Second stage is almost a carbon copy of the first stage. 2 Intermediate sprints before around 10km 1st category climb and then downhill to the finish. It should be another day for the sprinters.
Yesterday’s stage winner, Polivoda will come with increased confidence today and will be the favorite to win again. Abdallah will be his biggest threat it seems, at least MTN’s train looked spot on. Dekkers & Rizza had slightly disappointing results and will definitely try to achieve some better results today. Geoffrey Soupe from Alstom might be the dark horse, he had high speed at the end yesterday, but was far too back to fight for the win. And we can’t discount yesterday’s surprise, Dani Moreno. I think more people will watch out for him today.
25km in the stage and we have yet to see any signs of anyone attacking. This means the first intermediate sprint will be contested by the sprinters.
Rizza (Die Berg Komt Er) shows pure power to take full points here. Hans Dekkers (Allianz-BMW) comes 2nd and Polivoda (Privatbank) grabs the remainder of the points here.
Hayden Roulston (WWE) attacks straight after and now is heading up the 1st category climb with full support of the fans. He holds lead of slightly under 3 minutes with less than 45km to go. He of course wins the intermediate sprint along the way.
Meanwhile in the peleton Faycal Hamza (JAG) makes half-hearted attack with 1km to go, but is caught soon after.
While Houlston takes maximum points available today, quite surprisingly no-one in the peleton when for it and let the lads from Privatbank take most of the points available. Those 12 points here from Daniel Hoelgaard make sure he’ll take over the classification tomorrow.
Hichem Chaabane (PFG-Armavia) attacks and joins Roulston with an downhill attack. However at 20km mark we can see the peleton in the distance. Just over a minute remaining. It’s doubtful the two can make it, but they will definitely try.
With the 10km banner soon upon us the break knows it’s fate. Die Berg Komt Er are setting the pace at the moment. Allianz is trying to challenge them, meanwhile MTN look a bit all over the place at the minute.
We’re coming closer to the finish and no team is taking control. It’s all very tense as no team wants to loose this opportunity to take the precious win. All the big sprinter names are present at the front.
We go over the 5km banner and finally it’s MTN setting it up. Same scenario as yesterday, Rafiki Uwimana on the front, followed by Ben Youcef and Abdallah. Can they make this work better than yesterday ?
2.8km to go and Matteo Carrara (Allianz) opens the sprint for Hans Dekkers. It’s still Uwimana on the lead, meanwhile the other sprinters are vying for Abdallah’s wheel. Soufiane Haddi (Barcelona) looks to have won that fight and be in very good position for the final.
1.8km and Ben Youcef (MTN) opens the show! Dekkers moves onto Abdallah’s wheel while on the left Duque (Die Berg) begins his lead-out of Rizza. Geoffrey Soupe (Alstom) sits ominously on Rizza’s wheel ready to make the move when the chance comes. Behind him sits yesterday stage winner, Polivoda.
Last corner and a straight till the finish! Sprinters can see the finish line now and it's Abdallah (MTN) that opens it up from the favourites, however it looks slightly too early. Meanwhile on the left Duque is still holding it out for Rizza.
800 metres and Rizza makes the move! However as soon as he goes into the lead, Soupe comes out of his wind stream and challenges Rizza shoulder to shoulder. Dekkers is still waiting to open up behind Abdallah.
As Rizza goes backwards it's Soupe looking unstoppable! Polivoda who is right behind him can't do much against him. Dekkers finally goes, but doesn't look nearly as fast as Soupe at this moment.
Soupe takes a relatively easy win today! Bit of tactical skill of following the right wheel at the end proved to be the main ingredient for this win today. Hans Dekkers finishes on second and Polivoda snatches another good result on 3rd, keeping his leader's jersey for another day.
Geoffrey Soupe
Hans Dekkers
Oleksandr Polivoda
Emanuele Rizza
Nico Schinker
Francisco Anton Martin
Guillaume Boivin
Cherif Abdallah
Daniel Hoelgaard
Amaro Antunes
Hayden Roulston
Faycal Hamza
