Day three in Faso and you better get used to the parcours:
Three sprint primes again today and one is interestingly placed just 20km to go until the finish. Another factor to watch for today is a strong desert wind which could break things up as there are some powerful rouler teams here.
The intermediate sprint bonuses will be taken by the breakaway riders today as following an original break of two: Weiss (Mercedes) and Kroupis (Bacardi), there was a further breakaway of three riders Zanagui (Cillit Bang), Hortig (El Al) and Perry (Pirelli).
Two then three riders break clear of the peleton
The three man chase group have not really the necessary power to bring back the front two so we have a stage long chase in prospect. At the first sprint Weiss has enough to take the bonuses ahead of Kroupis.
1. Weiss
2. Kroupis
3. Hortig
After yesterday's successful win for Pokerstars it is them who are controlling this gap and Anthony Geslin is the man for the job.
Geslin (Pokerstars) leads the chase
This is a fairly strong rider for this sort of work and with the wind speed high the peleton really starts to get stretched between the 1st and 2nd sprint points.
It becomes quickly apparent that today will be quite a decisive day for some riders as at the back we have several Cillit Bang riders and also Bacardi's sprint trio (Nazon, Gajek and Kocjan). These riders were be the first casualties as they form a back group pretty much incapable of chasing back.
Pendletons are not happy with just this and they send both Millar and Wiggins to the front to stretch it out further - the Brits want to make this as difficult as possible!
Pendletons pile it on at the front as we are really strung out
Gaps open and close as the teams organise themselves, but the wind is unrelenting and this is really hurting. Almost unnoticed the second sprint prime arrives as the breakaways are still clear at this point they will take it.
1. Weiss
2. Kroupis
3. Perry
In fact Weiss is really giving a good account of himself as he distances Kroupis with about 30km to go and by 25km to go he had a pretty good gap on the peleton (or whats left of it). Now we have 100% Me to the front, they have organised themselves to work with Pokerstars and Pendletons here and the peleton is down to 28.
25km to go: Riders are dropping out of the peleton
This is the gaps situation:
Weiss
Kroupis at 25 seconds
Perry at 1.18
Zanagui at 1.53
28 rider peleton at 2.14 (Van Heerden, Wiggins, Terpstra, Mohs, Davis, Quinzato, Scheirlinckx and Blythe confirmed here)
18 riders at 3.05 (Van Impe, Capelle, Lorenzatto, Haedo, Manan, Loddo)
24 riders at 3.59 (Verbist, Kluge, Vansummeren, Ladagnous)
The rest at 5.11 (Nazon group).
The gaps between the three way peleton split are certainly not unclose able but more riders are dropping off that front group including Sulzberger and Dempster.
Riders drop off of front group indicating the pace is high
The 20km sprint point comes too soon for a catch and so Weiss takes his third consecutive sprint prime - this could move him up on GC if he can hang on.
3rd sprint
1. Weiss
2. Kroupis
3. Van Heerden
Van Heerden takes the third very comfortably, in fact he decides to go on a bit of a dig here reeling in the leaders and overtaking them into the last 10km.
Van Heerden uses sprint to launch a surprise move
This is very significant as the South African is a very decent rider on cobbles and any time gap he gets here could be very difficult to pull back. With 7.5km to go he has 28 second over the front group with the chase led now by Quiksilver. The peleton is still splintered though the second peleton remians close to the first - the third are merging with the Nazon group but are about 90 seconds back.
Quiksilver do an excellent job assumedly for Davis/Scheirlinckx as they manage to reel Van Heerden in before the 5km to go point.
Quiksilver bring home Weiss and Van Heerden
But this pace has led to more casualites (or perhaps some riders have dropped back to pull things together) and we only have 16 riders left in the front group with 4km to go. They are:
Stannard, Blythe (100% Me)
Quinzato, Garbelli, Pagato (Vespa)
Geslin, Terpstra, Mohs (Pokerstars)
T.Kennaugh, Wiggins, Van Heerden (Pendletons)
Cucinatta (Intesa)
Guitterez, Scheirlinckx, Godfrey, Davis (Quiksilver)
However the gap to the next group is only 25 seconds and with plenty of sprinters in that one it looks unlikely there will be gaps to them.
16 do get clear but not be enough to create gaps
However there is still that third peleton with names like GC 3rd place Ladagnous and other decent roulers like Verbist, Vansummeren, Kuchinski and Clement. This group having merged with the Bacardi sprinters is more than two minutes behind. This lot will not get back!
Back to the front though and we have plenty of main sprinters involved in the finale as Mohs, Van Heerden, Blythe, Davis, Cucinotta and even amazingly JJ Haedo have fought their way to the front.
2.4 to go: Cucinotto leads Blythe but big sprinters lie in wait
On the left here is Thomas, Mohs and Van Impe. On the right it is Cucinotta leading ahead of Blythe then T.Kennaugh, Van Heeden with Davis behind ahead of his lead out Murphy. Ascani is the Vespa rider in close order with JJ Haedo making his late move at the bottom of the picture.
It is Mohs who has saved a bit of energy for this as Blythe tries to come around Cucinotta the white jersey comes across to lead them. Van Heerden is trying hard to stay on despite his earlier efforts ahead of Davis and Haedo.
Mohs edges ahead of Blythe/Cucinotta
The German is a powerhouse but then so is Blythe, the wind is strong so the victory is not a given. As they race down the final straight you can hear the Pokerstars team manager screaming (well more like a screech actually!) as if this is some sort of goal of theirs. Mohs responds holding the gap to the driving Briton Blythe.
Mohs is holding on here as Cucinotta fades
It will be Pokerstars 15th Ctour stage win victory of the season as Eric Mohs takes the stage and the GC lead from teammater Terpstra!
Mohs will have pleased his sponsors here
Blythe takes second place to move him ominously up to 3rd place on GC behind Terpstra and Mohs. With Intesa's Cucinotta who has impressed today with a third place which will start to make up for his TTT deficit. Davis takes fourth ahead of a fast finishing Haedo. Haedo's teammater Weiss, part of todays breakaway stayed on in the front group to move to 4th on GC. However the other breakaway riders Perry, Kroupis and Zenagui (the El-Al rider dropped further back still) all came in gapped to the peleton in a 11 man group including Sulzberger, Paolini and Kluge.
