It's another out and back circuit style stage today and the weather forecast is not kind with rain expected all day. Team Dyson controlled the stage for Simon Gaywood
yesterday only for the opportunistic Ivan Stevic
to nip in and take the stage and overall lead on yesterdays opener.
With the time trial stage coming up in two stages time there are lots of attacks for the time bonuses at the first sprint with them all being neutralised. One of the better chrono men experienced Irishman Stephen Gallagher
takes the opening sprint ahead of Oleg Chuzhda
and Lars Andersson
This proves the break that snaps the cord between the escapees and the pack with originally eight others joining the three successful sprint prime grabbers. The names: Gill Van Winckel Andreas Anderegg Steve Zampieri Thom Van Dulmen Steve Bekaert Marlen Zmorka Perrig Quemeneur Aleksandr Bespalov
This creates an interesting 11 man break of the day.
Three Adecco's looking at Van Dulman, who along with Quemeneur, Gallagher, Chuzda and Bespolov are all very useful against the clock. None climb that great which is possibly why the pack with one eye on Stage 7's climbing stage are allowing some leeway.
None the less the two teams with the top two on GC are looking to control the move, that being Serbian Telecom and Dyson.
The second sprint is taken by Chuzda who seems to have the best kick out of the breakaway men, having been just edged out by Gallagher at the first manages to reverse on the Irishman. Bespolov picks up a useful two seconds for third.
The chase is on and we notice three AMEX riders at the back, it is a disaster for Anthony Colby
one of the prerace GC favourites who has suffered a fall in the rain and is being paced by Matthew Crane
and Rüdiger Selig
It is damage limitation I am afraid as the pack is beginning to motor wanting to reel in the breakaway. As is common though in the Division two races the smaller teams and lack of superstrong roulers allows for late attacks.
Kevin Barclay
goes with 20km to go.
He is joined by Brett Lancaster
amd Juri Krivtsov
The Metinvest rider really lit up the late stages yesterday and here he goes again looking for something before that time trial for which he also excels. However the three whilst making ground on the break still are not back to them. It leads the pack by just under two minutes with 15km left.
It is the two Adecco riders Zampieri and Anderegg who are working really hard to help keep Van Dulmen away. Though in truth others in the break such as Chuzda and Gallagher are really benefiting.
One more rider decides to give it a burst as Joost Van Leijen
looks to hook up with the three chasers.
The four chasers however cannot make the ground up in the rain and as we move into the final five kilometers the break still hold 90 second on the three and two minutes on the pack. However Adecco's pulling stops and things get disorganized and slow down dramitically. So much so infact that both the chasers and the pack come into view with 1.5km to go.
Looking at the pack Samsung-Mol and Petrobrus have launched their big fast men in Daniel Thorsen
and Ruben Bongiorno
The latter rider in his home country looks comfortable as he rounds the last bend with 600m to go and the sprinters have worked their way to the head of affairs!
It has been a long sprint by the Argentinean and suddenly Oleg Chuzhda finds a second wind to follow. It's Ashley Hutchinson
who is challenging Thorson.
Bongiorno cannot hold his pace and the Ukrainian manages to nip back round the Petrobrus man to take the win.
A really good day for the Ukrainian who grabs 30 bonus seconds through the day to go comfortably in the lead and maybe with enough of a cushion to hold for some time. Hutchinson took third with Thorson tying up badly at the end there to come 6th behind Horst(UPC) and Bespalov (Gazprom).
