The second hard criterium expects the riders today. Froome won the first and is also a big favourite for today next to Ben Nasser, who was a bit passive the first time.
Also De la Fuente, Augustyn, Nimiec, Kessiakoff, Gadret or the Meiji guys might want to try something today to create bigger gaps before the Mt Fuji climb.
6 riders in an early break. Sastre Scholz Maisto Sambris Sano Vorganov
Especially last named will surely try to extend his KoM lead today. But also Sano isn`t too far away from the top. So some dangerous riders in there.
Santaromita and Traficante try to join these six.
Obviously the peloton allows these 8 to create a bigger gap.
The first KoM is won by leader Vorganov ahead of Sano and Sambris.
These three are surely the best puncheurs and the most interested in the points.
Also this criterium proves to be pretty dangerous as Possoni crashes. He is already the third rider today after Pereyra and Tankink.
The pace is not that high in the peloton with Rapha doing most work for race leader and stage favourite Froome.
Carlos Sastre definitely had his best days behind. He is no longer be able to follow the group and falls back.
And yet another crash. And again it`s Bobridge. The Australian is followed by bad luck in this race so far.
Again the same 3 riders fight for the KoM points. This time it`s Sano collecting the most ahead of Vorganov and Sambris.
Bianchi is accelerating in the peloton, which causes the first splits of the day. Lots of big names have been surprised and find theirselves in the later group although none of the top10 riders.
Riders being behind: Veloso Gil Bobridge Martinez, Gutierrez Palacios Appleby De Maar Sousa Arashiro
And the next crash. And a really nasty one. Yesterdays stage winner Veloso needs a long time until he can continue. This doesn`t look good at all. He continues after a while but looks really injured.
Even worse for him, that the two pelotons just came back together when this crash happened.
A new situation in the break. Vorganov, Sambris and Sano finally got rid of the other riders and lead the race as trio now.
But just a little bit later the next split. This time many riders were more attentive.
Still two bigger names are in this second group.
First is Koldo Gil, who is obviously injured after his crash yesterday. Second is again Martinez, who almost refuses his job here so far.
With 75km to go more riders fall back. The peloton is down to 36 rider with all top 20 still in there.
Third KoM again goes to Sano ahead of Sambris and Vorganov, who obviously must pay credit to his big efforts in Japan so far.
Kessiakoff must feel really strong today. The Swede is doing a high pace at the moment although he still has one team mate in Gottfried in this group.
46km: 4'33
With 40km to go half of the former breakaway is back in the peloton again. It was a ncie try but with three very strong riders it was impossible to stay.
This is also the time, when Arashiro falls back. He fought really hard but he might have to wait for the final stage to get a stage win chance again. Still he might defend his top20 today.
With 37km to go some team mates put a higher pressure on the other teams. Gottfried Pagoto
Obviously Kessiakoff tried to avoid the hard pace making on his own and sent his last helper into the offense.
But this surely wasn`t WWE`s plan. Just 2km after Gottfried`s attack their leader Kessiakoff crashed. He doesn`t seem to be injured but in a phase, where the peloton accelerates it`s the last thing you wish for.
Lloyd is the first with an attack with 23km to the finish. Although he is none of Meiji`s Japanese leaders, it`s obvious that the crowd is cheering for him.
Ben Nasser De la Fuente Sano
are the first to follow the Australian but all attacks are not that serious at the moment. None of them wants to spend too much energy yet.
Last KoM of the day. Sambris this time ahead of Sano with Vorganov struggling in 3rd position but at least defending the KoM shirt for at least another day.
Augstyn with the next attack 15km to go. Ben Nasser and De la Fuente again follow while Gadret and Froome are still waiting.
But here they go. Froome in yellow follows the earlier moves with Costa and Proni following him while Gadret is preparing his move on the left side. More riders get big problems now to follow the race favourites.
Meanwhile the 3 last from the former breakaway are also back in this group now after sharing all KoM sprints of the day.
After Jayco did some good work in the last 30km their riders are falling back one after the other. Sonnery is already behind but also Moinard and Moreno can`t follow.
With 6km to go it`s again De le Fuente, who proves to be one of the strongest so far.
Lloyd and finally Gadret try to follow him.
But it`s all back together with 3km to go. All big names are still here plus Sano, Sambris and Vorganov, who falls back now.
And in the sprint Froome shows unknown sprinter qualities again winning already his 2nd stage in Japan. Congrats to Rapha as Froome will need every second as he is surely no great climber.
In an extremely close sprint for the last bonus seconds, Augustyn comes in 2nd ahead of Nimiec, who had a very unseen race today but obviously did totally right. Ben Nasser will have to try again on the 6th stage, while De la Fuente is still in the best position for the overall but especially Augustyn cam closer with his 2nd today.
Kessiakoff, who never gave up today and was riding a race on his own for most of the final did pretty well in the end "just" losing 2'48 and still with chances on a top 10 being 13th at the moment. Realyl bad luck for him as he looked the strongest actually.
Also many riders, mainly sprinters like Maksimov (Sorry Mresuperstar) and also both injured Veloso and Gil had to abandon today. The full list again below the results.
