Its a city circuit, with plenty of turns and its also flat. Expect crashes, lots of them. And ive pinpointed who's at blame so you can moan at them

Panaria's Maya kickstarted proceeding with an early attack and a break of 8 formed.


Pfannburger is the highest placed but the break also included Sohrabi, Degano, Costa, Candelario, Chacon and Hutchings (Aswell as Maya).

Eventually, their gap gets too high and an Asian alliance forms at the front with Nippo and Letua chasing hard. They are eventually helped a little by SouthAustralia, Wiesenhof, Tinkoff and DFL.

But with 9.3km to go, the break still has over a minute. The actions of one Aussie would then aide the break further, what was his name? William Walker. What did he do? Crash. Where was he in the peleton? Near the front. Where was Reihs? Towards the back. Did Reihs go down?....


(That 2nd pic does not show every rider down, but you get the idea)Also down was 6 of the 7 Maxbo Bianchi riders, including EB Hagen. Who was the Maxbo rider who somehow survived? Ivan Rovny! Another man down was 3rd Overall Tom Stamsnijder. Angel Vicioso was also down, but why do I tell you this? Did he crash a 2nd time? Yup. But before that just a side not to say that Nippo's Japanese sprinter Miyazawa, was the only rider who had to abandon.


So Reihs goes down a 2nd time and the extra time lost eliminated his chances of a Top 10 finish. (So go mad at Crommy )

Up front and another Healthnet rider is in a super position.


Sohrabi got a gap and stopped, forgetting that Degano is behind him and a much faster sprinter.



He takes the final turn at 900m to go and finally starts sprinting again, maybe it was some odd tactic to make sure he didnt crash, while jeopardising his stage win hopes?

Degano is coming!!!


And Sohrabi sticks his hands in the air before the finish, is this going to be one of those Zabel moments when a rider celebrates too soon? No.




Costa gets 3rd ahead of Hutchings and Candelario. Tombak is 6th ruing the fact that he didnt get his team to work much, with Casper 7th and Brown (Yes, a Nippo rider!!!!!) in 8th.

1	Mahdi Sohrabi	HEALTH NET PRESENTED BY MAXXIS	2h06'04
2	Enrico Degano	BARLOWORLD	s.t.
3	Rui Costa	BENFICA	s.t.
4	Logan Hutchings	PCMDAILY - JOBS.COM	s.t.
5	Alex Candelario	TEAM SLIPSTREAM	s.t.
6	Janek Tombak	DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED	s.t.
7	Jimmy Casper	LETUA CYCLING TEAM	s.t.
8	Graeme Brown	NIPPO CORPORATION - MEITAN HOMPO CO. LTD - ASADA	s.t.
9	Gregory Henderson	SOUTHAUSTRALIA.COM - AIS	s.t.
10	Fabian Wegmann	TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS	s.t.
11	Stefan Van Dijk	WIESENHOF - FELT	s.t.
12	Crescenzo D'Amore	DESIGNA KØKKEN	s.t.
13	Fidel Jeobani Chacon	UNE ORBITEL	s.t.
14	Carlos Maya	CERAMICA PANARIA - NAVIGARE	s.t.
15	Gerrit Glomser	VOLKSBANK	s.t.
16	Erki Pütsep	UNE ORBITEL	s.t.
17	Sébastien Chavanel	DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED	s.t.
18	Aleksandr Usov	TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS	s.t.
19	Max Van Heeswijk	DISCOVERY CHANNEL MARCO POLO CYCLING TEAM	s.t.
20	Javier Benitez	BENFICA	s.t.
21	Ivan Quaranta	NIPPO CORPORATION - MEITAN HOMPO CO. LTD - ASADA	s.t.
22	Christian Pfannberger	VOLKSBANK	s.t.
23	Alejandro Borrajo	AGRITUBEL	s.t.
24	Bobbie Traksel	DESIGNA KØKKEN	s.t.
25	Tyler Farrar	TEAM SLIPSTREAM	s.t.
26	Brett Aitken	SOUTHAUSTRALIA.COM - AIS	s.t.
27	Hans Dekkers	AGRITUBEL	s.t.
28	Matthew Hayman	WIESENHOF - FELT	s.t.
29	Adam Hansen	TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS	s.t.
30	Markus Eichler	DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED	s.t.
31	Christopher Sutton	SOUTHAUSTRALIA.COM - AIS	s.t.
32	Roger Hammond	LETUA CYCLING TEAM	s.t.
33	Henk Vogels	TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS	s.t.
34	Steven Caethoven	TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS	s.t.
35	Sergei Koudentsov	DISCOVERY CHANNEL MARCO POLO CYCLING TEAM	s.t.
36	David Kopp	AGRITUBEL	s.t.
37	Daniel Lloyd	LETUA CYCLING TEAM	s.t.
38	Julian Dean	NIPPO CORPORATION - MEITAN HOMPO CO. LTD - ASADA	s.t.
39	Anuar Manan	LETUA CYCLING TEAM	s.t.
40	Nico Mattan	DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED	s.t.
41	Ricki Nelson	NIPPO CORPORATION - MEITAN HOMPO CO. LTD - ASADA	s.t.
42	Tom Leezer	UNE ORBITEL	s.t.
43	Ivan Stevic	LETUA CYCLING TEAM	s.t.
44	René Weissinger	VOLKSBANK	s.t.
45	Kevin Ista	WIESENHOF - FELT	s.t.
46	Raúl Granjel Cabrera	DESIGNA KØKKEN	s.t.
47	Kurt-Asle Arvesen	VOLKSBANK	s.t.
48	Gert Dockx	DISCOVERY CHANNEL MARCO POLO CYCLING TEAM	s.t.
49	Patrick Riedesser	VOLKSBANK	s.t.
50	Nathan O'Neill	DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED	s.t.

