Gilbert hasn't shown himself so far, will today be his day? other favourites for victory are Kessler and Current Leader, Ignatiev, welcome to the 3rd stage of Ster Elektrotoer.
Off the peleton goes.
the break is sorted out fairly quicky and consists of Grippo, Korzh, Striska, Barclay and Day.
Day leads uncontested over the first hill with Striska and Grippo just behind.
With 100km to go the lead has peaked at 8 minutes and 100% me have started to chase.
Over the next hill Grippo won ahead of Striska and Day
Meanwhile four riders, as you can see in the distance, have decided to ride between the peleton and break for a while before being caught and loosing time, these are Serrano, Machado, Willems and Ruijgh.
however Serrano and Machado realise the stupidity of the ploy and get caught almost immediately.
Other teams have now decided to help chase, although the peleton actually seems to slow down beacause of this.
Up the final categorised climb Day leads over Grippo andStriska.
behind Serrano, Machado and Ghyllebert try and bridge up to the men in no mans land.
the result of this is that Machado and Serrano
have a gap over Willems
with Ghyllebert and Ruilegh hovering behind, although stiill a minute clear of the peleton.
Machado has managed to drop Serrano and is closing on the break.
Bertogliatti attacks on a small rise 38km out
quickly followed by Cornu, Tang, Mancuso and Terpstra.
Then it is the turn of Vandenbroeck, Rabon and Terciado
Ignatiev and Hermans join the group of all the attackers up the next rise.
The pleton catches everyone except the early break though.
Up front and of camera the intermediate sprint was taken by Korzh over Barclay and Striska, the break still have 2 minutes with 28 km to go.
An AON rider attacks, however it is De Maar Gilbert is a long way back in the peleton.
he is followed by Tang and Ignatiev
Cornu goes after them as Tang is pulled back
but yes if you say another AON rider picking his way through the pack on a charge forwards, Gilbert is finally on the move
Bertogliatti knows exactly who's attack he wants to follow
All these attacker come together, although Gilbert is still trying to break free.
Sensing they may have missed their chance Rabon, Vandenbroeck and Hermans try desperately to close the gap.
The peleton is one minute back of the yellow jersey group and Nespresso are working by themselves to close the gap.
Bertogliatti makes an attack to try and make it up to Gilbert who has a small gap.
He goes under the 20km to go with Gilbert in sight, and about to catch the Breakaway.
Nespresso drop off the front as Kessler goes, also you can see in the distance that the whole front group has come together.
Except Reus who has slipped off the back.
He will soon be joined by Kessler and they will work together to try and make it up to the leaders who stay about 30 seconds ahead.
Weening goes to help his leader, Ribeiro follows
At the front Hermans is trying to get a gap
He manages to so Ignatiev goes after him.
After Bertogliatti puts a small dig in they are pulled back to a large group containing most of the breakaway and early attackers.
There are then attacks from Grabovski, Wiggins and Locatelli out of an Ultra Adventure lead peleton.
Coming up to 10 km to go and Kessler has dropped Cornu, however he seems to have lost his battle to join the lead group as he is now 40 seconds back.
Cresting the penultimate hill Gilbert and Ignatiev lead the group with the Wiggle riders struggling to keep up.
A loss of impetus on the downhill mean that Kessler manages to make it back
And he immediately makes his way to the front of the group as the final climb approaches
Bertogliatti goes
Behind, Wiggins and Locatelli have made it up to Reus.
No one has responded to Bertogliatti and with only 5, all downhill, kilometres to the finish, will he be able to grab victory, or will he, like yesterday, be pulled back just short of the line.
The breakaway riders have finally fallen off the back and it looks like Hermans has paid for not being further forwards.
De Maar is working hard to close the gap, however Gilbert looks to be too far back to take advantage.
Ignatiev on the other hand is perfectly positioned to take another stage, Rabon is the only rider with the same soort of top end speed but he is with Gilbert at the back of the group. Only 3.8 km to go now
Bertogliatti is almost back in the fold with 2.5 km to go
With exactly 2 to go he starts sprinting in a last ditch effort to hold off the onrushing group.
However De Maar closes fast and with 1200 meters left he is caught and Vandenbroeck makes his move.
600 meters and Ignatiev tries to come round him
So close, will Ignatiev win on the line again?
YES, amazing, he beats Vandenbroeck
Gilbert takes third over Rabon and Kessler with De Maar 6th.
Bertogliatti finishes last in the lead group
Day holds of Herman and Grippo to come 8th 50 seconds back
Wiggins lead home the next group at 1'23", before the peleton come home in 2'03" behind Ignatiev
This means Ignatiev solidifies his lead, with Kessler and De Maar are now tied for second 40 seconds back.
Bertogliatti is 4th overall, while Cornu, Grabovski and Wiggins(again) benefit from more dodgy timings to allow them to stay inside the top ten.
