And here we are with the 2nd stage of the Dauphine Libere. Hopefully, it's going to be an exciting stage. It's likely to end in a mass-sprint, and I've noted that it's not the top-top sprinters who are present at this race - it's "just" the top-sprinters And that also gives nearly all sprinters (as well as semi-sprinters) a possibility of winning.
As expected, a few riders managed to get in the breakaway. Following riders were present: Vaugrenard, Kozontchuk, Bernucci, Knees and last, but not least, David Millar who will probably be trying to pick up some sprint bonusses along the way. On the first team, Kozontchuk also showed why he's present - he has ambitions for the mountain jersey.
Despite having some trouble working together with each other to begin with, they finally decided to give it a try anyway, and that resulted in a rather large gap. Kilometers after kilometers, the gap increased, and at one point it reached 12 minutes. The peloton weren't going to let them go, though. With 100 km to go, the gap was down to 6'52 minutes - more than enough time for Kozontchuk to get all the mountain points on today's stage. And it was also more than enough for Millar to pick up the sprint bonusses - if just he had actually had the sprinting abilities to be able to do so. Millar didn't get a single second - he was outsprinted in every sprint
Anyway, as expected, the break is caught with 41 km to go, meaning that the peloton has a lot of time to stabilize before getting to the sprint.
Nothing happens, no one dares to attack. It's a day for the sprinters - and here we are at the very beginning of the sprint. It will be a fight between sprinters like Steegmans, Haedo, Davis, Ventoso, Haussler and types like that. All of them are present in this sprint.
With 1 km to go it's (surprisingly) Luca Paolini who's leading in front of Allan Davis. Behind him, it's Barbosa and Napolitano. By the way: It's never good to place a roundabout just before the finish line. In this case, nothing happened, except for Mori falling. It could have ended up much worse.
A very well-timed sprint gives Allan Davis the victory! Napolitano gets 2nd just in front of Paolini.
And that also gives nearly all sprinters (as well as semi-sprinters) a possibility of winning.
