With no categorized climbs this is supposed to be a flat stage. Some sprinters could end up using a lot of energy on the first half of the stage though!


6 riders form todays break from early on. Malacarne (BSE) was the first attacker and was followed by Amorison (CRE), Downing (TNE), Popovych (RLT), Corti (COL) and Peron (TNN).
They have a gap of 4’17 going into the final 100 km.

90 km and 4’53

80 km and 4’32
Topsport Vlaanderen is doing most of the work in the peloton and the gap starts going down fast.

70 km and 3’39
60 km and 3’05
50 km and 2’42
40 km and 2’13

Popovych is in the provisional GC lead and sprints to 6 bonus seconds on the intermediate.
With 35 km to go and less than 2 minutes it looks more and more like the expected bunch sprint though.

30 km and 1’35
20 km and 1’08

It’s still Topsport, BMC and Saxo-Tinkoff pulling behind. The latter should be working for McDermott who are leaving for Garmin after this season after having criticized his level of support.

15 km and 52 seconds
10 km and the gap is growing again!
Now up to 1’08. Looks like yet another day where the peloton fails when it counts…

The break is working nicely together which is more than can be said about the peloton at this time.

Downing attacks into the final 5 km whole Paulinho (TST) has put some speed back in the peloton.

No one can follow the Brit and he goes into the final 3 km with about 20 seconds to the rest of the breakers and almost a minute to the peloton where Saxo and Argos are driving their trains.

Amorison is putting in a massive sprint from the break.

Meanwhile in the peloton only Topsport manage to put in a decent leadout as Argos and Saxo-Tinkoff ruin it for both themselves and each other.
An embarrassing show by the two big teams looking more like juniors than professionals!

Downing gives everything he has and is too tired to even celebrate when he crosses the line.

The peloton catshes the rest of the breakers on the line and it’s a messy sprint where the expected top sprinters are all absent due to the “leadout� chaos destroying all trains.

If any of the big names would like to do some actual racing today is the day!
Rabbit Ears Pass gives the terrain for making it hard right from the start, but are too far from the finish line to be decisive in its own.


Andy Schleck (RLT) is there at the front of the peloton right from the start to see Beyer (CSS) make the first attack.
Hopefully this means that the RadioShack-rider is determined to do something today so we can finally get to see some actual racing in GC-battle.

Once again we get a 6-rider break and once again Malacarne (BSE) is in there. Today accompagnied by De Vreese (TSV), Beyer (CSS), Valencia (COL), Ospina (MOV) and Eijssen (BMC).

Beyer defends his team mates mountain jersey by crossing the rabbits ears as the first rider.

At this point the gap is up to 3’48 which makes the break the provisional top 6 of the GC with Beyer in the lead.

Having Powers set the pace on the climb doesn’t look like the right strategy from BMC right now…

After having been up to more than 6 minutes the gap starts shrinking with 120 km left.

Surprisingly the intermediate is heavily contested. Malacarne takes it ahead of Valencia and De Vreese.

90 km left and 4’21 to the peloton.
80 km and 3’48
70 km and 3’10
60 km and 2’42

As sees so often before BMC have left it to Garmin to do all the work once a proper gap was established to the break.

50 km and 2’18
40 km and 1’40

With 37 km to go Paulinho (TST), Deignan (UHC) and Burton (ARG) decides to make a move.

Garmin keeps their cool as usual and at the 30 km mark the trio is reeled back in while the original break has a gap of 1’20.

Heading into the final 20 km the gap goes under a minute and the breakers attack on turns while David Millar is keeping up the pressure behind.

Deignan gives it another go and this time he gets away alone and quickly bridges the gap to the break only to see that Beyer have left them and is alone in front.

That groups is reeled back in and immediately we see Garmin following up with an attack on the GC.

No! It’s not Talansky but Howes!!
A very surpsiding tactical choice...

Beyer gets the next mountain sprint as Howes catches up to him and we finally get to see BMC working within the final 15 km of a stage.

At the 10 km mark we even see the peloton reunited.

Atapuma opens the finale with 7,5 km to go and is followed by a bunch of riders of no GC significance.
Names like Oget and McDermott will ring a bell for the classics-fans though.

No one feels like challenging for the GC today and Oget gets away relatively easy.

Another messy sprint going into the final 2 km with Oget far ahead and Atapuma inbetween.

Oget takes the stage win thanks to being the only one really daring to go for it today.

Schroder gets 2nd while a lot of guys should be ashamed about not moving before the sprint.

Such a close GC with so little action...