100 riders finished on the same time, the 99th of those was the TDU 2007 Champion. Reihs meanwhile finished about 10 seconds outside the Top 10, in 31st. If Vicioso hadnt taken him down a 2nd time, both he and Stamsnijder would have finished in the Top 10 overall.

11	Adam Hansen	TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS	s.t.
12	Kurt-Asle Arvesen	VOLKSBANK	s.t.
13	Maarten Tjallingii	BARLOWORLD	s.t.
14	Tom Leezer	UNE ORBITEL	s.t.
15	Koos Moerenhout	TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS	s.t.
16	Salvatore Commesso	BARLOWORLD	s.t.
17	Alessandro Proni	LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER	s.t.
18	Alexandre Moos	LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER	s.t.
19	Bert De Waele	LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER	s.t.
20	Grégory Rast	UNE ORBITEL	s.t.
21	José Ivan Gutiérrez Palacios	AGRITUBEL	s.t.
22	Staf Scheirlinckx	TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS	s.t.
23	Ruslan Grychenko	SOUTHAUSTRALIA.COM - AIS	s.t.
24	Chris Horner	TEAM SLIPSTREAM	s.t.
25	Iñigo Landaluze	LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER	s.t.
26	Tadej Valjavec	UNE ORBITEL	s.t.
27	Iker Camaño	NIPPO CORPORATION - MEITAN HOMPO CO. LTD - ASADA	s.t.
28	Dmitri Grabovski	SOUTHAUSTRALIA.COM - AIS	s.t.
29	Ronny Scholz	WIESENHOF - FELT	s.t.
30	Pablo Lastras	DISCOVERY CHANNEL MARCO POLO CYCLING TEAM	s.t.
31	Michael Reihs	DESIGNA KØKKEN	+ 3'15
32	Tom Stamsnijder	WIESENHOF - FELT	+ 3'39
33	Pieter Mertens	NIPPO CORPORATION - MEITAN HOMPO CO. LTD - ASADA	+ 4'43
34	Aldrin Salamanca	CERAMICA PANARIA - NAVIGARE	s.t.
35	Steven Caethoven	TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS	+ 5'03
36	René Weissinger	VOLKSBANK	s.t.
37	Raúl Granjel Cabrera	DESIGNA KØKKEN	s.t.
38	Christian Pfannberger	VOLKSBANK	+ 5'18
39	Shaun Lewis	SOUTHAUSTRALIA.COM - AIS	+ 5'44
40	Mahdi Sohrabi	HEALTH NET PRESENTED BY MAXXIS	+ 6'16
41	Jimmy Casper	LETUA CYCLING TEAM	+ 6'20
42	Janek Tombak	DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED	+ 6'28
43	Bobbie Traksel	DESIGNA KØKKEN	s.t.
44	Markus Zberg	DESIGNA KØKKEN	+ 6'39
45	Ruslan Sambris	HEALTH NET PRESENTED BY MAXXIS	s.t.
46	Santo Anza	DESIGNA KØKKEN	s.t.
47	Edvald Boasson Hagen	MAXBO BIANCHI	s.t.
48	Constantino Zaballa	AGRITUBEL	s.t.
49	Angel Vicioso	HEALTH NET PRESENTED BY MAXXIS	s.t.
50	William Walker	PCMDAILY - JOBS.COM	s.t.

Some consolation for Reihs is that he won the Points classification by 1 point.

1	Michael Reihs	DESIGNA KØKKEN	0	44
2	Jimmy Casper	LETUA CYCLING TEAM	9	43
3	Fabian Wegmann	TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS	6	34
4	Gregory Henderson	SOUTHAUSTRALIA.COM - AIS	7	32
5	Rui Costa	BENFICA	16	32
6	Bobbie Traksel	DESIGNA KØKKEN	0	32
7	Janek Tombak	DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED	10	30
8	Mahdi Sohrabi	HEALTH NET PRESENTED BY MAXXIS	25	29
9	Fortunato Baliani	CERAMICA PANARIA - NAVIGARE	0	25
10	Crescenzo D'Amore	DESIGNA KØKKEN	4	24

And Lefevre wins the KoM:

Rank	Name	Team	Mountain	General
1	Laurent Lefèvre	DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED	0	26
2	Michael Reihs	DESIGNA KØKKEN	0	22
3	Didac Ortega	BENFICA	0	20
4	Tom Stamsnijder	WIESENHOF - FELT	0	18
5	Christophe Riblon	CERAMICA PANARIA - NAVIGARE	0	16
6	Ghader Mizbani	DISCOVERY CHANNEL MARCO POLO CYCLING TEAM	0	14
7	Ivan Rovny	MAXBO BIANCHI	0	14
8	Rui Costa	BENFICA	0	10
9	Mahdi Sohrabi	HEALTH NET PRESENTED BY MAXXIS	0	10
10	Nico Sijmens	LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER	0	10

Rovny is the best young rider and Designa Kokken are the best team.