We are back on the flat today following yesterday's oh so tight time trial. We have a new leader with Benoît Vaugrenard
taking over from Cameron Meyer
Meyer is now the holder of the point's jersey with Jianhua Ji
in charge of the young riders jersey.
It is the point's jersey that will likely be the one battled for at the end of today's flat stage with the sprinters seemingly pretty equal, the victory appears to be going the way of the rider who times his sprint the best. Again the main opposition to Cam Meyer appear to be Óscar Guerao Anthony Lavoine Juan Van Heerden Matt Rowe Jurgen Roelandts
The is an extra factor today with a pretty poor weather forecast it is going to be wet and wild out there, the protour riders were trying to avoid this winter European like weather!
It's a very attacking start and some of the usual suspects are away once again.
are amongst those in the early attempts. As usual though the sprinters teams are not happy with the amounts of riders clear and chase everything. With the wind high a few riders get caught out in the back, including 4th in GC Dominique Cornu Dmitri Grabovski
. It's a problem for this group of eight who are now exposed and will hope a break quickly establishes itself.
Unfortunately for them the break does take a while and a second larger group loses touch with the peleton after 25 kilometres that includes: Jackson RodrÃguez
and Jianhua Ji
This group is somewhat larger and will hope to work their way back as finally a break is allowed a bit of a gap. It is larger than we have had before though with now 11 riders clear at the front.
This managed to form before the first sprint with Nestle's Gretsch getting a nice little jump on Weiss of Spyker Cars to take the points and time.
It is Ghyselinck of Bacardi who takes the third place, the bonuses however feel largely irrelevant today. Back behind the best young rider Jianhua Ji and his large 40 + group are safely back in the peleton.
But the Cornu/Grabovski 8 man group cannot get back before the pace needs to be ramped up by Jack Wolfskin to draw in the 11 man break. It seems that Cornu is being sacrificed today, probably sensible with the big Green mountain stage tomorrow.
Pearl Adidas and Carmuese are lending a hand, but it is a cautious chase here with the wind high the riders are clearly concerned about ripping this thing to shreds.
Up front the 11 riders are braving the elements and one of the bravest having been active all week is Focused's Cedric Pineau. He easily takes the second sprint a good reward for the amount of activity he has shown.
Champion takes second place with Bouet third, the break now looking to concentrate on holding the advantage. The road here begins to narrow, we are heading inland towards the mountain ranges for tomorrow and the surfaces may not be that great. With the rain starting to hammer down it seems almost inevitable that a certain rider is likely to fall.
Robert Gesink
takes a tumble, falling from the front of the peleton though he has remounted and seems safe towards the back of the bunch. However his crash may still damage his GC aspirations as in front of him a split appears.
Again it is 40 ish riders that are cut adrift, with few significant GC contenders other than Gesink and white jersey wearer Ji it could be tough to organise a chase back. Team communication seems to be down the pan also as at the front Gesink's Jack Wolfskins teammates continue to set the pace!
To be fair to Jack Wolfskin they are not the only team now setting the pace up front Wikipedia, Carmeuse and Wiggle are among those giving it some. They head under 30km to go and the gap is around two minutes to the 11 up front and the Gesink group is over three minutes back.
A black jersey launches feeling he can outpace the peleton.
It's Andrew Tennant
once again.
Recognizing that this finish is going to be a nasty one to control perhaps thinking that there could be more crashes a few riders are marking and following this move: Vitor Rodrigues Koen De Kort Rafael Valls
The four riders join up with the 11 up front to make a 15 man breakaway group, but with 16km to go the gap is falling under a minute to the Wikipedia led pack.
The groups behind the peleton are having no joy whatsoever, Gesinks group is now four minutes down his GC dreams surely in tatters with Cornu another three minutes down.
The peleton are finding it hard to close the break down also as Andrew Tennent has found some allies with good legs. The Brit has the best and repeatedly attacks to get away alone with 5km left followed by Rijntjes of Festina.
He goes under the 5km to go mark.
Unsually this is the time that sprint trains form but in this nasty wind no-one seems capable of forming a decent train. Other riders are looking at this confusion and deciding to do a Tennent, now it is the other wildcard team in action as Romain Sicard
goes followed by: Tim Dees Vitor Rodrigues
It is an amazing show of power by Tennent as he powers through the tough conditions, no-one in the peleton is taking responsibility and Rijntjes having been in the breakaway cannot close either. Sicard is making ground but a little too slowly and now we are into the last 2500m it is becoming possible for this 'suicide' attack to succeed.
No sprint trains today as the power sprinters are at least gathered at the front, perhaps they can reel the Brit in with a big accelleration. Wikipedia seem ready to pounce with Farrar and Van Heerden waiting for the best time.
Other sprinters in the picture here are:
Green jersey Cameron Meyer Jurgen Roelandts Michael Vanderaerden Mathieu Drujon Matt Rowe Anthony Lavoine
Though it is looking increasingly unlikely that they will be fighting it out for a stage win here as Andrew Tennant is sprinting under the kite.
With Rijntjes and Sicard fighting it out for 2nd and 3rd, we can see finally Van Heerden has launched with Meyer and Pederson taking his wheel.
But with a big gap behind Tennant he can begin to celebrate an excellent punchaers style win in the rain.
The sprinters manage to get up to the two behind as they duke out the minor places.
Jaan Van Heerden grabbing second, he looked the strongest today and may be frustrated. Cam Meyer though just is edged out be the enterprising Sicard for third with Rijntjes fifth. Pederson followed the right wheels to nab sixth and it's Roelandts who leads the rest in.
Rowe is eighth with stage two winner Lavoine ninth, so some disappointment amongst the sprinters on this wet and windy day.
Indeed the race referees confirm a gap of over two minutes is recorded, this has happened before to the Colombian and this is a big blow to Festina's high points scoring hopes.
Speaking of GC hopes lets spare a through for Robert Gesink who had an awful day finally finishing over SIX minutes back along with the now former young jersey wearer Jianhua Ji.
Jack Wolfskin to manage to hold onto Vaugrenard's race lead with Andrew Tennant slotting in at second place nine seconds down with now Wolfskin's leader Plaza third.
