I think he mainly was badly placed when things started breaking and then relied on someone else to win back the lost terrain. It could seem ha had absolutely no support from his team as he is the best placed for Caterham...
Gesink lost one minute. Not very good, but comparing to some of the other GC-favorites it's not that bad after all.
Brambilla in the KOM jersey! The Motorex guys do really show themselves, being in every BOTD so far, and winning a lot of mountain and intermediate sprints
Flat is the order of the day. 187km isn't enough to break up the group, and neither is the parcours on the day, so we should expect a bunch finish contested by the big sprinters today!
Commentators Picks
Sean Kelly: Peter Sagan was on fire in Langkawi recently, His IoQ are here in support and I think he'll be a firm favourite for today.
David Harmon: Matthew Goss is my favourite today, the Australian leads Pure-Black here in France and with limited days for sprinters, they'll surely be hoping to pick up the maximum points early on.
Magnus Backstedt: Guardini may not be quite as quick or developed yet, but his SGL-Magix team are capable of a very strong leadout, I think the team will do enough today.
Before we went Live...
Stijn devolder led the mornings first attack, for his team Lierse Pizza-Ullo, He's followed by Rabon(Haiaer) Rollin(Barrys) Bochman(Tulip) and Lloyd of Caterham
A huge relay on the front of the peloton restricted the breakaway, 159km to go it seemed to be all coming back together, they were caught 155km out.
Once again, 4 men tried to get into the breakaway. Riblon of Barrys led the move, he was tracked by Mombaerts(ITV), Andriato(Globant) and Hunt(Caterham) This time the group got clear to form the break of the day.
102km from the line came the days first of three checkpoints, the sprint in Contres, won by Jeremy Hunt ahead of Andriato and Riblon.
ITV's Johan Mombaerts was awarded the mountain points in this tight sprint. He'll wear polka-dot tomorrow. The breaks lead was beginning to fall thanks to I-o-Q and Fastweb, 5'52 with 82km to the line.
That completes our round up of this mornings events, welcome to the live coverage, and as you can see, we've got just 25km to the line here today, as the pace has been kept very high all morning.
The Live Coverage
Welcome back, as you can see we've still got the 4 guys out in front with 24km to go, though thge lead has been cut to just 1'52 by the chasing peloton. Led by PGR and IoQ.
With 17.7km to the line comes the final intermediate. Jeremy Hunt wins the sprint once again, holding off the charge of Johan Mombaerts
11.4km... The peloton have them very much in there sights now as the trains begin to form, IoQ have a 7man train for Sagan, Whilst PGR are constructing on the right, tailed by Guardini of SGL-Magix.
11.2km... Crash in the pack! The teams who were slower getting their sprinters forward have been panicking, and unsurprisingly we have riders on the floor. No big names go down, but ITV will be upset to see two of there riders on the Tarmac, Fleeman and Faiaers.
8.2km... The catch is made, and with the pace climbing to 58km/h in the pack, It seems like the day will go to the sprinters
6km... Some highly contested road space here, with PGR and IoQ fighting hard for the central track. Both have a 4 man train, most of the other sprinters have so far missed the wheels, B-H is 6 back in the PGR train, Guardini is behind Sagan, whilst Demare and Veenhof are in P.19 and P.26 respectively
5km... A monster turn from Rolland has given the IoQ team a gap, will 2 leadouts be enough with 5km to go remains the question, but either way it's caused absolute chaos behind it looks like every man for himself!
3km... Indeed, it was too far and they had to drop the pace, we have 3 very distinct lines now. On the right is ING with Pietropolli leading out Veenhof, tracked by Soupe of Allianz and Eddy BH. In the Middle is the 3man IoQ train, followed by Romain Feillu. Finally on the left is a 3 man PGR train for Goss, followed by Guardini, Poulhies, Oss, Demare and Hushovd.
2300m... Roulston drops off for PGR, IoQ are down to 1 leadout as well, Pietropolli is giving it everything, but will he have enough to take his sprinter to the final dash?
