Camano, nice one. Though I'd love to see him take the stage win obviously, it's still very nice. Such activity is urgently needed for many of my riders in order to keep their contract of course.
What's Gorka Nieve up to, GC-wise?
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
though I'm kinda sorry for that. Still, you should be glad he is without a manager, so he won't get any better. And other EPIC riders are surely gonna overtake him in a while (eg Po-ding is as strong as him already etc)
Today will come down to the final climb of the day, which is very steep so suits a punchy rider like race leader De Vries. However after Kelderman got the better of him yesterday he will be hoping to do the same for the stage win today.
The Race
The first break of the day featured Berhane (EUC), Garcia (CJR) and Dimitriou (TNE). Garcia won the first sprint of the day ahead of Berhane.
The three leaders were then joined by three more riders, they were Klimov (RVL), Suarez (COL) and Day (UHC).
They rode together and built up a lead of over 5 minutes on the peloton.
Suarez won the second sprint of the day. Dimitriou won the final sprint of the day, and Day won the first KoM point of the day with Klimov taking the second KoM point. Then Berhane won the final KoM point of the day, with the bunch now 3 minutes behind the breakaway.
With 18 kilometres to go Suarez attacks, and Day tries to go with him, with no response from the rest of the break.
The first big name to attack is Frank, with a fast response from Kelderman, De Vries and Rebellin. However it seems that the winner will come from the breakaway.
1.3 kilometres to goDimitriou launches the sprint and starts to gap the rest of the break.
500m to goDimitriou leads with Berhane not far behind him, however the rest of the break appear to be faltering.
Dimitriou wins with Berhane, then Klimov chased all the way to the line by Suarez
Meanwhile within the favourites it's Van den Broeck who comes out on top, with De Vries appearing to start to suffer in the final few metres of the stage, meaning he didn't finish in the top 10 for the first time in the race, Kelderman meanwhile fought all the way to the line to finish 9th, one place behind 41 year old Davide Rebellin.
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By the way: Last time I said you may keep reports short, but I would have liked to kinda know what happened in the favourites group as well, so maybe you may find the happy medium betwenn this first report and this pretty short one.
