After yesterday’s hills, today is a quiet flat stage. A circuit is repeated a few times, but note: The circuit contains 2 sharp hills. It’s the question whether it affects the race or not, there’s a good chance that it only affects guys like Harrini, who can’t get over speedbumps. Though if the hills are ridden fast, you never know, you shouldn't underestimate those steep hills at all.

Favourites:

Willem Brouwer(BEL)


Gerald Ciolek(MTN)
Barry Markus(VAC)


Juan José Lobato(EUS)
Kris Boeckmans(VAC)
Delfi Cervero(FDJ)

The Stage
93km –

3 guys cross the finish line first. A breakaway looks formed. Vanthourenhout(CRE), Engoulvent(SOJ) and Corti(COL) are in the break. Meanwhile, the sprinters can already explore the last meters before the finish.
80km – Vanthourenhout manages to win the first KoM sprint, ahead of Corti and Engoulvent.
61km –
Vanthourenhout wins the second KoM as well. Again, Corti gets second. Vanthourenhout is now in the virtual KoM jersey. Peloton is at 4’00.
46km – The sprint is uncontended, Vanthourenhout easily wins it by a lack of interest by everyone. Peloton is at 3’10.
43km – Corti makes the same mistake three times in a row, he attacks too early at the KoM and burns himself out. This time, Engoulvent takes the KoM, ahead of Vanthourenhout.
38km –
The peloton splits and a chasing group of 16 gets away, most notable involving Cervero, Brouwer, Ciolek, Felline & Gavazzi. Chasing group is at 2’25, peloton at 2’55
29km – Engoulvent wins the intermediate sprint, ahead of Corti. The peloton is brought back together. The gap is reduced to 1’55.
25km –

A big split now, it might be the decisive one. Most GC favourites are in, except Chiarini(AND) and Galland(SOJ). Of the sprinters, Ciolek(MTN), Brouwers(BEL), Gavazzi(AST) and Felline(AND) are in. The group is at 1’31, the peloton is at 2’10.
19km – Euskaltel is giving its all, and the group is back together on the hill, which seems tougher than estimated, considering it’s ridden hard. It still needs to be ridden once though. The escapees are still a minute on the road.
11km –

Engoulvent is just able to grab all of the sprint points, before the riders get reeled in by the pack.
7km – Edet(COF) manages to crash on a bad moment, just before the downhill, and then another hill, starts. There goes Cofidis’ GC, I guess? A hard pace is ridden meanwhile, with Belkin & Vacansoleil taking care of that. Harrini is dropped at the hill, therefore.
4km –
The pack reached the final steep hill. The 3 main sprinters; Brouwer, Ciolek & Markus, are all positioned brilliantly.
1300m –

After a hectic sprint preparation, Ciolek is leading the pack. Markus and Gavazzi(in green) are positioned well too. Brouwers is at the far right, behind Felline.
500m –

Ciolek still has an impressive gap, but is slowing down, he seemed to have gone too early. Gavazzi(Green), Lobato(EUS) & Pichon(FDJ) are contending for 2nd at the moment, while Brouwers is a bit boxed in by Markus & Felline. Can Ciolek maintain his gap?
Finish –

NO! Juan José Lobato passes everyone and wins with a bit more than a bicycle length. Impressive win for the guys in orange there. Gavazzi manages to get second twice in a row, while Tsatevich(KAT) grabs a third place. If the race was 200m longer, it could’ve been Brouwers who won, he was really fast in the last meters.
Gavazzi now takes over the leaders jersey. Edet managed to get back to the pack, and still is into the GC.

1	Juan José Lobato	Euskaltel - Euskadi	2h37'13
2	Francesco Gavazzi	Astana Pro Team	s.t.
3	Alexey Tsatevitch	Katusha Team	s.t.
4	Laurent Pichon	FDJ.fr	s.t.
5	Willem Brouwer	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	s.t.
6	Gerald Ciolek	MTN - Qhubeka	s.t.
7	Florian Vachon	Bretagne - Séché Environnement	s.t.
8	Fabio Felline	Androni Giocattoli - Venezuela	s.t.
9	Barry Markus	Vacansoleil - DCM Pro Cycling Team	s.t.
10	Baptiste Planckaert	Crelan - Euphony	s.t.

