So Pendletons powered their way to the opening Team victory and now we have five flat stages which will likely prove a tussle for time bonuses and sprint stage victories before that key 'rough road' stage seven.
Most stages have three sprint primes as well as the finish and so when we have a small breakaway there will be interest for the bonifications from the peleton. This is what would prove to happen today as a two man break establishes itself.
El Al and Cillit Bang send a rider each clear
It is Burlutskiy of El Al and Reekers of Cillit Bang who are clear, it is a young all Israeli squad for El Al. Expectations will be low here but just one breakaway success could be very useful as could the old get in break - nab bonus seconds - stick in peleton at end trick. These two are well clear by that first sprint prime and it is:
1st Burlutskiy
2nd Reekers
then behind we get a first glance at Faso's sprint trains:
Pokerstars look the handiest for sprint trains
So from left to right we have:
Ascani, Gatto (Vespa)
Paolini (Pireli), Tim Kennaugh (Best Youth: Pendletons), Kocjan (Bacardi)
Hoffmann, Kip (Cillit Bang)
Kluge, Mohs (Pokerstars), Cucinotta (Intesa)
Murphy (Quiksilver)
It is Mohs who is the strongest sprinter here and as such he easily takes the 3rd place.
3rd Mohs
Easy pickings for German
Of course Van Heerden, Davis, Haedo and Loddo's decision not to go for the sprint may give them more energy at the end. But with their lead outs tiring themselves out positioning will be important. Pendletons have a lot then to gain from pulling it back, not least because they simply have the two classifications leads (GC and Youth). Tyler Butterfield and David Millar keep control of the breakaways gap.
Butterfield controls the gap to the two man break
The two sprints about midway through the stage gave the same results as the first.
1.Burlutskiy
2.Reekers
3.Mohs
The German sprinting out of the peleton found it relatively easy to take the third place two second and two point bonus because once again he was not challenged by the best sprinters. Though at sprint two he was pushed pretty close by Cillit Bang's Kip.
Mohs cashes in on the third places
The German had a brilliant Tour of Britain this year - though will have been disappointed with his performances in the flat classics this season. He has stolen some early seconds in the classification battle and Pokerstars only started the day 4 seconds down. It means he has currently overtaken Wiggins and company.
What of the two breakaways though, well they are caught with 24km to go and as Burtulskiy and Reekers drift off the back of the peleton (meaning bonus seconds are wasted) the entire El Al team decide to drop back and keep them company (not the Cillit Bang lot though)/
Those Israelis stick together
They will lose 3.30 by the end of the day, marking the end perhaps of the entire teams GC ambitions.
Up front as we enter the finale the tension mounts as we are going to get our first major sprint showdown here in Faso. However the major four sprinters Van Heerden, Davis, Mohs and Haedo are badly out of position with 3.6km to go.
In the picture here you can see in the top circle we have the Australian champions green jersey of Allan Davis next to Jaan Van Heerden. In the second circle further back we have Haedo and Mohs, with so many talented secondary sprinters here it will be tough for them to make an impact.
3.6 to go : Main sprinters circled
So with no sprint trains and really no established sprinters (Loddo, Gatto, Blythe, Lorenzatto, Nazon, Gajek and Kip are nowhere either), it gives others the oppurtunity not just for the stage win but may a leaders jersey too.
It is Terpstra (Pokerstars) who is leading out with 2.3km to go.
2300m to go: Terpstra leads a line of 'non-sprinters'
The order here then is:
Terpstra, Bol (Mercedes), Guitterez (Quiksilver), Pagato (Vespa), Sentjens (Intesa), Stannard (100% Me), Jacques-Maynes (Merc), Kroupis (Bacardi) and Perry (Pirelli)
You can see the Yellow jersey of Brad Wiggins at the bottom of the shot.
In the next kilometre it is Intesa's useful rouler/cobbler Sentjens who moves forward, he is making an impression on most but not really Terpstra up front.
1.3 to go: Terpstra has his head down and is moving away
Towards the bottom of your picture here behind the two Bacardi men you will see a 100% Me rider, that is Wes Sulzberger who is coming through quickly with Manan (Cillit Bang) and Lorenzatto (Intesa) on his wheel. Into the final kilometre these three barge their way through the middle - however the large gap to Terpstra remains.
600m to go: They are battling for podium places behind
Sulzberger goes past Sentjens dragging Kip with him, eliminating Sentjens (a contander for that cobbled stage) out of the bonus seconds. But up front the glory goes to Pokerstars who grab their 14th CTour stage win of the season!
Terpstra grabs the win - noone could live with his speed
Sulzberger came through for a powerful second ahead of Manan - capping an active day for Cillit Bang. Terpstra will more into to the GC lead ahead of teammate Mohs with Sulzberger up to sixth.
Behind there is more than just Reekers and the Cillit Bang riders distanced, Pendletons pacer Tyler Butterfield loses 2.35 as does their sprint bonus battler Tim Kennaugh (actually just loses 2.03). Also a large group of mainly those sprint bonus battlers are distanced, the biggest casualties are Kluge and Paolini who lose a valuable 1.07.
