Daryl Impey (Orica - GreenEDGE) wins the second stage of the Tour de Slovénie, in front of Simone Ponzi (Astana) and Diego Ulissi (Lampre - ISD). Ponzi keeps the leader's jersey.

Stéphane Rossetto (C.C. Nogent sur Oise) wins the second stage of the Tour de Pays de Savoie, a mountain stage, in front of Yoann Barbas (Armee de Terre) and Mathieu La Valandier (France National Team). Rossetto also takes the leader's jersey.

Nikias Arndt wins the last stage of the Thüringen Rundfahrt, a sprint stage, in front of Alexander Grigoriev (Itera - Katusha U23) and Ike Groen (Cyclingteam De Rijke). Rohan Dennis (Team Jayco - AIS) wins the general classification in front of Johan Le Bon (France National Team) and Marc Goos (Rabobank Continental Team).

should we start to wonder about cav s pre tour form? getting beaten by the germans two out of two times at least that didnt happen to him very often before

You do have to wonder about the psychological effect that being beaten by Guardini at the Giro had on him, but then he always seems to bounce back. Don't be surprised if he's better at the Tour, and then in the Olympic Road Race.

The germans looks very good for the Olympics ( Greipel , Degenkolb and Kittel)

Problem is, who'll be the lead man?

Kittel won't make it over the hills, that's first. Degenkolb could lead-out Greipel easily, but also they could latch on Belgian, Aussie or British train if it ends in mass-sprint, which I kinda doubt it will.

Why would Degenkolb lead-out Greipel?

Edit: Ah wait nevermind, you're talking about the Olympics.

Great. We spend £9bn on the Olympics and then can't design a course that gives us a gold medal for Cav.

Well, I am not saying he won't win He lost 4kg in weight already and should do better, but if Spain and countries with not a clear favoruite for sprint try to make it hard, I'd defo see Cav dropping.

well a big problem is with there being only 5 riders in a team and that puts great pressures on a team over 240-250km from the view point of controlling the race

It's much harder to control with 5 indeed, that's a small team. No one team will be able to control it.

well but there will also be more than just one team interested in controlling the race are those hills really that hard???
i looked on the profile a few weeks ago and thought they re too far away from the finish arent they?
will defenitly be an interesting race - also i think germanys chances are quite good because even if greipel gets dropped degenkolb could be pretty strong in a race like that looking back at milan san remo for example

Germany has a great team imo. I don't think many riders will drop on the hills. Though it depends how hard certain riders take the hill, of course.

See, Alakagaom. That's better
I think that with Degenkolb leading out Greipel is extremely dangerous. Alone, Degenkolb isn't good enough yet, and Greipel has bad positioning. But together, they're a big danger.

I put the yet in bold so I could avoid arguement.

Wow, Cav impressed A LOT today.



Stage included Cauberg and uphill sprint finish won by Gilbert last year. He came 2nd to Boom.

Yeah, got beat by Boom isn't great, but for Cav to be there at the end of the stage is quite impressive nonetheless.

Encouraging performance from Cav with the Olympics in mind.

Meanwhile, Quintana wins the Stage 3 mountain stage of Route du Sud.

Wins? He annihilates it! Will be exciting to see what he can do in the Vuelta.

Route de Sud Stage 3

1.				QUINTANA ROJAS Nairo Alexander		MOV				20
2.				DUPONT Hubert		ALM		01'12"
3.				CHARTEAU Anthony		EUC				5
4.				ELISSONDE Kenny		FDJ
5.				PERGET Mathieu		ALM
6.				TALABARDON Yannick		SAU				0
7.				PARDILLA BELLON Sergio		MOV

Annihilation as Squire said in this great French race. With one stage to go, only bad luck can cause Quintana to loose his 2nd stage race this year.

Baby Giro Stage 8

1.				DOMBROWSKI Joseph Lloyd		BLS
2.				ARU Fabio		-		43"
3.				DI SERAFINO Matteo		-
4.				CIAVATTA Matteo		-
5.				PENASA Pierre Paolo		-

So Dombrowski wins again and beats Aru again - this time on Gavia. That's some impressive riding. One stage to go. But he has only two team-mates left for tomorrow to defend his GC lead.

Tour de Slovenie

1.				POZZOVIVO Domenico		COG
2.				BRAJKOVIC Janez		AST
3.				KOREN Kristjan		LIQ

Brajkovic very gracefully didn't contest the finish and let Pozzo win with 18km TT coming up tomorrow. Brajkovic set for his home GC win.

Full results from ZLM Tour later.

Brajkovic gave Pozzovivo the mountains stage in Slovenia, but should now have the GC sown up in the TT tomorrow.

An American is gonna win the Giro!... bio