Pre-Tactics
This is the only stage in this race which siuts me well, and if there were some extra hils in the last part of the stage, it would've been even better. I've got a free role today, so if i spot a chance, i'll take it.

	G. Henderson
	D. Oss, A. Kroupis
	J. Simon, G. Meersman, M. Fischer

A lot of riders wanted to get into the break of the day, but Puccio managed to be one of the few slipping through. Together with A. Porto, M. Masskant, M. Haller, B. Jungels and later on I. Zuazubisker, Puccio had to be counted as one of the strongest in the group.


When nearing the first and only mountain sprint, Maaskant got away quite early, trying to go solo. But Puccio didn't hesitate and timed his sprint perfectly, to secure his first KOM-jersey.


With 20 km to go, the pack did all to catch in the breakaway, and only 1'30 seperated the two groups as the pace increased.


Puccio felt great and fresh, but knew the group couldn't make it to the finish. Therefore he tried to break away on his own.


B. Jungels managed to follow Puccio, as the rest of the breakaway gave up and was reeled in by the pack. Unfortunately Jungels didn't wanted to lead, or simply just couldn't, and therefore Puccio had to set the pace on his own.


Puccio did well to try taking his chance, but without any help, he simply just didn't have the strength to complete the break. With 3 km to go, he was caught by the fast pack leaded by Lotto-Belisol.


Nordhaug tried to drive the sprint but unfortunately he got blocked and ended in 18th. Continental ranking leader J. Simon drove an incredible sprint, taking his 9th victory of this season!

1	Julien Simon	Saur - Sojasun	3h52'11
2	Aidis Kruopis	Orica - GreenEdge	s.t.
3	Mitchell Docker	Orica - GreenEdge	s.t.
4	Daniel Oss	Liquigas - Cannondale	s.t.
5	Valentin Iglinskiy	Astana Pro Team	s.t.
6	Michael Reihs	Christina Watches - Onfone	s.t.
7	Emanuele Sella	Androni Giocattoli - Venezuela	s.t.
8	Leigh Howard	Orica - GreenEdge	s.t.
9	Tomas Vaitkus	Orica - GreenEdge	s.t.
10	Greg Henderson	Lotto Belisol Team	s.t.
...
38	Salvatore Puccio	Sky Procycling	s.t.

1	Julien Simon	Saur - Sojasun	3h51'51
2	Aidis Kruopis	Orica - GreenEdge	+ 8
3	Mitchell Docker	Orica - GreenEdge	+ 12
4	Daniel Oss	Liquigas - Cannondale	+ 20
5	Valentin Iglinskiy	Astana Pro Team	s.t.
6	Michael Reihs	Christina Watches - Onfone	s.t.
7	Emanuele Sella	Androni Giocattoli - Venezuela	s.t.
8	Leigh Howard	Orica - GreenEdge	s.t.
9	Tomas Vaitkus	Orica - GreenEdge	s.t.
10	Greg Henderson	Lotto Belisol Team	s.t.
...
38	Salvatore Puccio	Sky Procycling	s.t.

1	Julien Simon	Saur - Sojasun	25
2	Aidis Kruopis	Orica - GreenEdge	20
3	Mitchell Docker	Orica - GreenEdge	16
4	Daniel Oss	Liquigas - Cannondale	14
5	Valentin Iglinskiy	Astana Pro Team	12
6	Michael Reihs	Christina Watches - Onfone	10
7	Emanuele Sella	Androni Giocattoli - Venezuela	9
8	Leigh Howard	Orica - GreenEdge	8
9	Tomas Vaitkus	Orica - GreenEdge	7
10	Greg Henderson	Lotto Belisol Team	6

1	Salvatore Puccio	Sky Procycling	6
2	Martijn Maaskant	Garmin - Sharp	4
3	Bob Jungels	Leopard - Trek Continental Team	2

1	Daniel Oss	Liquigas - Cannondale	3h52'11
2	Leigh Howard	Orica - GreenEdge	s.t.
3	Taylor Phinney	BMC Racing Team	s.t.
4	Gaetan Bille	Lotto Belisol Team	s.t.
5	Julian Kern	Leopard - Trek Continental Team	s.t.
6	Adam Blythe	BMC Racing Team	s.t.
7	Francisco Javier Moreno	Androni Giocattoli - Venezuela	s.t.
8	Jesús Herrada	Movistar Team	s.t.
9	Rasmus Guldhammer	Christina Watches - Onfone	s.t.
10	Nairo Quintana	Movistar Team	s.t.
...
13	Salvatore Puccio	Sky Procycling	s.t.

