Time for the first mountain stage. The final climb is pretty long but always with low percentages. But still the favourites must be concentrated as it will be hard to come back if you are gapped.
7 riders attacked directly after the start.
Le Gac (10th/+18)
Ford (12th/+20)
Veloso (13th/+20)
Kinney (20th/+24)
Roux (29th/+27)
Seeldraeyers (41st/+3'56)
Hiratsuka (52nd/+6'01)
Especially Veloso is a big danger for the favourites. So Jayco putting the pressure on the other teams.
Kinney winning the first two sprints ahead of Ford and Veloso.
Third and last sprint is won by Ford with Le Gac and Kinney following.
A mix of Focus and Hollister riders are doing the pace in the peloton.
Jayco and Pirelli with a good tactic sending a guy into the break to avoid this extra work.
Veloso beating Seeldraeyers and Hiratsuka at the first KoM sprint...
...while Seeldraeyers takes the second KoM ahead of Veloso and again Hiratsuka.
Already on this mountain many sprinters are falling back although the slopes are not that hard. No problems for the GC riders.
Hollister and Focus obviously notice that they did way too less today. So they send more guys to the front to chase the breakaway. With 40km to go and more than 7min for the group it`s looking like also Bazajev is not able to defend the leader jersey.
Meanwhile Roux, Ford and Hiratsuka attack as they know, that Veloso and Seeldreayers will be stronger in the end.
But while these two close the gap again, Puma`s Le Gac can`t follow them any longer.
Surely one of these will win as the gap is still at 5min. Hiratsuka once again attacks with 2km to go.
But it`s Seeldreayers with the strongest uphill punch, who wins the stage and comes back in the fight for the top 10 after losing lots of time on the first stage. Also he will get the KoM jersey after this stage.
Veloso takes 2nd and is a big danger for the big favourites now.
But due to the bonus seconds at the sprints Pirelli`s Kinney (3rd) will keep the leader jersey in their rows.
Le Gac finishes almost 3min later but still improving a lot in the overall rankings today as the peloton is still not there.
Augustyn leads the peloton 4'21 later over the line. Many favourites will regret to allow such a huge gap to Veloso today as they totally relaxed today, but now they have to attack on the other stages.
Bazayev as 2nd of the peloton collects another 7 points as only of all sprinters and defends his jersey.
Although the peloton was still pretty huge one GC rider lost another 29s today. Emu`s Krasnoperov obviously celebrated Seeldraeyers win too early and was gapped in the end.
