Onto the road stages then. Can Cafe de Colombia hold onto the race lead? Well, lucky for them, Castaneda is on the same time as race leader Ivars, and while 5 Vesuvio riders are the same, Vesuvio's sprinter Ben Swift lost 3 seconds. However, Bozic, Holloway, Bewley, Meyer, Lo Cicero, Van Stayen, Goss and Vanoverschelde all join Swift in being within 20 seconds - a race victory time bonus - from the race lead, so theres a good chance of a change in leadership!
And despite having the race lead, a man is sent in the breakaway from Cafe de Colombia, the smallest man in the entire peloton Rodriguez Parra. Not much protection from the wind for anyone behind him, but 'luckily' for Goddaert, Silvestre, Peeters and Rollin, the Colombian isnt relaying.
Pedersen makes it 6 in the break, but while now the strongest sprinter here, doesnt have the energy to go for the intermediate - Peeters taking it from Rollin and Rodriguez Parra
75km to go, the break leads by 5'20. Its not clear whether Tendero and Rogers are chasing in the peloton or not, but what is clear, is that the peloton is being stretched out - the wind certainly helping
A long single file line - roughly 60 riders long - is found at the back of the peloton. Hard work for those in there, they had better hope nobody drops the wheel infront of them
Almost inevitably though, a split emerges.
Top sprinter caught out is Bozic. Also here, surprisingly, is Hagen, aswell as Slovene National Champion Kocjan. 31 riders in total (28 excluding 3 control), the worst affected being Festina, Pendletons and UBS - La Pierre with 4 riders each. 3 each from Spyker, Warner Bros and Bacardi.
If you want to know the exact names of those caught out, scroll down to the bottom of the results list, they arent coming back - theres still another 55km to go, but the pace is too high for them. Not high enough for Morten Reckweg though! His attack lasts 5km, before he is caught, and soon goes again, in pursuit of 2 new attackers: Ratto and Renshaw
Sprint number 2 goes to Rodriguez Parra, from Silvestre and Goddaert. A telling sign that the stage is tough. The winner being someone who hasnt relayed, the next 2 being two who struggled earlier at the first sprint, but are showing their stamina now, exceeding others' sprinting skill.
Reckweg, Renshaw and Gatto catch the break, meanwhile Abakoumov made a move that went nowhere, and got caught again. Hopes for the breakaway are slim though. 30km to go, and Vesuvio have now moved forwards to help Cafe de Colombia.
The break attacks each other as the end nears. Its now just Ratto, Silvestre, Goddaert, Renshaw and Peeters offering resitance
This narrows to Goddaert, Renshaw and Ratto, and then just Ratto, but the Wiggle rider is caught with 16km to go. Vesuvio, Pokerstars and Nestle now sharing the work on front
The sprinters are starting to organise behind the train. Nestle and Vesuvio both have 3 man trains that culminate in Lo Cicero and Swift respectively, while Mohs is just behind those trains, waiting for a gap, so he can link up with his teammates, who are just to the front of Nestle and Vesuvio. The rest of the sprinters dont seem to have team support, and must jostle for their preferred wheel.
Nestle, Pokerstars and Vesuvio continue to ramp the pace up high though, and the back of the peloton retains the long stretched shape it has held all day. Race leader Ivars is amongst those some way back - he is sure to lose his race lead then, with some Vesuvio riders on the same time as him all the way up at the front of the peloton, and the sprinters aswell.
5km to go, and WHAM. Pokerstars come storming through. The Continental Wildcard team are taking no prisoners, with Van Impe infront of Kluge, Degenkolb and Mohs - a scarily strong train
Nobody is even able to grab Mohs wheel. Instead having to settle on the Nestle train of Vitoria, Kupfernagel and Lo Cicero. Only Castaneda, Avelino and Bewley have made it up here though
The rest of the sprinters have simply been blown away by Pokerstars. The likes of Richeze, Goss, Roelandts, Swift, Holloway, Rowe and Vanderbiest can all be seen here as well as Ballan, and the remains of the relay train
Kluge continues the Pokerstars charge as Vitoria does his best for the rest to keep up, into the last 2.5km. (The Vesuvio rider on Bewleys wheel isnt Swift by the way)
1.6km to go and Kluge has torn off, job done. Degenkolb is building up the sprint as Kupfernagel has jumped out from Vitoria to desperately try to close the gap - Lo Cicero doesnt seem to be following though. In the distance, it seems like Richeze and Goss are leading attempts to at least get to Bewley's wheel
Into the final kilometre and finally Mohs gets to go. Has he ever had it so easy?
The fastest sprinters now are Swift and Holloway - actually a Pokerstars rider, on loan to Festina for a year, getting the sight of what he can expect next year - but theyre simply battling to get into the Top 10, doing the best of those who missed the boat, along with Roelandts
As Erik Mohs takes the stage! Pokerstars delivered it up, and he finished it off, brilliant display
Lo Cicero takes 2nd place, while Castaneda takes 3rd - ensuring the race lead stays with Cafe de Colombia. 4th for Bewley, while Avelino got himself blocked in behind leadouts, so Degenkolb is able to take 5th place. Holloway is 'best of the rest' for 8th, while even Kluge managed to hold on to a Top 10 placing
Think thats the end of the drama? Well, last we checked the peloton was stretched out, but 142 riders in number. So here is one of the days attackers Ratto crossing the line in 76th place. Behind him, gaps!
First a group of 8, with 3 Webeffects and the Norwegian champion Kristoff. And then a much larger group - 58 riders. Michael Rogers and Oz Project lead it over. In here are the now former race leader Sebastien Ivars, last year's winner William Ford, and various others
And then theres that group of 31. They gave up altogether eventually, and slowly rolled along, wishing the day would end. And so it did for them, 16 and a half minutes after Mohs and co.
So, lets evaluate, Only 76 riders left in the race for overall victory here, and Castaneda has moved into an 8 second lead, thanks to his 3rd place time bonus. Behind him though, an eruption of Vesuvio, taking up positions 2,3,4,5,6,10 and 11. For only 3 teams managed to keep their full squad in that front group, and it just so happened to be the 3 teams tearing things up in the final kilometres: Vesuvio, Pokerstars and Nestle. Well, you cant say they didnt work for it!
Mohs' win takes him to 14th in GC, moving from 26 to 14 down on Castaneda, while Lo Cicero is into 7th. Mohs takes the points jersey aswell, while Luxembourg sprinter Nico Schinker becomes the best young rider.
