It is another mostly flat day today, this time 141km in distance. There are two KOM primes along the way, both worth a maximum of 6 points. The climbs are both just over 2km in length and 3-4% average gradient, so shouldn’t pose much of a challenge. Yesterday, the race was really defined by the gusting winds and while there are moderate winds expected today, it is unlikely to get to the same level as yesterday.
With so many riders losing time yesterday there are undoubtedly going to be many riders who want to be a part of the break. The first man to try is Bernucci.
He is followed by Pietropolli. After these two four more riders bridge up to them: Nechita Gauer Meyer Kwok
And these six form our break of the day.
All the riders here were in the second peloton, having missed the major split, and so they are all 1’48” behind the leader. There are some interesting riders here, such as the double Romanian champion Nechita and the 16 year old prodigy Gauer.
The first sprint point arrives, with 81km to the finish. Meyer takes the points ahead of Bernucci and then Pietropolli
The peloton come through 6’57” later, with the gap slowly dropping down.
The first of the two mountain primes is the next item of interest. Bernucci shows his climbing prowess, easily taking the points. Gauer takes second and then Meyer is in third. The current KOM leader Ovechkin is on 11 points and given that the next climb is worth 6, it is possible for Bernucci to overtake him.
The gap to the peloton is still out at 6’17”, with Rapha and Pokerstars doing the lion’s share of the work.
The second climb, while being almost the same as the first, is ridden completely differently. The pace is high but there are no attacks. Regardless, Bernucci rolls over in first place ahead of Meyer and Pietropolli.
The gap now sits at only 4’35” with 57km remaining. Appleby leads the peloton over, with Pokerstars and Hollister also contributing to the pace.
The pace rises and with about 30km remaining there is bad news for Meiji as Lloyd punctures. He was in the small group which lost time yesterday, but he was still in with a shout of a decent GC position. With the pace this high there is no chance for him to get back at all.
There are 22km remaining and we come to the sprint point. Bernucci manages to take this one, showing his huge amount of strength today, having already won both the two KOM primes. Meyer is second and Kwok is in third.
The gap is down to 1’39” and with 10km to go that gap has been reduced to 24”.
Suddenly Bono puts in an attack!
He blitzes right past the break, where Bernucci and Meyer see him coming and attack with him.
Meyer is dropped by the other two and swallowed up by the peloton. At the same time Bernucci manages to drop Bono, even though he has spent the entire day sitting in the peloton.
With 6.5km to go the gap has grown slightly to 25” to Bernucci. The sprinters’ teams are looking at each other to make this final catch.
Meanwhile, with the two breakaways, Bono is closing in on Bernucci, clawing his way back up. With 5km to go the break is out to 46”!
With 4 to go, Evans puts in an attack! The crowd goes wild for the former Australian champion!
Back in the peloton Fothen falls near the back, but the teams are too busy getting the sprint train organised. With 2km remaining the order is: Degenkolb Guillen Sinner Cooke Rizza Markov Park Cucinotta
It will be immediately noticed that two names are missing – Davis and Kennaugh. There is a smaller sprint train starting to come up on the left, but looking quite ragged: Sambris Martinez Davis Impey
Meanwhile, Kennaugh is sitting back a bit further.
Bernucci goes under the kite with a 6” advantage over Bono and a gap to the peloton hovering at just over 40”.
Evans is swallowed up by the peloton, who open up their sprint. Guillen comes around Degenkolb, who has done a great lead-out, with 1300 metres left. Sinner is coming straight around his outside.
Sinner comes past Guillen with 600 metres to the line. Cooke is trying to come through between them and Rizza is trying to come around their outside on the left of the road.
The cameras flick to the finish line just in time to see Bernucci perform his victory salute. What a magnificent victory after spending all day in the break. He gets the stage win and the mountain jersey as his reward. Bono will be disappointed with second place here.
Rizza and Cooke pull even with Sinner as Guillen starts to fade. All three are equal for the sprint for third with 400 to go.
Rizza takes third place, 28” behind the stage winner. Cooke has another strong sprint for fourth. Sinner gets fifth, Guillen fades to sixth place and Park has a decent seventh place. Davis recovers his sprint somewhat and takes eighth, with Cucinotta in ninth and Markov rounding out the top ten. Kennaugh can only manage fourteenth.
On the run-in about 20 riders were dropped and lost time, but all of them had previously lost time so it has no effect on GC. It is also worth noting that Davis only barely saved his points jersey from falling into Bernucci’s hands.
