Three riders are just dangling off the front of the bunch as they decide whether or not to continue with the attack

The riders who were off the front earlier on decided to continue with there attack and were later joined by four others and now have a lead of 3m 51s, they are Cordeel/Lotto Belisol, Friedman/Team Optum, Foder/Christina Watches, Schafer/Team NSP, Mendes/LA Antarte, Kruijswijk/Rabobank and Ovechkin/RusVelo

The group has a lead of 2m 47s as they go up the only bit of climbing on todays stage

1m 20s is all they have left of there advantage

The break is still holding on to its small advantage, can they manage to stay away, only time will tell

Ovechkin/RusVelo has jumped clear from the break and is going hell for leather for the win

He has opened up a very sizeable gap and looks like he has timed his attack to perfection

And he celebrates a brilliant day in the saddle both for himself and the team

Gianni Meersman - Lotto Belisol Team

Kai Reus - UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team

Elia Favilli - Farnese Vini - Selle Italia

Euskaltel - Euskadi

The main aim today was to keep Gary Sutton in the top ten and that was achieved very easily once the break went away so the guys have kept some of there energy stores for tomorrow

Five riders are currently well ahead of an uninterested field. The riders in question are Ojavee/Champion System, Pirazzi/Colnago CSF, De Negri/Farnese Vini, Fuchs/Team NSP and Niermann/Rabobank. The lead is 6m 54s

The five leaders are still working very well together and keeping a steady pace going

Still no reaction has come from the peleton, so the five leaders just continue to tap out a nice rhythm

The way the race seems to be unfolding, it looks like this break is going to last right until the end because there has been no change in the gap for the last twenty kilometres

With some pace finally coming from the pack the gap has been reduced by a minute, but have they left it too late because the leaders are still working very hard at the front of the race

Under ten kilometres to go and still 3m in hand

Pirazzi/Colnago CSF senses a lull in the work rate so decides to go it alone

Under the flame rouge and his fellow escapees are back with him

De Negri of Farnese Vini is the rider with energy left in his legs who claims a close win on the line

Gianni Meersman - Lotto Belisol Team

Kai Reus - UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team

Elia Favilli - Farnese Vini - Selle Italia

Euskaltel - Euskadi

Another decent day for the guys today, they all finished safely in the pack without wasting any energy and Gary maintained hid tenth place on the GC

My message to the guys today is simple, protect Gary and stay with him if he needs you and make sure he gets that top ten finish on the GC

Three riders are trying to get clear to form the first break of the day

A group of thirteen riders eventually got away and have already got an advantage of 5m 18s, the most dangerous of these riders on the General Classification is Kruijswijk/Rabobank who is in twenty sixth place at 12m 33s

The lead has gone out to 7m 59s

The advantage has come down by one and a half minutes since the last time check

With a lead of 4m 36s none of these riders will affect the final outcome of the race, so the winner of todays stage will come from this group

Salgueiro/LA Antarte is going for a solo stage win

But the rest of the riders catch him within seconds and almost immediately the sprint for the line begins

And Ken Hanson/Team Optum wins it in style

Gianni Meersman - Lotto Belisol Team

Kai Reus - UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team

Elia Favilli - Farnese Vini - Selle Italia

Euskaltel - Euskadi

Well we achieved what we set out to do today and got Gary safely home for that top ten finish, he will be extremely happy with his overall performance and considering we lost Rubens early in the race we can give ourselves a well deserved pat on the back