Another sprinters stage today and again it's quite a long one, so we can't expect Bos to finish in the peleton again like stage 2. If he does manage to then he'll be sprinting against the favourites Boonen, Petacchi, Bennati and Cavendish, although it's most likely to be between Boonen and Petacchi, given Bennati and Cavendish's recent forms.
The break contains, Gaudin (Ferrari), Mangel (AG2R), Guedson (Saturn), Lancaster (Fed-Ex), Elijzen (France TV), Baugnies (Telefonica) and Verbist (Domina). Also Ingels (Belgium) is doing a pointless solo behind them but just in front of the pack.
Lancaster won the first sprint ahead of Mangel and Guedson. He then won the second ahead of Mangel and Baugnies. Finally, Mangel won the last sprint ahead of Guedson and Baugnies.
Then disaster for AG2R as Bonnet (8th in the GC) falls off the back of the peleton, he didn't puncture or crash, he just couldn't stand the pace anymore. Maybe he went down in the crash yesterday and injured himself, I don't know. Then with 15kms to the finish, Bos is dropped as well.
With 10kms to the finish, there is noone out in front, so it's going to be a peleton sprint.
As the sprint starts things look like this:
We have Omloop, Veelers and Barbosa all in the relaying train, not a good move by them. Then we have Petacchi on Barbosa's wheel and Boonen is on Petacchi's. On the far side cavendish is trying a new approach and having Eric Mohs lead him out. Simón is on Boonen's wheel again and Bennati is way back on Eisel's wheel.
With 1km to go Boonen has taken the lead and Petacchi is just about to come out of Barbosa's wheel. On the far side we can see that Cavendish is just about to come out of Mohs' wheel as well.
Boonen is unstoppable at the moment and he takes hold of the GC by 7 seconds. Surely that will be taken back and then some in the TT next by Cancellara but Boonen's effort on stage 1 was very impressive. Cancellara will wear the U-25 jersey in the next stage due to him leading the U-25 competition. Also Bonnet lost 8'13" today dropping him down to 136 in the GC only 2 places above Theo Bos.