Hmm... I'm glad i tried, but unfortunately it didn't work out. If i had got a little help from Jungels, it may had worked, but he looked pretty exhausted, so i can't blame him.

This was the only stage which really suits me, so it's a bit unlucky that i wasted my chance in this way. Thankfully i got something out of my ride, since i took on my first professional mountain classification jersey which feels like a consolation for not making any result.

Even though i'm quite disappointed right now, i'm ready for the next stages where i honestly believe that Urán got a chance to win this race.

@Ian Butler: Of course it would be great for Puccio keeping the jersey, but that would mean that he had to get into the morning break tomorrow. And with the team having their hope in Urán, he most likely won't get the chance...

@sutty68: Thanks! At least he tried, and did a fine job

Pre-Tactics
Urán has to be counted as todays stage's favorite, therefore we'll ride for him. Once again i've been given a free role, but the team expects me to stay quiet today. I really want to keep my new kom-jersey, but weither it is realistic, i don't really know.

	R. Urán
	J. Brajkovic, F. Pellizotti
	C. Sørensen, J. Coppel, C. Barredo

The first part of the day was domintated by a lot of confusion. After the first mountain sprint, a group of five was still in front. But when going uphill towards the second mountain sprint, only one rider was in front of the pack. Puccio didn't hesitate and got over the top in second.


The rider in front, D. De la Fuente, extended his gap and was later joined by J. Atapuma, which made the gap even bigger.


After De la Fuente once again crossed the 3rd mountain sprint in first, Puccio would lose his jersey if he didn't react. Therefore he decided to sprint for 3rd place at the mountain sprint - Ahead of yesterdays breakaway companion, he took 3rd and thereby 6 points more.


Without doubt, Urán was the strongest going uphill the final climb. Together with 4 other riders, he got away and had a little gap to the pack when going into the descent of the climb.


Urán demostrated his power when going solo on the final finish lane, where only Barredo seemed to be able to follow him. The pack was already a little behind with GC-leader Simon ready to punch.


But Barredo didn't have near the same strength as Rigoberto, while Julien Simon was too long behind to catch him. Therefore Urán could take an amazing victory, which really settles him well before the crucial Ardennes-classics.

1	Rigoberto Urán	Sky Procycling	3h52'09
2	Julien Simon	Saur - Sojasun	s.t.
3	Nairo Quintana	Movistar Team	s.t.
4	Amets Txurruka	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.
5	David Arroyo	Movistar Team	s.t.
6	Carlos Barredo	Rabobank Cycling Team	s.t.
7	Giampaolo Caruso	Katusha Team	s.t.
8	Dominik Nerz	Liquigas - Cannondale	s.t.
9	Mikel Landa	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.
10	Emanuele Sella	Androni Giocattoli - Venezuela	s.t.
...
54	Salvatore Puccio	Sky Procycling	+ 5'24

1	Julien Simon	Saur - Sojasun	7h43'48
2	Rigoberto Urán	Sky Procycling	+ 12
3	Nairo Quintana	Movistar Team	+ 24
4	Emanuele Sella	Androni Giocattoli - Venezuela	+ 32
5	Carlos Barredo	Rabobank Cycling Team	s.t.
6	Lars Petter Nordhaug	Sky Procycling	s.t.
7	Jesús Herrada	Movistar Team	s.t.
8	Franco Pellizotti	Androni Giocattoli - Venezuela	s.t.
9	Gianni Meersman	Lotto Belisol Team	s.t.
10	Amets Txurruka	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.
...
54	Salvatore Puccio	Sky Procycling	+ 5'56

1	Julien Simon	Saur - Sojasun	45
2	Rigoberto Urán	Sky Procycling	25
3	Aidis Kruopis	Orica - GreenEdge	20
4	Mitchell Docker	Orica - GreenEdge	16
5	Nairo Quintana	Movistar Team	16
6	Emanuele Sella	Androni Giocattoli - Venezuela	15
7	Daniel Oss	Liquigas - Cannondale	14
8	Amets Txurruka	Euskaltel - Euskadi	14
9	Valentin Iglinskiy	Astana Pro Team	12
10	David Arroyo	Movistar Team	12