GC

1	Francesco Gavazzi	Astana Pro Team	6h30'42
2	Willem Brouwer	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	+ 4
3	Laurent Mangel	FDJ.fr	+ 14
4	Delfi Cervero	FDJ.fr	+ 16
5	Geoffroy Lequatre	Bretagne - Séché Environnement	+ 18
6	Gerald Ciolek	MTN - Qhubeka	+ 24
7	Fabio Felline	Androni Giocattoli - Venezuela	s.t.
8	Paul Martens	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	s.t.
9	Luca Paolini	Katusha Team	s.t.
10	Riccardo Chiarini	Androni Giocattoli - Venezuela	s.t.

Points

1	Francesco Gavazzi	Astana Pro Team	20	40
2	Willem Brouwer	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	12	37
3	Juan José Lobato	Euskaltel - Euskadi	25	31
4	Delfi Cervero	FDJ.fr	5	21
5	Gerald Ciolek	MTN - Qhubeka	10	20
6	Jimmy Engoulvent	Sojasun	16	16
7	Alexey Tsatevitch	Katusha Team	16	16
8	Fabio Felline	Androni Giocattoli - Venezuela	8	15
9	Louis Meintjes	MTN - Qhubeka	0	14
10	Laurent Pichon	FDJ.fr	14	14

KoM

1	Sven Vanthourenhout	Crelan - Euphony	13	13
2	Marco Corti	Colombia	7	7
3	Jimmy Engoulvent	Sojasun	7	7
4	Laurent Mangel	FDJ.fr	0	5
5	Andrea Peron	Team Novo Nordisk	0	5

U25 Jersey: Willem Brouwer
Team Rankings: Rusvelo

Here we are with the third day of La Tropicale Amissa Bongo. The profile isn’t too hard, but the last kilometre is very steep, and a few hills before that also give the opportunity to attack. Will the GC fight start today? Will Cervaro finally roll up the whole pack? Will gaps finally appear? Or is it just going to be a bunch sprint? We’re going to find out now.
Favourites:

Delfi Cervero(FDJ)


Willem Brouwer(BEL)
Gerald Ciolek(MTN)


Francesco Gavazzi(AST)
Luca Paolini(KAT)
Francesco Reda(AND)

The Stage
94km – The stage starts a bit hectic. Delfosse(CRE) wins an early intermediate sprint, ahead of Ermiti(AND), and Tsatevich(KAT) just manages to hold off Lobato(EUS) for third place in the peloton.
86km –
It turns out that Delfosse & Ermiti also make today’s breakaway. But, Wynants(BEL) & Kurek(CCC) also attack, but they have to bridge a 2 minutes gap.
77km – Delfosse wins the KoM sprint, followed by Erviti, and, still by some distance, Wynants. Meanwhile, more riders attack from the peloton, while Kurek can’t handle the pace and drops from the break.
68km –
The break is now finally complete, De Vreese(TSV) and Mironov(RVL) have joined Delfosse, Wynants and Erviti. They have roughly 3 minutes.
46km – Wynants wins the sprint, and Delfosse & De Vreese make it a Belgium Top 3. Well, I think nobody cares. Peloton is at 3’20.
32km –
Break is given a small chance, still 2’40 left. Cofidis, with especially Arblaster, are beasting at the front, they don’t want the breakaway to win this.
23km –
With still 2’15 in front of the pack, Maarten Wynants decides to give it a shot, and attacks. He’s very strong on the flat, I’m surprised the peloton does take such a risk!
22km – Grivko(AST) & Ciolek(MTN) attack from the peloton.
19km – Wynants wins the KoM sprint, and a kilometre later also the sprint, but that’s definitely not what he thinks about right now. The peloton kind of slowed down, so he has 2’20 left. Group Delfosse is only 30 seconds behind, Ciolek & Grivko are reeled back in.
18km –
Vrecer(EUS), Bole(VAC) and Duque(COL) attack from the peloton.
16km –
The original breakaway splits into pieces. Wynants still is leading, with a strong Delfosse on 20 seconds, Mironov&De Vreese on 40 seconds, and then Ermeti on 1’05.
14km – Wynants(2’19 GC) & Delfosse(2’00 GC) are now together! It’s most likely between them, with Wynants being the better sprinter and Delfosse stronger on the hills. They have 3 minutes, and 45 seconds on Group De Vreese, with only De Vreese(2’19 GC) being a GC threat.
Meanwhile, in the peloton, it’s raining attacks. Vrecer is the closest to the leaders, then Duque, Bole, J. Janse v. Rensburg(MTN), Sijmens(COF), Ciolek. Almost all separate.
10km –
The Belgian duo passes the 10km banner, leading just over a minute on De Vreese, Mironov, Ermeti, and now also Vrecer(GC ’24) & Duque(GC 4’07). A 12-men group follows a minute after(on 2’00), and on 2’30, there are 5 cyclists, including Brouwer, Galland & Reda.
Chiarini, Grivko & Vaugrenard are even in the peloton.
9km – Group Brouwers joins the favourites group.
6km –
Cervero & Gavazzi are pacing really hard in the favourites group, and that group is only ’30 away from Group De Vreese/Vrecer. Wynants & Delfosse still together, 1 minute ahead of Vrecer. For some reason, Martens(BEL) is chasing Wynants.
3km –
Wynants & Delfosse are now preparing the sprint, Wynants doing a hard relay, they are about 40 seconds in front. Martens follows, having paced away from the chasing group. Also, Gavazzi & Brouwer have reached the chasing group, Cervero hasn’t, he’s even at 2 minutes from the leaders.
1500m –
Wynants leads out the sprint, Delfosse in a good position. Martens at 32 seconds, Brouwer now just behind Gavazzi on 50 seconds, with a big favourite group just a bit behind. Ciolek, Cervero and Paolini all far behind, only Ciolek still tries something.
700m –
Delfosse passed Wynants, it looks like Maarten blew himself up. Can Delfosse take this stage? Meanwhile, Brouwer & Gavazzi reaching Martens impressively. This might even be close, the 2 are closing in. But the finish looks too close, can Delfosse hold the lead?
Finish –
And YES! Delfosse takes an impressive win here for Crelan. Even with a gap! Also Gavazzi, but especially Brouwer coming fast, but Wynants hangs on to 2nd. Brouwers makes this a 2-3 for Belkin, and Martens makes 5th. Great day for Belkin, though they might have preferred a win.

