That scenario is not nailed on however and teams with no sprinters will be hoping for an attack to succeed.
Quickly a group of three is established off the front of the bunch containing a trio of riders. The names are Lampaert, Fouche and Veilleux. Strange to see an Allianz rider attacking as they have one of the stage favorites on their team.
And that is all that is needed to form the breakaway. The peloton seem uninterested in this terrible weather and Gazelle are just soft pedaling along on the front. The gap is currently at 2’34 and growing.
As the first of two intermediate sprints is reached it has swelled to 4’25. Veilleux makes use of his sprinting ability, taking the six points ahead of Fouche and Lampaert in that order.
The rain has stopped at the first mountain sprint but the outcome is the same. Veilleux takes it, while the other two reverse positions. With 115 kilometers still to ride until the finish, the trio’s gap has peaked at a large 8’22 and has started to go down thanks to Gazelle, Credexbank and BNCR working well.
Suddenly as the rain begins to come down again, there is bad news for BNCR. Leadout man Morales has punctured and has a dropped a few minutes behind the fast peloton. It remains to be seen whether he can catch up.
Morales does indeed re-join the peloton, but he is not the focus currently. Gazelle are working well at the front, slowly reeling the breakaway in. The Dutch team seems to be working for Weening, who should have a good chance to claim the GC during the hilly stage 4.
There is still a 4’50 void for the bunch to ride across though, so don’t count out the front three yet.
The road has started to get slippery, and a bend in the road sees Credexbank’s co-leader Clarke. The Australian sprinter will want to get back to the peloton quickly.
At the front, the three leaders are into the final 50kms. Their gap has shrunk further to 3’01 and will need a miracle to hold on from here.
The trio make it to the next sprint where Veilleux repeats his earlier successes by beating Lampaert and Fouche again. The bunch has eased off the pace slightly and the gap is holding at around three minutes. Very strange behavior, maybe the trio can profit from it?
But at the final mountain sprint of the day, everything is back in check with under two minutes separating the two groups.
Veilleux again wins the sprint making it 4/4 today. He will be rewarded with the Mountains jersey tomorrow. The other two stay in the same order as Mountain sprint 1.
Ben Youcef also falls, and is just in front of Clarke on the road. Strange to see that every rider off the back of the peloton today is one of the top sprinters. MTN will be hoping he can latch back on but it is looking bleak.
Lampaerts has started working hard and is pulling the breakaway well. The peloton are still favorites though with the gap at 1’27 with 19 kilometers to go.
Banco Costa Rica inject some pace at the front and quickly pull back a minute on the break in just 5 kilometers. Lampaerts and Fouche won’t give up just yet though, and attack away from Veilleux who seems to be tired after winning every sprint.
But their attacks are no use. All three riders are engulfed with 12 kilometers to the line, meaning there will be a bunch sprint today. Credexbank and BNCR are setting the pace at the moment.
With 6 kilometers left, nothing has changed. No team has yet set up a train, and Credexbank and BNCR still have control. They look most likely to set up a leadout though.
4000m to the finish now and Credexbank have Papok in front of Kanovsky. Not really a train but a leadout nonetheless. Can the Belarusian team deliver him to the line well with only one rider in assistance? If they can’t Uwimana, Dekkers and Lay are well positioned just behind.
Also it is worth noting that some good hilly riders like Kirchen and Jumabekov have been dropped off the back of the bunch due to the high pace. We stay at the front though.
The sprint has started, and Blasquez has launched an early sprint. Teammate Lay and the rest of the sprinters have moved across into his wheel while Papok is still leading out Kanovsky and Uwimana.
The Credexbank train got overtaken as they lost men, so Kanovsky has dropped back a bit. Disappointing for them.
Only 400m to the line and there is still a very close battle at the front. Ciocan is in the lead after accelerating well out of the final bend. Lasca is only a few centimeters behind him. Coming through fast though is Sutton!
Romainan rider Ciocan holds on to take a surprise win for Mobil! A great final sprint from him, which puts him into the leader’s jersey. Sutton comes through to get second with Lasca rounding out the podium. He faded badly in the last few meters.
In hindsight that was quite a strange sprint, with the riders being lead out not faring well. This could be because the wind and rain was very strong, so the weaker sprinters didn't fare well. If you didn’t go at around 1000m left, you faded or were too late. Many favorites had a very bad day due to this.