1	Salvatore Puccio	Sky Procycling	22
2	David De la Fuente	Caja Rural	20
3	Rigoberto Urán	Sky Procycling	10
4	Pieter Weening	Orica - GreenEdge	10
5	Julian Kern	Leopard - Trek Continental Team	8
6	Chris Anker Sørensen	Team Saxo Bank - Tinkoff Bank	8
7	Joan Horrach	Katusha Team	8
8	Martijn Maaskant	Garmin - Sharp	8
9	John Darwin Atapuma	Colombia - Coldeportes	8
10	Gianni Meersman	Lotto Belisol Team	6

1	Rigoberto Urán	Sky Procycling	7h44'00
2	Nairo Quintana	Movistar Team	+ 12
3	Jesús Herrada	Movistar Team	+ 20
4	Rasmus Guldhammer	Christina Watches - Onfone	+ 20
5	Tom Slagter	Rabobank Cycling Team	+ 20
6	�ngel Madrazo	Movistar Team	+ 20
7	Jonathan Castroviejo	Movistar Team	+ 20
8	Mikel Landa	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 20
9	Bob Jungels	Leopard - Trek Continental Team	+ 20
10	Wilco Kelderman	Rabobank Cycling Team	+ 20
...
13	Salvatore Puccio	Sky Procycling	+ 5'44

I'm so happy for Urán! He did an amazing job out there and he really deserved this win on such an effort and all that hard work he has been doing. It's looking good for him towards the Ardennes-classics.

I'm also extremely happy to be able to drive in the mountain classification jersey tommorow again. I really enjoyed wearing it today, and i'm looking forward to tommorows last stage. Maybe i'll be able to keep it? I certainly hope so.

Pre-Tactics
Urán is feeling fantastic and really want to win this race. I'm also feeling great and really want to win the mountain classification jersey. I hope we can achieve both, but we'll have to rely on a bit of luck.

	R. Urán
	L. Ten Dam, M. Nieve
	C. Sørensen, J. Rujano, C. Barredo

In lot of sunshine the day started intense, with Puccio being able to get into the morning-break. The team had figured out that he had to get the chance, and that Urán had enough help in the other guys.


Even though he had to fight hard for it, Puccio was able to push over his bike as 1st, on todays first mountain sprint. Things already seemed to come his way, with a solid lead in the classification.


On the descent of the first mountain, 3 riders joined the group. Unfortunately they were a threat to the GC, especailly Burghardt, being only 32' after Simon in the overall classifiction.


With one km to the 2nd mountain sprint, Wegmann attacked with Burghardt in his wheel. Whether it was an attack for the KOM-points or stage rankings, Puccio didn't know, but he had to follow them to secure his mountain classification jersey.


Only centimetres seperated Puccio and Wegmann on the line of the mountain sprint. Luckily that centimeter was in Puccio's favour!


Counting together his points, Puccio was told that he had already secured his jersey! With a gap of 5 min. to the pack, he was told to don't relay in the front and enjoy his victory.


Going uphill the final and most crucial mountain of the day, both N. Sørensen, J. Brajkovic and a lot of other potential threats tried to slip away from the pack. But only J.Kern, T. Slagter and D. De la Fuente got away.


Puccio came over the final climb and was able to sit with the others in the frontgroup. The group of De la Fuente caught the frontgroup, but after the descent, 3 riders got away and left the other behind themselves. The 3 riders were J. Van Leijen, T. Duggan and S. Puccio.


With just under 20 km to go, Duggan didn't seem to be happy with the pace and tried to get away from the two others. But Puccio got into his wheel and followed him narrowly. Unfortunately the pack seemed to be closing in on them.


12 km from the line, Puccio and Duggan was caught by the pack leaded by Movistar. Immediatly Urán flew away, trying to make a spectacular solo ride.


4 riders got away midways between the pack and Urán. But nearing the 3 km sign, the gap between Urán and the 4 was already about 50 seconds. This could really work for Urán!


And so it did! Urán kept a lead of 50 seconds and even caught two riders being one lap behind on the course! Beside the stage victory, Urán also secured the overall classification win, completing a great day for both him, Puccio and the whole team.