The favourites group slowed down completely in the end, making sure that Ciolek, Cervero & Paolini aren’t completely out of the GC. Brouwer takes back the GC lead of Gavazzi here, with Bonification seconds. Cervero is 14th in GC now, Ciolek 16th, both around 1’30 back.
A very entertaining stage this was, if you ask me
Results

1	Sébastien Delfosse	Crelan - Euphony	2h41'34
2	Maarten Wynants	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	+ 18
3	Willem Brouwer	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	s.t.
4	Francesco Gavazzi	Astana Pro Team	s.t.
5	Paul Martens	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	s.t.
6	Nicolas Edet	Cofidis, Solutions Crédits	+ 41
7	Francesco Reda	Androni Giocattoli - Venezuela	+ 55
8	Emanuele Sella	Androni Giocattoli - Venezuela	+ 1'05
9	Jarlinson Pantano	Colombia	s.t.
10	Robert Vrecer	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 1'17

GC

1	Willem Brouwer	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	9h12'30
2	Francesco Gavazzi	Astana Pro Team	+ 4
3	Paul Martens	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	+ 28
4	Nicolas Edet	Cofidis, Solutions Crédits	+ 51
5	Francesco Reda	Androni Giocattoli - Venezuela	+ 1'05
6	Emanuele Sella	Androni Giocattoli - Venezuela	+ 1'15
7	Jarlinson Pantano	Colombia	s.t.
8	Sébastien Delfosse	Crelan - Euphony	+ 1'16
9	Pim Ligthart	Vacansoleil - DCM Pro Cycling Team	+ 1'27
10	Florian Vachon	Bretagne - Séché Environnement	s.t.

Points

1	Francesco Gavazzi	Astana Pro Team	14	54
2	Willem Brouwer	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	16	53
3	Sébastien Delfosse	Crelan - Euphony	35	35
4	Maarten Wynants	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	32	32
5	Juan José Lobato	Euskaltel - Euskadi	0	31

KoM

1	Sven Vanthourenhout	Crelan - Euphony	0	13
2	Jimmy Engoulvent	Sojasun	0	7
3	Marco Corti	Colombia	0	7
4	Maarten Wynants	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	6	6
5	Giairo Ermeti	Androni Giocattoli - Venezuela	6	6

U25 jersey: Willem Brouwer
Team Classification: Belkin

Jesleyh wrote:
You're a fast reader Marco