Collecting the Maillot Blanc is clearly not enough for the Vorarlberg Rider Andreas Hofer, he's the first man trying to create a breakaway today, attacking as soon as the riders pass the KM 0 sign.
Clearly the peloton thought he was going to soon, and he's quickly brought back. It's Barla of Team Idea who gives it the next shot, and he seems to have more luck, allowed free after 6km, though currently alone out in front.
Just two more riders are keen on getting in the breakaway today it seems. Solomennikov of Itera-Katusha and Andreas Hofer come across the gap behind the french man, and the four quickly open the gap further, they will make up our Break of the Day, the first of our 3 week race!
At the first of the KOM checkpoints, the Cote du Cokafaigne, the breakaway sprint for the 1point. It is white jersey wearer Hofer who claims the first KOM point of the Underdog tour, pipping the Russian Solomennikov on the line.
Onto sprint 2 now, and the contest is between the same duo. This time however, they find themselves the other way around, It's Solomennikov who times his sprint better, and manages to take the second sprint, they tie 1-1 in the KOM competition so far.
As the breaks lead spanned to 7minutes, Concordia and Nutrixxion started to up the pace in the peloton. They caused some fracturing as they started to reel them in, though none of the favourites lost touch.
Back out in front, the break got the the third of the days KotM sprints. Solomennikov shows he's the best climber of the front group, and doesn't even worry about sprinting up the climb. He takes a comfortable victory, and becomes the provisional Polka-dot wearer ahead of tomorrow.
Today is a plentiful one for the break. 4 categorised climbs and a sprint! Barla didn't fight for the KotM points, but he leaps out for the sprint to take the full points, ahead of the Russian, and Lalouette.
Despite a small breakaway leaving reasonable points for the sprints, only German Rick Zabel seems interested. He flies around the outside of the Relay train to collect the 11 points, as he begins his conquest for the Maillot Vert.
As the peloton bring the break back under the 1 minute mark, 2 riders decide to make an attack. Poos of Differdange and Mccarthy of Jayco-AiS are the first duo to make an attack, trying to escape from the Bontrager led peloton.
The duo don't get far, but it causes a reaction. As they are brought back a further trio led by Yanto Barker (UK Youth) give it a go, and they get a gap, and start to close on the main breakaway group.
It's not to be once again. Olejnik (Veranda's) who was part of the second volley, seems to be feeling pretty good however, and quickly jumps again, going solo from 25k out seems unlikely, but he deserves a medal for trying!
18km to go... The breakaway are now in sight of the main pack. Olejnik is stuck floundering between the two groups, and Bontrager continue the charge, it seems everything will come back together again. Dombrowski is clearly feeling strong today, as his team have done most of the work in chasing.
The quiet before the storm is often an apt term, and it certainly fits here. The break were caught around 14km out, and nothing happened until just under 5km out!
Aistrup of Concordia leads a 5 man attack under the 5k banner, this is a strong group, containing Craven (IG) Malle (Veranda's) Dennis(Jayco) and the Polish Olejnik once again!
Bontrager just carry on grinding a pace, and it comes back together again. With 3km to go however a 6 man punchy group jumps clear, and the Bontrager boys don't follow, will they have time to shut down another attack? Olejnik led this attack, along with Aistrup and Dennis from the previous attack. They are joined by UK Youth's Barker, Poos of Differdange and Gottfried of Nutrixxion. The maillot jaune doesn't follow, leaving his team mate alone in the front group.
It's starting to come back together on the slopes, but Barker wants the stage, he pushes again, with Poos fighting to hold the brits wheel. Olejnik and Aistrup can follow. With just 1700m to the line, they look to be fighting for the win.
Poos sits in the wheel of Barker until the 950m mark, and then puts in his own dig. He spurts away from the trio of companions, leaving them in the dust.
Poos can celebrate a strong stage win here today, his jump was perfectly timed, and he managed to open a gap as the road steepened in the final 700m. Behind him his companions compete to complete the podium, Nutrixxions Gottfried manages to take second place, just ahead of the UK Youth rider, Yanto Barker.
Poos finds his reward is even better, his gap has been recognised by those in charge, and he's been rewarded with an official time gap of 16" meaning he takes the Maillot Jaune! The Luxembourger has a 10" lead over the previous wearer after the main pack was adjudged to cross with the second portion of the breakaway group.
The last order of business today, was to award Itera-Katusha rider, Andrey Solomennikov with the first ever Polka-Dot jersey!
PCM.Daily NFL Fantasy Football Champion: 2012 PCM.Daily NHL Prediction Game Champion: 2013 PCM.Daily NFL Prediction Game Champion: 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2021
You were so close to grabbing your first ever Tour stage win today, what was going through your mind as you charged for the finish line?
My legs were screaming at me to stop, but i just had to keep going, the line was coming closer and closer and i just had to give it my best shot, but unfortunately the other guys were faster than me today, but there may be other chances for me before the end of the tour
Surely after todays showing you must be considered the Team Leader now?
Oh i don't know about that, we have some good guys in our team and maybe they will produce better form then me but we will wait and see what happens
What will your ambitions be from now until the end of the race?
I definitely want to win a stage maybe two, but its going to be really tough, i will just have to wait and see how my strength and fitness are at that time
When you were announced in the Team roster for this Tour what emotions did you go through?
I was just full of excitement and shock, i have never ridden more than a week in one go, so this is going to be a real adventure for me. To be picked ahead of the other guys means that the management must think a lot of me so i am not going to let them down
Thankyou for your time Yanto, and good luck for tomorrow!
We'll be sure to keep you updated on occurrences during the tour, as well as hosting competitions along the way, so until next time, Goodbye for now!
