Today is the first of four consecutive flat stages. Yesterday's prologue has spread the riders out a fair bit, but with three intermediate sprints and bonus seconds at the finish up for grabs, we should see some changes to the GC.
Kip, Kupfernagel and Haussler are the most obvious contenders for the stage win. The first two are probably also eyeing the yellow jersey.
With that in mind, we join coverage with a breakaway trio having distanced the peloton early. Schelling initiated the attack, and quickly got accompanied by Chernetskiy and Vandousselaere.
Interestingly, it's the Bpost rider who is best placed in the general classification: just 16 seconds down on his team leader Cornu. With three intermediate sprints a la 6 seconds available, he is actually a danger to the race lead.
And without too much of an effort, he takes a step towards that by winning the first intermediate sprint, around halfway in. Chernetskiy takes the 4 seconds behind him, with Schelling settling for 3rd place and 2 seconds.
The day's only KoM sprint follows shortly afterwards, and this time it's Chernetskiy who rolls over first. Schelling 2nd and Vandousselaere 3rd.
Another little while later, they arrive at the second sprint prime. The order is the same as last time, with Vandousselaere moving up to 3rd place in the overall - just 4 seconds off the lead.
With the final sprint and a chance for more seconds just 25 km down the road, it's starting to look good for him. The peloton is 4'30 back.
Getting there takes them no time at all, and an impressive Vandousselaere once again guns down his two companions for the 6 seconds. That takes his total gain up to 18 seconds - meaning that Cornu will lose the jersey tonight unless he steals bonifications at the finish!
Chernetskiy and Schelling both gain plenty of seconds as well, but they both entered the day too far down on GC to advance particularly far.
After that sprint, the breakees appear to lose their interest in pursuing their attack. The peloton thus catches them already 20 km from the finish.
Or actually not, as Vandousselaere drops the others to continue by himself.
With admirable strength, he pulls the gap up to around 40 seconds again, but the sprinter teams are relentless and it's all back together with 8 km to run.
The sprint trains now come to the fore, with AMEX and SRAM pushing each other with three men each. Behind them, the other sprinters are fighting for wheels, with the yellow jersey also trying to stay out of trouble.
Reinhardt
Gerdemann
Selig
Eichler
Kupfernagel
Haussler
Gavazzi
Van Wyk
Feillu
Briggs
Priamo
Cornu
Ascani
Giaux
Irvine
Notably missing are both of ING's threats Kip and Bazayev, along with Geschke. All three of them seem to have problems moving forward, as they're sitting a few hundred metres back from the front.
Moving back to the head of the race, Kupfernagel has apparently decided to throw the stage win away by leaving Selig's slipstream with 2,5 km to go.
Gavazzi says thanks for the leadout as he follows the slipstream, while Eichler is forced to open for Haussler, who is being tracked by Feillu.
There might actually not have been much reason to get stressed for SRAM though, as Kupfernagel turns out to be completed exhausted.
Eichler easily blows past him and into the lead, with Haussler and Feillu getting pulled clear of the other sprinters.
But from behind, Gavazzi strikes back with 1500m to go!
Haussler sees the danger and quickly tries to jump onto the wheel, while Feillu disappears completely. Instead, it's Graham Briggs coming up with the highest speed of all.
No one can match Gavazzi's acceleration though, and the Italian starts to leave the rest behind under the final kilometer kite.
Briggs is leading the pursuit behind as Haussler is running out of steam.
And shockingly, we see non-sprinters Rovny and Cornu having gone into 3rd and 4th position. Perhaps he can defend that jersey, after all?
Almost without breaking a sweat, Gavazzi wins!
Behind, Briggs fades away in the final metres, leaving 2nd place for Rovny. Haussler takes 3rd after finding some new power.
Cornu lost some speed in the end, but still does remarkably well and shows that he wants to win the overall. Hermans follows in 6th.
Kupfernagel somehow takes 7th, despite looking dead with over 2 km remaining. Tiainen, Giaux and Eichler complete the top 10.
The drama isn't quite over yet, as we notice that a gap has opened a little further back. Among those caught behind are potential race leader Vandousselaere and best young rider Viennet. But is the gap enough?
Apparently not, according to the organizers. Therefore, Vandousselaere pulls on the leader's jersey with Bpost now leading 1-2 at the top!