1	Rigoberto Urán	Sky Procycling	4h35'05
2	Laurens Ten Dam	Rabobank Cycling Team	+ 51
3	Gorka Verdugo	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.
4	Chris Anker Sørensen	Team Saxo Bank - Tinkoff Bank	s.t.
5	José Rujano	Androni Giocattoli - Venezuela	+ 1'07
6	Nairo Quintana	Movistar Team	+ 1'30
7	Jonathan Hivert	Saur - Sojasun	s.t.
8	Emanuele Sella	Androni Giocattoli - Venezuela	s.t.
9	Franco Pellizotti	Androni Giocattoli - Venezuela	s.t.
10	Dominik Nerz	Liquigas - Cannondale	s.t.
...
43	Salvatore Puccio	Sky Procycling	s.t.

1	Rigoberto Urán	Sky Procycling	12h18'45
2	Laurens Ten Dam	Rabobank Cycling Team	+ 1'19
3	Gorka Verdugo	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 1'23
4	Chris Anker Sørensen	Team Saxo Bank - Tinkoff Bank	+ 1'31
5	Julien Simon	Saur - Sojasun	+ 1'38
6	José Rujano	Androni Giocattoli - Venezuela	+ 1'47
7	Nairo Quintana	Movistar Team	+ 2'02
8	Emanuele Sella	Androni Giocattoli - Venezuela	+ 2'10
9	Franco Pellizotti	Androni Giocattoli - Venezuela	s.t.
10	Jesús Herrada	Movistar Team	s.t.
...
48	Salvatore Puccio	Sky Procycling	+ 7'34

1	Rigoberto Urán	Sky Procycling	50
2	Julien Simon	Saur - Sojasun	49
3	Nairo Quintana	Movistar Team	26
4	Emanuele Sella	Androni Giocattoli - Venezuela	23
5	Laurens Ten Dam	Rabobank Cycling Team	20
6	Aidis Kruopis	Orica - GreenEdge	20
7	José Rujano	Androni Giocattoli - Venezuela	17
8	Gorka Verdugo	Euskaltel - Euskadi	16
9	Mitchell Docker	Orica - GreenEdge	16
10	David Arroyo	Movistar Team	15

1	Salvatore Puccio	Sky Procycling	60
2	Timothy Duggan	Liquigas - Cannondale	38
3	John Darwin Atapuma	Colombia - Coldeportes	28
4	Marcus Burghardt	BMC Racing Team	26
5	Joost Van Leijen	Lotto Belisol Team	26
6	David De la Fuente	Caja Rural	22
7	Fabian Wegmann	Garmin - Sharp	20
8	Rigoberto Urán	Sky Procycling	10
9	Pieter Weening	Orica - GreenEdge	10
10	Chris Anker Sørensen	Team Saxo Bank - Tinkoff Bank	8

1	Rigoberto Urán	Sky Procycling	12h18'45
2	Nairo Quintana	Movistar Team	+ 2'02
3	Jesús Herrada	Movistar Team	+ 2'10
4	Rasmus Guldhammer	Christina Watches - Onfone	+ 2'10
5	Tom Slagter	Rabobank Cycling Team	+ 2'10
6	�ngel Madrazo	Movistar Team	+ 2'10
7	Jonathan Castroviejo	Movistar Team	+ 2'10
8	Mikel Landa	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 2'10
9	Bob Jungels	Leopard - Trek Continental Team	+ 2'10
10	Wilco Kelderman	Rabobank Cycling Team	+ 2'10
...
13	Salvatore Puccio	Sky Procycling	+ 7'34

Woohoo!!! What a day! Urán did an amazing job today and ends up taking both stage, general rankings, points ranking and youth rankings. That's just awesome! I'm really happy on his ways.
He really deserves it.

I did my very best out there today. Just the fact of getting into todays morningbreak was quite an achievement. But i did, and i delivered a great impression, taking both 1st and 2nd mountain sprint, securing me my first victory and mountain jersey! I'm really happy for it, and it means a lot to me.

My next race will be the Amstel Gold Race. A race i've always loved watching on television. But now, i'm the one inside the television. It seems so unrealistic to drive all these prestigious races, and every time i'm standing on the starting line, it gives me goosebumps when realizing that i'm living out my dream as professional cyclist.