Thanks to Sutty68 for his help with the Interview!Edited by baggieboys32 on 11-01-2013 01:56
After the uphill sprint the riders then begin the second half of the race, drawing steadily closer to the Ancient Belgian city of Tournai, where the finish will be contested. The final kilometres of the stage are all flat, if not slightly downhill, so today will be the first real opportunity for the Green contestants to show their hand.
The Race
It didn't take long for a Belgian to kick off the attacks this morning, Ingmar De Poortere got the race off to an immediate start, clearly looking to give Belgium a stage win on home turf.
After a few kiometres solo, he was joined by a further trio of riders looking to get into the break. Dennis (Jayco) Lampier (IG Sigma) and Moren (Amore & Vita) were the riders in question, and quickly bridged the gap to the young Belgian.The peloton don't like this group it would seem though, and the Differdange team quickly bring the group of four back.
De Poortere is the man who tries again next, he's followed instantly by a further 5 riders, will this group have more success than his previous attempt to get away?
After a few kilometres of sitting in the French-Luxembourg led pack, another rider finally attempts a breakaway! The Itera-Katusha riders are giving it a go for a second day running, this time it's the young TT prospect Anton Vorobyev.
With Vorobyev clear the pace starts to slow finally inside the pack. Dylan Teuns of Jong-Vlaandaren clearly reads the signs, he attacks and is able to join the Russian out in front. Finally, we have a Breakaway!
It's not really fair to say the KotM was contested, Teuns towed Vorobyev up the hill and then let him come around the outside for the points. Whilst his jersey was safe regardless today, Solomennikov will surely be pleased to see his team mate helping defend the KotM jersey.
With only 2 riders out in front, their were big points available at the intermediate sprint. This time, the big sprinters did contest the points, with the Maillot Vert favourite Denis Flahaut of RLM taking the 3rd place, well ahead of Ljungblad, Weissinger and Stauff.
With the sprint completed, the teams began the task of chasing down the front duo. With just 2 of them out there, and so early on in the race they surely knew it was a doomed venture, and the peloton quickly starts to close down the gap.
12km to the line, and the trains are starting to define themselves. You can see the three main trains being put together by Differdange, RLM and Jamis-Sutter on the outside, for their American Walmsley.
7km and things are a lot more defined now. The outside is a 3 man RLM train for Flahaut, in the middle we have Ljungblad's Differdange train, with Gaywood of IG Sigma Sport, and Jamis' second sprinter Ani Borrajo. Finally on the right you can see the main Jamis train for Kyle Walmsley, followed by Indeland's Stauff, and Maggie Beckstedt of UK Youth.
1900m to the line and the first guy to launch is Magnus Beckstedt, he clearly fancies a long charge, but has he over estimated his abilities? The other teams clearly thinks so, no reaction just yet!
900m to go and Beckstedt is still leading! The favourites appear to be closing however and the final leadouts are starting to release! Flahaut looks badly placed, blocked in on the outside after losing his leadout mans wheel to IG's Simon Gaywood...
600m to the line... As they round the final corner Beckstedt is caught by the pack, he just couldn't keep the pace up for quite long enough... It's Weissinger whose appeared from no where leading by a whisker, but now the sprint will really fly, as we close the final half-kilometre to the line!
Just 200m to the line and the action is intense, the Swedish Ljungblad has accelerated brilliantly out of the final turn and has the lead, meanwhile Andreas Stauff of Eddy Merckx has really put the hammer down, the question remains though, has he left this too late? He has to close a bike length in under 200m!
Tomorrow is our first day in France, so we thought it'd be a good opportunity to hold our first competition! This one is quite simple, pick out your Top 5 for tomorrows stage! For everyone you get who finishes in the top 10, you get 1 point, any one who finishes in the top 5, you get 3 points, and for any rider you can successfully place, a full 5 points are on offer! These go towards the total for every competition we hold during the race, in a bid to see who of you, can win overall!
The stage profile is above, now it's up to you to decide, will there be an attack? Will it be a sprint? Whose got the legs early on? PM me your thoughts ahead of the Stage 3, where the riders make the journey from the town of Orchies, 197km into Bolougne-Sur-Mer!
Edited by baggieboys32 on 12-01-2013 14:30
Andreas Hofer, he's the first man trying to create a breakaway today, attacking as soon as the riders pass the KM 0 sign. 
Barla of Team Idea who gives it the next shot, and he seems to have more luck, allowed free after 6km, though currently alone out in front.
Lalouette of the French side Roubaix Lille Métropolé clearly feels this is the right time to go, as a few kilometres later he jumps away from the peloton and bridges the gap to the Italian, they begin to open a gap as the riders hit the 15km mark.
Solomennikov of Itera-Katusha and 
Poos of Differdange and 
Mccarthy of Jayco-AiS are the first duo to make an attack, trying to escape from the Bontrager led peloton.
Yanto Barker (UK Youth) give it a go, and they get a gap, and start to close on the main breakaway group.
Olejnik (Veranda's) who was part of the second volley, seems to be feeling pretty good however, and quickly jumps again, going solo from 25k out seems unlikely, but he deserves a medal for trying! 
Aistrup of Concordia leads a 5 man attack under the 5k banner, this is a strong group, containing 
Craven (IG) 
Gottfried of Nutrixxion. The maillot jaune doesn't follow, leaving his team mate alone in the front group.
And things look interesting too. 
. Magnus can't climb
Ingmar De Poortere got the race off to an immediate start, clearly looking to give Belgium a stage win on home turf.
Moren (Amore & Vita) were the riders in question, and quickly bridged the gap to the young Belgian.The peloton don't like this group it would seem though, and the Differdange team quickly bring the group of four back.
Ani Borrajo. Finally on the right you can see the main Jamis train for Kyle Walmsley, followed by Indeland's 
