184 kilometers from Riemst to Genk sees this year’s Eneco Tour visit Belgium. It’s another stage for the sprinters, and it’s another stage with three intermediate sprints. The final one is only 22 kilometers away from the finishing line.
It's another day out in the sun for the riders as they get ready to roll. According to the bookmakers favourites for the stage win are Napolitano Cavendish Roelandts
Rothaus-Aegon Evian-MIAT Sram-Riboxx
don’t let anybody attack clear of the peloton on the opening kilometers. Perhaps they want to have their big sprinters fighting it out for the first intermediate sprint?
No, it doesn’t look like that was their plan. 28 kilometers into the stage, 11 kilometers away from the first sprint, we’ve a breakaway of three. Rodriguez Galindo Chérel Alafaci
All three of them were active on the first stage, but then they didn’t succeed to join the breakaway. They’ve established a lead of one minute.
Alafaci
is the fastest sprinter of the three, and so he proves. He wins the first intermediate sprint with ease. Chérel
claims four bonus seconds, while Rodriguez Galindo
has to settle for two.
All three of them are only 20 seconds behind race leader Haussler
before today’s stage, meaning those bonifications might prove valuable.
Proni
finds out late that he wants to join the fun up front. 135 kilometers from the finishing line he ends a remarkable solo chase, catching up with the breakaway, meaning it’s four riders fighting the peloton.
Their lead is 3’20.
100 kilometers to go, and there’s nothing sensational going on. The four escapees co-operates well, now leading the peloton by 5’40.
Speaking of the peloton, it’s PFG-Armavia Rothaus-Aegon Sram-Riboxx
doing the work.
It’s also interesting to see stage favourite Roelandts
close to the front. Yesterday he messed up his positioning and was never in contention for the win. Today he seems determined to change that.
Eventhough the stage looks flat as a pancake, there are actually two short hills on the route which averages about 10%. Herere the peloton is facing the last one, 70 kilometers away from home. You can see Cavendish
up the road on the left, close to the head of the peloton.
Alafaci
seems to be the man to beat for these intermediate sprints. He wins the second rather easily as well. Proni
uses his acceleration to grab second place.
It’s 60 kilometers left of the stage with the breakaway being 4’25 ahead.
48 kilometers to go, and the race radio becomes noisy. It’s a disaster for AirBaltic-Endura. Vaitkus
has crashed. Luckily no one else went down. There’s no doubt his team believe in him, seeing they drop five riders to help him, including Docker
It’s a good and effective chase from the Lithuanian team. They join the peloton only eight kilometers later. Now we can only cross fingers Vaitkus
isn’t hurt from his crash.
Alafaci
pulls of the hat trick, as he also nails the final intermediate sprint! That could mean a very nice GC placing after today’s stage, if he manages to not fall behind the peloton. Proni
is second once again.
They’re fighting well up front, eventhough
Evian-MIAT is giving it everything back in the peloton, they’re struggling to get the four attackers back! The gap is 1’40 20 kilometers from the finishing line.
13 kilometers to go, and Metinvest-Emirates isn’t the luckiest team on the road today. Zmorka
crashed a couple of kilometers earlier, and now it’s Grosu
who has taken a tumble. And this one does definitely not look good!
Rothaus-Aegon Evian-MIAT
have timed their chase to perfection. They catch the early attackers eight kilometers from the line. It will be all about the gladiators once again.
The different trains for the sprint finally establishes themselves 3500 meters from the line. Just like yesterday it’s a two teams show, and just like yesterday, that’s Evian-MIAT and Rothaus-Aegon.
On the left we have Van Heerden Cucinotta Vantomme Lo Cicero Kip Serebriakov
with Giaux
giving it his best to tag onto that train.
On the right we have Sonnery Manarelli Napolitano Kankovský Farrar Haussler
And on the right of Farrar, we also have other sprinters desperately trying to position themselves. It’s Kupfernagel Cavendish Van Aelbroeck Keough Avelino Kreder
with Petit Andriato
on their outside.
Just like yesterday, it takes a long time before the sprint is launched. Actually, the final lead out men don’t go for it before there’s only 1300 meters to the finish!
Under the one kilometer banner, and it’s Manarelli Napolitano Lo Cicero Kankovský Keough
looking good on the right side of the road, while
Cucinotta Vantomme Kip
dominates the left side.
600 meters to go, and it looks like we’ll the battle we thought we would have yesterday! Napolitano Vantomme
launches at precisely the same moment, on each side of the road!
400 meters, and Vantomme
doesn’t look to have the needed speed today! Napolitano
is faster than him, and so is certainly Lo Cicero
who’s really fast on Napolitano’s wheel. But he’ll need to launch if he wants anything else than slipstreaming Napolitano over the line.
Lo Cicero
doesn’t have it, all he can manage is to stay on Napolitano’s wheel. Though, the Italian is past Vantomme
who struggles on the left.
Napolitano
it is! That was a brilliant sprint by him and his team, and he certainly made up for his messy sprint yesterday.
Lo Cicero comes home second, while Vantomme holds on for third.
Behind those three it’s really tight for fourth. But Kankovský
grabs it, after being able to position himself extremely well for the sprint. He’s just ahead of Keough Kupfernagel Cavendish Farrar Kip
The leader’s jersey is a big question mark, as both Vantomme and Lo Cicero has been second and third on the two stages so far, thus having a total of five “placing points”, while Napolitano, with his win and fifth place has six “placing points”.
But the judges have made up their mind. It’s Vantomme
who gets the leader’s jersey for tomorrows stage!
