Maybe the easiest stage here and so surely another chance for the sprinters. Guerao won the first sprinter stage while Van Stayen proved his speed but lacked in positioning and Holloway lost speed in the end. Still these 3 will surely be todays favourites.
4 riders in todays break. Grabovskiy and Kennaugh have already been part of it yesterday but surely want another chance to win a stage. Van Zandbeek and Duran are the remaining riders.
Rooijakkers is trying to join them and is chasing them solo.
Van Zandbeek, Duran and Grabovskiy is the order at the sprint. As none of them is fighting for a high GC there is no real fight for it here.
A bit later Rooijakkers is joining them. 75km to go and a 3'30 gap. So far everyhing is looking for another sprint finish.
B&O is doing the pace in the peloton working for race leader Pluchkin. Just one Pokerstars rider is helping them from time to time. No other sprinter team is doing anything right now.
Grabovskiy is taking the maximum points here and moves up to 2nd behind Pauwels. Rooijakkers and Kennaugh follow next having 9 points both now.
52km left and a gap of 6'20. Now the situation changed a lot and it even favours the breakaway. At least Pokerstars and Simply Red Bull start to work a bit more while Festina is still doing nothing.
Both teams are doing a very fast pace but still with 27km left the gap is still at 4 minutes. This will be very close.
10km left and only 1min for them. Also the teamwork in the group is over now. Duran with a first attack to win the stage.
5km left and only Duran with a 28s lead now. The sprinter teams were too strong and the group too tired in the end.
Simply Red Bull already starts to form the train for Van Stayen with Van Avermaet and Guerao in a good position. Holloway is not the Pokerstars rider here and is still 4-5 positions too far behind.
But with 3km to go also Duran is almost caught and the Pokerstars is formin as well.
Sella
Maaskant
Jelloul
Kluge
Van Stayen
Holloway
Guerao
Forero
Meyer
Van Avermaet
Dockx
Croket
Vanoverschelde
Kocjan
Bazajev
Again GC rider Sella is working for Van Stayen. Hopefully the Italian isn`t spending too much energy here.
2,5km: Jelloul and Maaskant start the sprint. Pokerstars probably with the stronger train today.
1,5km: Van Stayen starts his sprint with Guerao perfectly placed behind him. Holloway still behind Kluge, who is doing a nice job here.
1km: Guerao takes over Van Stayen and also Van Avermaet with Vanoverschelde is coming on the side. Holloway might have waited a bit too long actually as he has a small gap to the first sprinters already.
Guerao is on his way to win his 2nd stage here. Van Stayen still has a good speed here next to Van Avermaet while Holloway is the fastest right now.
Guerao surely the strongest today and had a perfect leadout by Van Stayen. Great performance by the Festina sprinter, who disappointed quite a lot in Qatar.
Holloway this time with the 2nd but just like Van Stayen on the 2nd stage he might have been able to get a better result when starting the sprint a bit earlier. And photo finish between the next four riders.
Van Stayen, Meyer, Vanoverschelde and Van Avermaet is the order in the end. Bazajev, Forero, Dockx and Kocjan complete the top 10 with Croket being just outside.
Result
1
Óscar Guerao
Festina-Canal+
2h55'52
2
Dan Holloway
Pokerstars.com
s.t.
3
Michael Van Stayen
Simply Red Bull
s.t.
4
Cameron Meyer
Koenigsegg
s.t.
5
Kobe Vanoverschelde
Aker - MOT
s.t.
6
Greg Van Avermaet
Pro Team Venchi - Sugoi
s.t.
7
Assan Bazajev
ING Cycling - Project
s.t.
8
Juan Pablo Forero
Milka - AVG
s.t.
9
Gert Dockx
Pro Team Venchi - Sugoi
s.t.
10
Jure Kocjan
Team Bacardi
s.t.
11
Lars Croket
Lotto - Cervelo
s.t.
12
Adam Blythe
Wiggle Professional Cycling Team
s.t.
13
Marcel Barth
Vesuvio - Accumalux
s.t.
14
Jos Van Emden
Project 1t4i
s.t.
15
Roger Kluge
Pokerstars.com
s.t.
16
Michael Mørkøv
Team B&O
s.t.
17
Simon Spilak
Aker - MOT
s.t.
18
Martijn Maaskant
Pokerstars.com
s.t.
19
Manuel Antonio Cardoso
Pearl Adidas
s.t.
20
Aleksandr Pluchkin
Team B&O
s.t.
21
Adil Jelloul
Simply Red Bull
s.t.
22
Alejandro Valverde
Koenigsegg
s.t.
23
Jurgen Van den Broeck
Team Puma - SAP
s.t.
24
Nicolas Roche
ING Cycling - Project
s.t.
25
Kristjan Koren
Heineken presented by California Giant Berry Farms
s.t.
26
Andrei Amador
UBS - BMC
s.t.
27
Walter Pedraza
Koenigsegg
s.t.
28
Romain Sicard
Pearl Adidas
s.t.
29
Koen De Kort
Project 1t4i
s.t.
30
Stefan Denifl
Wikipedia
s.t.
31
Vegard Stake Laengen
Aker - MOT
s.t.
32
Beñat Intxausti
Team Bacardi
s.t.
33
Thomas Faiers
Pendleton's
s.t.
34
Peter Velits
Project 1t4i
s.t.
35
Ryan Eastman
Heineken presented by California Giant Berry Farms