Stage
1
Mikhail Ignatiev
100% ME
4h05'13
2
Jurgen Vandenbroeck
Molteni
s.t.
3
Philippe Gilbert
AON Global
s.t.
4
Frantisek Rabon
Team NOS
s.t.
5
Matthias Kessler
Nespresso - SportZone
s.t.
6
Marc De Maar
AON Global
s.t.
7
Rubens Bertogliati
Nokia-Nike
s.t.
8
Ben Day
IrnBru - RBS
+ 52
9
Ben Hermans
Wiggle Pro Cycling Team
s.t.
10
Chiaffredo Grippo
Wiggle Pro Cycling Team
s.t.
11
Mindaugas Striska
Team Ultra Adventure Pro Cycling - Sponsored by Hello Kitty
s.t.
12
Bradley Wiggins
100% ME
s.t.
13
Paolo Locatelli
Wiggle Pro Cycling Team
s.t.
14
Dmitri Grabovski
IrnBru - RBS
s.t.
15
Pieter Weening
Jack Wolfskin
s.t.
16
Nuno Ribeiro
Sport Lisboa e Benfica - Michelin
s.t.
17
Dominique Cornu
Jack Wolfskin
s.t.
18
Zakkari Dempster
IrnBru - RBS
+ 2'06
19
Nolan Hoffman
Nespresso - SportZone
s.t.
20
Victor Gomes Colinas
Sport Lisboa e Benfica - Michelin
s.t.
GC
1
Mikhail Ignatiev
100% ME
9h20'14
2
Matthias Kessler
Nespresso - SportZone
+ 40
3
Marc De Maar
AON Global
s.t.
4
Rubens Bertogliati
Nokia-Nike
+ 55
5
Frantisek Rabon
Team NOS
+ 1'03
6
Dominique Cornu
Jack Wolfskin
+ 1'09
7
Bradley Wiggins
100% ME
+ 1'12
8
Dmitri Grabovski
IrnBru - RBS
+ 1'20
9
Jurgen Vandenbroeck
Molteni
+ 1'35
10
Ben Hermans
Wiggle Pro Cycling Team
+ 1'49
11
Nuno Ribeiro
Sport Lisboa e Benfica - Michelin
+ 1'50
12
Philippe Gilbert
AON Global
+ 2'04
13
Pieter Weening
Jack Wolfskin
+ 2'05
14
Ben Day
IrnBru - RBS
+ 2'33
15
Niki Terpstra
IrnBru - RBS
+ 2'50
16
Andrew Tennant
100% ME
+ 3'10
17
Miles Olman
IrnBru - RBS
+ 3'39
18
Zakkari Dempster
IrnBru - RBS
+ 3'41
19
Chiaffredo Grippo
Wiggle Pro Cycling Team
+ 3'45
20
Kai Reus
Jack Wolfskin
+ 3'49
Points
Mikhail Ignatiev
100% ME
25
70
Dominique Cornu
Jack Wolfskin
0
33
Matthias Kessler
Nespresso - SportZone
12
30
Jurgen Vandenbroeck
Molteni
20
29
Dmitri Grabovski
IrnBru - RBS
2
26
Frantisek Rabon
Team NOS
14
26
Bradley Wiggins
100% ME
4
24
Pieter Weening
Jack Wolfskin
1
21
Marc De Maar
AON Global
10
19
Rubens Bertogliati
Nokia-Nike
9
18
Mountain
1
Salvatore Mancuso
Team Ultimate
0
21
2
Paolo Locatelli
Wiggle Pro Cycling Team
0
21
3
Shaun Lewis
IrnBru - RBS
0
15
4
Ben Day
IrnBru - RBS
11
11
5
Chiaffredo Grippo
Wiggle Pro Cycling Team
9
9
6
Mindaugas Striska
Team Ultra Adventure Pro Cycling - Sponsored by Hello Kitty
7
7
7
Matthias Kessler
Nespresso - SportZone
0
5
8
Wang-yip Tang
Team Ultra Adventure Pro Cycling - Sponsored by Hello Kitty
0
5
9
Pieter Weening
Jack Wolfskin
0
3
10
Robbie Williams
Jack Wolfskin
0
1
11
Steven Burke
Nokia-Nike
0
1
and Young rider
1
Mikhail Ignatiev
100% ME
4h05'13
9h20'14 (1)
2
Marc De Maar
AON Global
s.t.
+ 40 (2)
3
Ben Hermans
Wiggle Pro Cycling Team
+ 52
+ 1'49 (5)
4
Chiaffredo Grippo
Wiggle Pro Cycling Team
s.t.
+ 3'45 (10)
5
Mindaugas Striska
Team Ultra Adventure Pro Cycling - Sponsored by Hello Kitty
