Its a very long day in the saddle today at 228km, we saw yesterday El-Al;s big day out, though it seems a bit fruitless on the face of it. Calzati did not move into a KOM lead and Sylvian Chavenal did not gain any time, worse than that Rast and Calzati lost some classification time.
Of course that will be somewhat neutralised by the fact that Lagutin managed to win the strange sprint, there was somewhat of an automatic light about following the Pokerstars train!
Tomorrow we have a Time Trial, so as ever a number of people might think that a breakaway might have a better chance. The riders were not convinced and once again we just had one rider ploughing the lonely road.
Agnoli of Intesa has drawn the short straw.
So a long lonely day ahead for Agnoli right? I think however the Pendletons team manager may have sent some cash the way of the Unicredit team, as Bodrogi decided to go and that dragged KOM points hunter Olman away with him. Pendletons want to avoid sprint bonuses you see so that they can keep the leaders jersey.
More than one rider on the attack today
They set off after Agnoli after he already has about a two minute gap and that means that it will take some time to reel this one in. So disappointingly for Olman, Agnoli will take the first two mountain primes, he can at least take second place on the first one.
Olman goes the miles towards collecting KOM points
Olman looks a bit peeved as Bodrogi beat him to second in the next, but he gets another point in the bag for third and now 15 points and a 6 point lead. Back in the pack it's the Pendletons trio of Millar, Wiggins and Tim Kennaugh who are doing most of the pace work.
Its Millar time
They are letting the break slide away a bit, the gap is 9 minutes with 125km to go. But it is a very long day, certainly Miles Olman is feeling the effects...
Olman loses contact with Bodrogi
So over the next mountain prime its Agnoli, Bodrogi and then Olman, meaning Agnoli pulls level with Calzati on nine points with Olman now up to 16 points. There is still one more mountain prime to come. However Olman gets reeled in by a fast moving peleton, now led by Highroad who have looked close to landing that elusive win in this race.
Not an entirelly successful day for Olman
The 4th and final mountain prime will be contest by the pack, although they cannot get back to Agnoli in time...
Intesa man banks a total of 12 points
... they do catch Bodrogi and so two new names move to take the sprint, in Unicredits Boy Van Poppel and 100% Me's Wes Sulzburger denying Elizen and Clement!
No longer pointless, but surely pointless point grabbing!
These KOM points grabbers drift back to the pack, but hang on a minute one rider seems to be carrying on with the move. Good gracious its Wiggle GC hope Ignatiev! He calmly moves up to join Agnoli a minute clear of the suprised pack.
Its an attack for bonifications, what a clever Russian
Clearly, Wiggle saw yesterdays move from Sylvian Chavenel saw todays profile and thought hey why not. It suits Ignatievs attacking nature and he moves away from the tiring Intesa man and comfortably takes the sprint.
As if it isn't going to be hard enough to beat Ignatiev already!
Behind him, its not Pokerstars dominating the bonification battle, well they do get a third through Holloway but Kennaugh (100% me) takes the 2nd place.
Some cheer for young sprinting brit
Its pretty clear that this time Pokerstars are saving Dumoulin for the sprint proper. They still have to reel in Ignatiev however who has some funny ideas about winning the stage, at 20km he has 25 seconds and at 10km he has 12 seconds.
Crazy Russian
It seems a bit of a waste of energy this on the day before the Time Trial, then again the attacking Russian is in his element here! Eventually the Pokerstars sprint train reels him in with 6,200metres to go.
The train seems is well oiled mode here today, no messing about Holloway has Dumoulin on his wheel, then its race leader Van Heerden (Pendletons), Seb Chavenel (Bimbo Nutella), Vantomme (Highroad) and Lorenzetto (intesa).
whoop whooop all aboard the Pokerstars train.
100% Me have some ambitions to challenge the Pokerstars train monopoly with one of their own next to the pace snake. Its Dan Lloyd though leading it, not sure the driver is good enough, he leads Kennaugh and its passenger is Borrajo. But the Ignatiev chase has made these guys misjudge the distance to the line as both lead out trains fade as the nasty pace snake once again moves away.
The pace snake has some venom in Dunkirk
Its Hofland (Bimbo Nutella) ahead of Brandle (Unicredit), but these make shift sprinters are hitting the front in a headwind. The real truth reveals itself the sprinters wanted to wait and as they come under 1km to banner it's our expected battle!
Pink vs Green
Van Heerden has a length here on Dumoulin, with Seb Chavenal is 3rd position under 1km to go. As they thunder down the last 1000 meters its clear who's the fastest sprinter here as the Pendletons twicer man takes his second win of the race.
Number two for our race leader
The fastest finisher of all was Vantomme (Highroad) and he took second, just ahead of the Pokerstars man Dumoulin who maintains his lead in the points competition.
In the pack is Ignatiev now 5th in GC happy with the bonuses he has collected.