1400m... Pietropolli ran out of steam at 1700, forcing Veenhof to go early, Sagan looks pretty boxed whilst Goss is still waiting, The Aussie is looking favourite at the moment!
1000m... Sagan launches! Goss gets blocked by his own leadout and now has quite a gap to close down, Veenhof appears to be tiring already, whilst Soupe and Boassen-Hagen both seem to be coming strong around the outside
500m... It looks like Sagan vs Boassen-Hagen today, Feillu is going well whilst Goss has too much to do at this point, but may sneak onto the podium
20m... Neck a Neck! Eddy might be moving slightly quicker, but it's going to be tight!
The Nord takes it! Eddy Boss did it without a real leadout, but hangs on to beat Sagan. Goss takes 3rd, just knocking Feillu off the podium, but still an excellent sprint by the CCC rider
What a sprint, Utter chaos but Edvald Boassen-Hagen makes use of a small gap with 650 to go, and can claim an unexpected win! Haiaer will be very pleased to see there man take the sprint, especially as this victory will give Eddy the Maillot Jaune!
Jesleyh wrote:
Hmm... Okay Veenhof.
Our fault that you had to go too early. Pietropolli had a bad day, probably.
Amazing report baggie!
The Train needs some work indeed, that monster turn from Rolland did it. Pietro need to close that gap. happens
Tomorrow will be a better day for Veenhof I suppose, the finish is more challenging, so Pietropolli will be a great leadout(being a great puncheur as well).
Unless Voeckler feels great and places an amazing attack, but we'll be riding for Johan normally... Edited by Jesleyh on 02-05-2013 14:22
Nice to see Chavanel staying well out of trouble, and Nacer 12th is actually not too bad considering the startlist (and he never featured in the screens).
Nice win for EBH, meaning Haier are now moving into the mid-pack of the rankings
Can't wait for:
1. The next Paris - Nice sprint stages, hoping for a Veenhof Top 3
2. The next, GC deciding stages in both WT races
3. The ranking afterwards
Stage 5: Martinsucuro – Prati di Tivo
The big day for the GC-guys. The winner today could very well go on to win the race overall.
Once again it's quite a struggle for the breakers to get away, but in the end Aru is first over the KOM followed by Cattaneo, Favilli, Hernández, Vaitkus, House and Van Emden.
With 100 km to go the break has 5'36'' to the peloton lead by Globant.
Time to climb that mountain!
Cattaneo, Aru. Hernández and Favilli has 2'40'' to the next group of breakaway riders and 4'30'' to the peloton, lead by Tulip – Giunness and Allianz – BMW.
Halfway up the mountain the four in front hold on to a gap of 2'45'' but Tulip – Guinness and Garzelli are putting the pressure on them in the peloton.
Four km from the top Gesink decide to mix things up a bit. Cattaneo is first over the top, but he has less than a minute on the peloton at this point.
All breakers are reeled back in and when the final climb begins 58 riders remain in the peloton.
With 10 km to the top nothing has happened. Tulip – Guinness has four riders working in front while Contador's Globant-team contributes with Medina. Cunego starts the attacking with 8 km to the top. Tulip – Guinness just keep doing their thing in front of the peloton - even when Contador goes out to join the riders in front. Perhaps Froome has a little too much faith in his team mates?
5 km to go. Contador, Cunego and Poels have 22 seconds to Nocentini, 32 seconds to Porte and a total of 49 seconds to the main group including among others Froome, Nibali and Scarponi.
With 3 km to the top Froome and Scarponi joins up with the front trio. The Italian keeps on going past the others chasing glory alone.
The final km. Scarponi looks like the fun has gone out of it by now as Contador, Froome, Gonzales and Ruiter has joined him from behind.
He is still fresh enough to keep everyone behind though while Contador gains a little more time on Froome in the GC.
Spoiler
sorry bout the last pic, completely forgot to make the Screenshot...
Michele Scarponi
Alberto Contador
Mathijs Ruiter
Chris Froome
Lucas Gonzales
Thomas Voeckler
Aleksejs Saramotins
Peter Stetina
Cameron Meyer
Barrys Maple Leaf Racing
Pro Team Haier
