A couple of mountains, but none are step, and they are far from the finish. Could be interesting to see how the sprinters recover.

A 4 man break got away. First we attacked with Dennis, but the move didn't stick, and it was Acevedo that ended up in front for us.

But the team's of Cav and Greipel were not amused, and Acevedo was caught 1ith 15 km to go, with the last man, Vichot, being sucked back in 2 km later.

But it was not Omega or Lotto would had control going into the final kms, but Lampre, who were giving Roberto Ferrari a stunning and perfect leadout.

Unfortunately, went too early, and with 5 km to go, their opponents swamped them, leaving Ferrari with only 1 teammate. Von Hoff was well positioned on Cavendish's wheel.

The Lampre train collapsed and Greipel's was falling behind too. Still looking good for Von Hoff.

But for some reason, the Omega train, which looked to be working perfectly, imploded. Renshaw pulled off the front, and Meersman went full gas. But Cav didn't stay on the wheel, and a gap was created. Under the final banner it was Meersman with a gap to a charging Greipel. The collapse of Omega's train forced Von Hoff into the wind, and he was struggling.

200 meters to go and Greipel stormed passed Meersman. Cavendish was trying to latch on behind.

But the German champ beat the British champ, despite the many shakeups within the major sprint trains.

Meersman finished 3rd, while Von Hoff slipped back to 13th.

Not a very eventful day on the bike for the team in the end, all the rest of us finished safely in the group. Besides Acevedo, who kind of cracked after his break. GC stays the same.

Only a 3 man breakaway stormed away in thee morning: Rabottini, Dumoulin, Ellisonde.

But things were not that easy. Overt he first mountain , Hesjedal had a flat. He managed to get on the back of the group again with Danielson, but the pace was high and splits were forming in front of him.

We were forced to send guys back to pull back every gap between Ryder and the front.

It all came back together, but the team was hurting and it was only mid way through the stage, it didn't look good for us.

But once again Hesjedal had poor positioning when a group escaped, with Janier having to dig in to keep him in contention.

Favorites attempted to go, with Majka attempting to show his strong legs, but with nobody organized it was bound to come back together.

We hit the final climb and the break broke apart by an attack from Rabotini. Dumoulin slowly dragged it back and pushed ahead, but Ellisonde could not respond at all.

Meanwhile, Nibali was giving Froomebot.exe a 404 error. Knowing that our team would just fail at following, despite great work by Majka to stay with Froome, we stayed in the pack.

Rabottini was regretting attacking as he completely cracked the minute Nibali reached the group on the decent. The raging Astana leader knew he needed time, so he just kept pushing while Tom Dumoulin sucked the wheel.

With two groups up the road, Acevedo, Ryder, and I were the only riders able to stay in the group for us, and immediately the Colombian was sent to pace.

And with a bit of help from me, we were able to catch the Froome group. That's when it stalled. Nibali had over a minute and no one wanted to pace the others back to him.

And so the win would come from the front group. Dumoulin, who had spent all day in the break but not worked for 25 km, launched out of Nibali's slipstream. Neither of them had much left. Could Nibbles respond?

Behind, I gave Ryder a lead-out for his own chance at a podium, and he stormed ahead while all the others but Kwiatkowski looked at each other.

Into the final 200 meters and Dumoulin was coming around!

And he took it! Great and rewarding win for the young talent., and he didn't even celebrate! Nibali was obviously more concerned about the time between him and us.

Ryder led the peloton for 3rd, a whole 1'01 behind the lead duo. That is a gap that even Froome will have a hard time making back.

Nibali takes the lead in the GC, with Dumoulin slotting into third, while Me and Ryder meet in the middle of our previous positions at 6th and 7th, about 1'10 back.

Another one of these medium mountain stages and then it's the big one on stage 5. I'm feeling good for the Giro! See you next time!

Another one of those pseudo hilly stages where anything and everything can happen.

The break consisted of Nerz, De Gendt, Dennis, Roy, Voigt, and Elmiger. They quickly were let go and got 8 minutes. And the peloton didn't look to interested in bringing it back.

And so the break went up the hills, stretching out and for some reason contesting the mountain sprints until they were right in front of them where they would all sit up.

De Gendt made the first major attack over the penultimate climb. Nerz was halfway across the gap, and Dennis didn't make it.

Nope, that's not De Gendt, that's Rigoberto Uran attacking from the peloton, followed by Vanendert, Betancur, Froome and Gasparotto with gaps between all of them. But we couldn't stand for this, and so I went to the front, took Hesjedal on my wheel and jumped.

De Gendt takes the win!

Nerz was 2nd, Elmiger won the sprint for 3rd while Dennis, who had chased the most, finished at the back in 6th.

Uran came home next alone, gaining time on every other contender, and making it a fantastic day for Omega Pharma - Quickstep!

While behind, our relaying worked, bringing the escapees back nearly on the line, 34 seconds after Uran.

GC wise we loose nothing to everyone but Uran, but that's enough to move us both down a spot.

Well I have to rest up! Tomorrow's the king stage! See you there!

This is the big one! A load of mountain, long and steep! We're all in for Ryder!

The break got away early and contained couple of decent climbers, headlined by my cousin, Nicolas Roche!

A 5 man group tried to escape with some outsiders like Kiserlovski, but since everyone had a leader behind, it wasn't fully committed.

And so we were on the penultimate climb, and we took to the front. With favorites potentially better than us, controlling the race became our best option.

Our work brought back the chase group, and it was looking good on the final climb!

Until Froome decided our pace wasn't good enough for him and attacked. That's pretty rude to do. Betancur tried to jump while Nibali responded to his biggest competitor.

We ratcheted up the pace, and before we knew it the break was caught and Janier had driven us off the front of the remaining group with Uran! Nibali had caught Froome in the big group and favorites like Van den Broeck were left behind!

Charge time. Hesjedal stuck to my wheel and I pulled. The climb is like 20 km long, so you need help on an extended effort.

Only Nibali and Froome at the front, as Betancur couldn't match them!

It was one minute to the front with Betancur straight In the middle. Uran was hurting, and so was I. With 5 km to go I had been pacing for 10 km! I was roasting out their, but everyone else had been left behind!

And finally with 4 km to go I couldn't give my Giro winning teammate any more useful help. I pulled off and he sped ahead. Catching and passing Betancur almost in stride, while I tried to keep with Uran, as I could still get a great GC placing myself!

It seemed Froome was content with waiting for the TT to push him into the lead.. He sat on Nibali's wheel down the mountain (Who would even try to do anything else), and waited for the sprint with 1 km to go!

Meanwhile, lone ranger Ryder Hesjedal bombed down the descent in the hunt to gain back precious time.

No surprise that Froome pops around for the win, but the gaps are what matters.

Ryder soloed home in 3rd, only 25 seconds back! Our work paid off!

Betancur came in in 4th, 1'22'' down form Froome, followed by Uran, who managed to distance me on the descent.

+2'11 from the winner, I finished in 6th place. Not bad for the team effort!

And finally Spilak and Majka came home together from the best of the rest.

So that leaves Nibali in the lead by 27 seconds, and boosts Ryder to 3rd. I'm in 6th. Also worth noting is that Froome leads Points, Meyer leads KOM, Betancur Youth, and us team!