Hello and welcome to Corsica for the first stage of the Criterium International! The weather is mild and sunny, and we open with a short, flat stage around Porto Vecchio. Today's favourites are Allan Davis, Sebastian Hinault, Juan Jose Lobato and Bryan Coquard.



Irvine (UHC), Avery (CSS) and Stepniak (CCC) attack nearly straight from the gun.



McEvoy (TNE) has joined the attackers. The gap is about a minute and it seems like we have the days breakaway.



The gap is now three minutes, this is definitely the BotD.



Avery (CSS) takes the one and only mountain sprint of the day ahead of Stepnaik and McEvoy, so he will have the honour of wearing the polka dots jersey tomorrow. Meanwhile, the gap stays pretty much the same, at 3'06“.



Many different teams are sharing the work at the front of the pack. The pace isn't too high, yet the gap to the breakaway has shrunken to 2'30“.



Jonathan McEvoy easily takes the days only intermediate ahead of Avery and Stepniak. The gap is still 2'30“



The gap has come down to 1'56“ due to the work of Cofidis, Sky and Europcar in the Peloton.



The gap to the break is down to 1'07“. Meanwhile, Euskaltel has also joined in for the pacemaking. Lobato must be feeling good today!



They can see the escapees now and vice versa, the gap is down to 36“.



Avery tries his luck solo, he is ahead on his own now, but you can see all three groups from the helicopter now. This is the current situation:

It's game over for McEvoy, Stepniak and Irvine, as Gustav Larsson (IAM) pulls them back. Now it's only Avery ahead, his advantage has grown a tiny bit to 18“.



Again it's a Swedish IAM rider that pulls the breakaway rider back, this time its Löfkvist. This will surely be a sprint now?



It's a mix of IAM and Euskaltel riders at the front of the peleton. They surely don't want to go too fast to early?



With 4000 metres to go, we have two distinct trains. Euskaltel are leading Lobato out, and IAM are leading Hinault out

Larsson		Minguez
Cusin		Bilbao
Klemme		Izagirre
Hinault		Lobato
Belletti		Traksel
Coquard		Davis

The situation has taken a turn for the weird now, with nearly everbody behind the IAM train, with Remy Cusin at the front, whereas Bobbie Traksel is the only non-Euskaltel rider on the orange train, where it's Pello Bilbao leading the way.

Cusin		Bilbao
Klemme		Izagirre
Hinault		Lobato
Belletti		Traksel
Coquard
Davis
Allan
Matysiak

As Izagirre and Klemme go full out, Brown has taken Geslins rear wheel (out of picture)



Under the Flamme Rouge, Lobato is positioned perfectly, while Klemme is too fast for Hinault. Davis, Coquard and Belletti are coming fast on the inside, whilst Traksel accelerates on the outside.



Lobato finally launches his sprint, while Davis is still in Coquards wheel. Hinault is desperately trying to get back to the front, while Mollema comes out of nowhere at the back.



Izagirre is still in front, Lobato can't seem to find the speed to get past his lead out, while Coquard has reached him. It looks like a three way battle now!



It's Izagirre vs Coquard now, while Mollema is pushing on looking for a Top-5 spot.



Izagirre raises his hands to the sky, he has it! What a victory, narrowly beating Coquard after having sprinted for near two kilometres! Belletti rounds of the Podium, while Lobato edges out Mollema, who did extremely well today, and might be eyeing the points jersey, for 5th place.

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Ion Izagirre	Euskaltel - Euskadi	1h37'01
2	Bryan Coquard	Team Europcar	s.t.
3	Manuel Belletti	AG2R La Mondiale	s.t.
4	Allan Davis	Orica - GreenEdge	s.t.
5	Juan José Lobato	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.
6	Bauke Mollema	Belkin Pro Cycling	s.t.
7	Jonathan Castroviejo	Movistar Team	s.t.
8	Anthony Geslin	FDJ	s.t.
9	Murilo Fischer	FDJ	s.t.
10	Thibaut Pinot	FDJ	s.t.

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Ion Izagirre	Euskaltel - Euskadi	1h36'41
2	Bryan Coquard	Team Europcar	+ 8
3	Manuel Belletti	AG2R La Mondiale	+ 12
4	Allan Davis	Orica - GreenEdge	+ 20
5	Juan José Lobato	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.
6	Bauke Mollema	Belkin Pro Cycling	s.t.
7	Jonathan Castroviejo	Movistar Team	s.t.
8	Anthony Geslin	FDJ	s.t.
9	Murilo Fischer	FDJ	s.t.
10	Thibaut Pinot	FDJ	s.t.

Rank	Name	Team	Points
1	Ion Izagirre	Euskaltel - Euskadi	25
2	Bryan Coquard	Team Europcar	20
3	Manuel Belletti	AG2R La Mondiale	16
4	Allan Davis	Orica - GreenEdge	14
5	Juan José Lobato	Euskaltel - Euskadi	12

Rank	Name	Team	Points
1	Clinton Avery	Champion System Pro Cycling Team	6
2	Jonathon McEvoy	Team NetApp - Endura	4
3	Grzegorz Stepniak	CCC Polsat - Polkowice	2

Rank	Name	Team	Stage Time	General Time
1	Ion Izagirre	Euskaltel - Euskadi	1h37'01	1h36'41 (1)
2	Bryan Coquard	Team Europcar	s.t.	+ 8 (2)
3	Juan José Lobato	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.	+ 20 (3)
4	Thibaut Pinot	FDJ	s.t.	+ 20 (4)
5	Wilco Kelderman	Belkin Pro Cycling	s.t.	+ 20 (5)

Rank	Team	Stage Time	General Time
1	Euskaltel - Euskadi	4h51'03	4h51'03 (1)
2	FDJ	s.t.	+ 0 (2)
3	Movistar Team	s.t.	+ 0 (3)
4	IAM Cycling	s.t.	+ 0 (4)
5	AG2R La Mondiale	s.t.	+ 0 (5)