway will take this is sure for about 50km now but there is the first serious attack.
Mertens has opened a 30s gap to the others. Obviously the KoM guys are too exhausted and the others couldn`t follow immediately.
Steurs really having a fantastic day and is helping Pozzato brilliantly today. For the 3rd time he is doing the Cauberg from the front. This time much faster again.
Massive split. Only 12 riders in the first group containing Steurs and Pozzato of course. Next to him also Voss from the strong Festina squad.
Other than that no top20 contender!!!
All of them 34s later in a big group.
4km later they again came together but this is very exhausting for the splitted riders of course and a big advantage for Pozzato for sure.
Except for Christensen and Vangheel the front group is together again and different to the peloton they only have the final climb to go. Obviously they will reach it at the same time than the peloton at their 4th.
Bad timing and hard to get good camera angles obviously.
A tiny bit earlier than the breakaway Steurs leads the peloton again.
But the breakaway is coming fast from behind. Mertens, who was riding solo for some time in first position next to Franzois, Einsle, Mancuso and Florencio. The others won`t have a chance and the winner will come out of these 5.
And it is Mertens, who was probably the strongest in the group. big win for him and Pendleton`s also take the 2nd hilly stage.
Florencio comes in 2nd ahead of Mancuso. How much later will the peloton arrive here and where will he find himself after the stage? He was only 10min back.
Again Steurs splitted the group in many pieces. In the first group we have Pozzato, Steurs, Devolder, Ballan, Diggle, Pavarin and Muravjev. So these have been concentrated this time. But the gap to the others is not big.
And with 2,8km left they come back and make it a group of 49 again. So no big time gaps today due to the easier section after the Cauberg.
But of course they must climb one more time and the riders in the front have a big advantage now.
Pavarin sprinted first and strongest. He comes in almost 10min behind the breakaway, so Florencio unbelievably is 2nd in the overall now 1min behind Pozzato. Very well done by Jack Wolfskin after Posthuma lost his top10.
Together with Pavarin Pozzato, Steurs, Gilbert, Cancellara, Posthuma and Summerhill created a gap of 18s to the rest of the group. Important seconds for some of them but also for Cancellara and Posthuma, who still have the time trial on their side.
