Carboni, Børresen and Veiby composed the break in this stage, which'd take the pack along some simply dazzling fjords in the south of Norway.
We hope the three enjoyed the sight because there's no way the bunch was going to hand them a win. Our riders were in a good position, until a Dimension Data rider disrupted our train when he was dropping back.
Barbero sat too far back just ahead of the final corner and again would not be able to defend his chances. No RuralvÃa riders inside the top 15.
The stage conclusion was an excitingly close sprint between gold jersey wearer Edward Theuns and Peter Sagan. The latter, back at last after a long-term injury, was declared the winner after the use of a foto finish.
Gilbert gave a first hint about who's the strongest in the break on Muro di Ca' del Poggio, the first categorised climb. The remaining six couldn't keep up. They - including Zurlo- all used the descent to catch up again.
A peloton crash after the first climb forced 106(!) riders into pursuit. No top 10 riders involved, but bad luck had struck for other GC contenders (Hirt, Nibali,Kruijswijk) and stage favorites (Bonifazio, Viviani, Bennett).
Zurlo, Bertazzo and Lander got dropped from the breakaway group on the last climb. The remaining leaders were four and had 2' on the pack.
Philippe Gilbert attacked his companions 10km from the line. N.Hansen, Bouchereau and Wackermann couldn't follow the once world champion.
Gilbert, who's set to retire after the season at the back of an absolutely superb career, triumphed in Treviso. The Belgian won his second stage in the Giro ever, a stunning 10 years after he had won a first in Anagni.
Fernando Gaviria won the bunch sprint, and collected vital Maglia Rossa points. I. Izagirre concluded this stage unharmed, in seventh position.
Cortes, Veiby, Wachter and Carboni teamed up in the break of the day. Collaboration did not run smoothly at first but ahead of the final 90kms, the breakaway four still had their gap to the pack at close to 7 minutes.
Wachter was the first to get dropped, next up was Cortes. Sprint trains were ready to reel in the remains of the breakaway 10km from the line.
Barbero chose the wheel of Edward Theuns, but the race leader's train lost to those of Tinkoff and Dimension Data. A brilliant leadout by Bryan Coquard handed lead sprinter P.Sagan an outstanding starting position.
The Slovak launched a tad too late, his compatriot Baska snatched the win ahead of him and Theuns. Carlos Barbero finished in 6th position.
Despite it raining, a breakaway was formed right away. Nine riders with no true climbers. Most notable name was an Emirati in Marwan Al Rum.
Intxausti recognised an opportunity and bridged to the front group. He forced the other escapees out of his wheel on the labeled cat.4 climb to Tre Cuni. Meanwhile, the pack had reduced the gap to less than 2 mins.
Knowing he had to retain something in the tank, Beñat took things easy on the next uncategorised climb. The chasers came closer to about 55".
The chasers were cooked. Beñat reextended his gap in the subsequent descent. Suddenly, our guy from Amorebieta had 3' to the pack as well.
Still the latter did feel like chasing. Le Bon and Gradek were the first to find out 20 kms from the finish. Izagirre sat near the front of the pack.
Beñat suffered the same fate, 5 kms later. All hopes were on Ion now.
He did try a move on the last bump but was not allowed to get away. In the final straight he ended up in Betancur's wheel, with much force left.
He hesitated a bit too long to launch his sprint and got overruled by the sprinters that had survived. Gaviria won his second stage over Colbrelli.
While the riders were facing the Norwegian elements, four men created the penultimate breakaway: Howson, Saavedra, Ludvigsson and Bigum.
Bilbao bridged to that group on his own. Later on, him and Ludvigsson were by far the best climbers at the first cat.4 hill. Pello and the Swede tackled the uneven final 70 kilometers with a bonus of about 4 minutes.
Bilbao suffered, was dropped at the first of two long ascents and came back only to get dropped again, close to the summit during the second ascent. Leader Tobias Ludvigsson held on to an advantage of a minute.
Peter Sagan's move come near the top. Gorka jumped to his wheel, as soon they would both catch up with a brave but totally exhausted Pello.
Sagan attacked once more in the descent. Gorka sat too far to respond and the Slovak was gone. That way, Ludvigsson had run out of luck too.
Peter Sagan won a second stage and claimed the golden leader jersey. As van der Poel won the sprint in a chasing group, G. Izagirre became our top finisher in 19th place at the back of an active day in the saddle.
Ten riders populated the break of the day. Seba Henao, Simon Clarke, Bouchereau, Pizzaballa and Vuillermoz were the climbers among them.
Bouchereau won the mountain sprint of a reduced group atop the cat.1 Colle di Sestriere, the renowned long-but-never-extremely-steep climb. Only Vuillermoz, Pizzaballa and Galeotti had kept up, Seba sat 1' down.
Having focused on the breakaway, some action in the peloton had been missed. A small group (i.a. Landa, Formolo, Pinot, Nerz, Contreras and Frank) had gained 1'28" on the pack, with Quintana floating in between. Quick-stept up and neutralised the move for Maglia Bianca Mi.A. López.
Sebastian had rejoined the leading four in the descent, but would lose contact on the brutal climb to Jafferau. The leaders had 6.5km left and more than 5 minutes on a pack that was getting thinned by the minute.
In the next hairpin bend, Bouchereau accelerated in quest of the stage.
In the reduced pack Izagirre lost his position near the front, partly due to riders being dropped and escapees getting reeled in. Katusha rising the pace came at the worst possible moment when Ion could not pass.
Craddock noticed that his closest rivals were not in his group (with Pinot, Frank, Hirt, Nibali, López, Contreras) and attacked 2.3 kms from the finish.
Meanwhile Izagirre was also getting up steam passing and riding away from several GC contenders (Quintana, Landa, Formolo, Chernetskiy, Nerz).
Ion tried to catch group López but got stuck at 50" while passing Nibali.
Fully deserved Bouchereau added a first line to his palmares. Pizzaballa & Vuillermoz came 2nd and 3rd as the latter opened up the KoM battle.
Craddock finished in fourth, just outside the bonus seconds. Frank, Hirt, Majka and Pinot limited their time losses, to a maximum of one minute.
Izagirre came 1'20" behind Craddock and will move into GC 7th. Landa and Quintana paid for their bad day with a remarkable 2'36" time loss.
A great stage for Izagirre, hope he can do it again on the one comming up, seems to be another very hard one. Might not be the same %, but very long high altitude climbs
Tamijo wrote:
A great stage for Izagirre, hope he can do it again on the one comming up, seems to be another very hard one. Might not be the same %, but very long high altitude climbs
He's currently handling himself very well among the true climbers. Let's hope he can keep it up during tomorrow's stage to the Galibier.
Despite all his efforts paid yesterday Bilbao had the legs to attack once more. So did 7 other men, among whom fellow KoM jersey contenders.
Pello destroyed his companions from the foot of the first climb. Tobias Ludvigsson was forced out of his mountain jersey right at that moment.
Coming 3rd at the second sprint was enough to secure the jersey, once and for all. Kazakh Alexandr Shushemoin missed out on it by one point.
Hopes started to grow inside the breakaway as the peloton only started to chase late on. Bilbao succesfully thinned the company from the third of in total five local ciruits in the territory surrounding the city Hønefoss.
Four men left in the final straight, no sign of the bunch. One of them,...
... but not Pello. Eternal attacker De Marchi won over Magnus Børresen and our man. A silent race but we're not leaving with empty hands and have been able to witness Peter Sagan's post-hand fracture comeback.
Uno-X Tour of Norway (2.HC) 
