Another fairly windy today in Norway, though the parcours today are probably as easy as it gets in this competitive five stage race. Three climbs for the riders though, the most difficult will be the slightly shorter ascent near the village of Gol. It is still worth 10 points in the KOM competition and one of the two early breakaways has some points in that comp.
Wei (Bbox) looks for KOM points
The Santander rider is Allonca, he is desperately trying to do something for his promotion chasing team. They may be having a good Vuelta a Espana, but here you feel their team is lightweight. They will take the first sprint prime with Allonca leading over Wei and veteren Bettini nabbing a rather token third. These two also go over the first KOM, Allonca first for the 10 points ahead of Wei who takes nine points to move up to 20 points.
Allonca leads Wei over the first the climb
Remember GC leader Taaramae currently leads the KOM by taking the 30 points for the stage winning climb yesterday, his KOM rivals Klimov(25 pts), Duran (23 pts) and Veilleux (25 pts) go for the minor placings.
3rd Wilman, 4th Duran, 5th Klimov, 6th Veilleux
This takes Duran and Veilluex to 30 points and Klimov just nudges ahead of both these and Taaramae with 31 points. The next two climbs are just 4 pointers, but the battle for the minor placings will be tough again.
Our lead two riders are not really GC threats, well that is until the peleton allow them to get an 11 minute lead with 100km to go. Wei started today 55th place 10.40 back, with Allonca 63rd some 13.20 back. This break is looking interesting, they move into a tricky section with a couple of sprint primes and KOM points. The first sprint prime is Allonca over Wei with Van Heerden third from this lethargic peleton. The KOM comes along with Allonca (up to 14 pts) leading Wei (up to 23 pts) ahead of the big battle for 3rd and 4th.
Karelis grabs his first KOM points, but it is Duran in 4th
So Duran joins Klimov on 31 pts, these riders could do with more points because you get the feeling Taaramae may well go for one of the ones on the last two stages. Up front our virtual leader perhaps struggles against the weight of his virtual yellow jersey.
Nothing virtual about the gap that opens up between Allonca and Wei
The gap does indeed open up here as Allonca will roll over yet another sprint prime and KOM prime combination, with Wei taking second in both. The Bbox man has moved to 26 points in the KOM classification but is fading now. At the sprint a notable name nabs the third place.
Hoogie will get Falcon boogieing about a two second bonus
The last KOM 3rd and 4th place scramble results in Kairelis once again rather oddly romping up for the two points and Telenor's Wilman nabbing the one point.
Nothing to see here for Tinkoff or Santander
Wei then fades back to the peleton, but the Santander lone man Allonca is really going for it. With 15km to go he has a big six minute advantage.
Allonca has plenty of time over the peleton here
Behind though team managers of Petronas and Highroad are setting a fairly quick pace.
Ramping up the speed
They have been correct in their moves as Allonca is really beginning to hit the brick wall, 10km to go he still has four minutes. Which should be enough under normal circumstances, but todays 210+ km stage is a long time to be out in rather windy conditions. The writing is on the wall at the 5km point.
Good sponsership exposure here in Norway for Santander at least
So we have a decent sprint chance here and as Allonca is caught and ultimately distpatched this is the situation with 4km to go.
Sprint train express in Norway
The Ikea train on the left is Flugal, Westling, Impey, Guarnieri, Kritskiy. Meanwhile on the other side of things is the Bettini (what a rider ), Gavazzi and Boeckmans Vespa tradmark train. Bettini is so experienced at these types of situations and manages to eek out a good advantage for his teammate as we come into the last 2.2km.
Bettini does the business for the 1000th time in his long career
However it is a windy finale and as Gavazzi tries to come around he is blasted in the face with a strong wind. This tempers things a bit and favours the strong allrounders...
Riders pour through the middle - I guess like a wind tunnel
Kritskiy is the man in the white jersey (2nd to Taaramae in that), next to the Falcon 'train' of Hoogerland and Eltink. Next to that and moving fastest of all is Petronas GC man Carrara.
Vespa completely disappear as Carrara takes over
Following Carrara and now closing is Tinkoff tough man sprinter Trusov, Falcon's Eltink also is going all out in the sprint. Carrara has enough though to take the stage win and 20 bonification seconds.
There is a gloss to the win by Matt
In the minor placings Trusov takes second over Theo Eltink.
Useful bonifications for Eltink also
Both Eltink and Carrara move up one place in the GC thanks to todays fine sprinting performance, Bravo!
), Gavazzi and Boeckmans Vespa tradmark train. Bettini is so experienced at these types of situations and manages to eek out a good advantage for his teammate as we come into the last 2.2km.
