STAGE 10: De Panne - De Panne 99 KM
Stage Favourites;
*****Davis(BOR) ****Feillu(NES) ***Petacchi(BOR)
**Bozic(PET) *Swift(KOE)
Pan Flat!
UK YOUTH: They attacked and chased early on!
[center]The 13 man break today: Bewley, Nys, Aranzazu, Holohan, Stamsnijder, Brammeier, Khalilov, Thomel, Dowsett, Zitta, De Negri, Krivtsov and Duval.
Would they stand a chance?
Chernetskiy (Semen) was leading the white jersey competition a few days ago. He now finds himself 15'00 down in that competition and, judging by the fact he is always at the rear of the peloton, he may lose a lot more in the coming days.
The Chasers Formula: Borussia Dortmund 60% / Nespresso 40%
The break were always well under control today.
The Late Attackers.
With 25 kilometres to go and the break @ 1'00, four riders attack out of the peloton. The attackers: Vermote, Bodnar, O'Grady and Wyss. They soon catch the break and keep on going.
But the peloton is unrelenting. Everyone is back together with 10 km to go.
155 riders crash!
After winning the TTT Bluebell Creameries were not the most popular amongst the other teams, after 7 km to go they are ...... vilified.
Impey crashes, his lead out man looks behind and then crashes himself causing a ginormous pile up. All this happens towards the head of the peloton and huge chaos ensues.
Only 43 riders are unscathed. Key names who are not dropped besides 80% of the sprinters: Serpa, Tschopp and the red jersey Szymd.
As the downed riders recover the race is still on. O'Grady tries to attack again but there is no chance of even creating a gap to the sprinter teams.
2 trains form.
We have Pliuschin, Reihs and Feillu VS Sapa, Davis and Petacchi.
Borussia make it to the front but Petacchi gets blocked in.
A great opportunity for many sprinters, who will go first?
IT IS NAPOLITANO!
He goes for a long one, hoping to catch everyone off guard knowing surprise is his best chance of a win.
It doesn't pay off...
Modolo is the next to go .... and he looks good.
All the big name sprinters present are launching their final effort. Modolo is heading the race and looks unassailable ..... but he isn't!
UK YOUTH are the 10th team to win a stage here!
Modolo had the luck today! He just holds off many faster sprinters for the win, he went at precisely the right moment. UK Youth had one of the weakest squads here so a stage win is massive for them.
Feillu, finished second and faster but couldn't capitalise on a great lead out. Hinault continues his rich vein of form with a podium finish. Bozic finishes, insanely quick , only 6th on the day. Petacchi .... disappoints again with his lead out man finishing higher, if Davis was sprinting for himself ........
2'15 down comes a host of dropped riders led by van Hummel. De Weert, Paulinho and Lemoine are amongst the fallen today.
10 stages down and we have winners from 10 different teams, INCREDIBLE!
T-Mobile lead the UC rankings at some distance ahead of Aer Lingus, ironically both teams are yet to win a stage!
STAGE RESULTS:
| 1 | Sacha Modolo | Team UK Youth | 2h14'22 | | 2 | Romain Feillu | Nespresso | s.t. | | 3 | Sébastien Hinault | T-Mobile - Deutsche Post | s.t. | | 4 | Marcel Sieberg | Celesio | s.t. | | 5 | Allan Davis | Borussia Dortmund | s.t. | | 6 | Borut Božic | Petro China | s.t. | | 7 | Danilo Napolitano | Aer Lingus | s.t. | | 8 | Greg Henderson | Belgacom | s.t. | | 9 | Alessandro Petacchi | Borussia Dortmund | s.t. | | 10 | Ben Swift | Koenigsegg - Libero | s.t. |
UC points bonus: Which decent sprinter finished 12th today? (PM)
Edited by The Rider on 12-02-2014 17:19
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I honestly thought he'd be like 5th or so in GC again. 
(Well, except for Keizer 
