2nd hills stage in Avenir and the profile looks so much easier actually than the 2nd stage. Still it has an uphill finish in the end and could lead to some gaps again.
Favourites as the last time Skujins McCarty Kelderman Vogt
6 riders in todays break. Different to the 2nd stage there have been gaps since then and so the chances might be higher today. Tanovitchii Van Baarle Ludvigsson Viennet Christian Atkins
Best placed in this group is Christian, who is just +2'59 as 18th GC. This is probably not ideal for the group.
Meiji, Puma, Risa, Vesuvio and Oz doing the early pace.
Still the gap is quickly up to 7min.
Volkswagen had great success yesterday with Zabel`s stage win. Today also the first team, who really accelerates in the peloton. They don`t really have a puncheur for todays stage but in Kennaugh probably the top favourite after the first stages as he along side Oz`s Bennett was able to avoid all the splits so far, which moved both of them into top 10.
120km to go and the gap had the maximum of 9'30 but now going the other direction.
Christian is the only interested rider to get those bonus seconds. Behind him Ludvigsson and Atkins by being in the first positions.
Oz Cycling probably sees a chance today with Bennett to distance some better climbers once again. Over the first 3 stages he more and more became one of those top outside favourites for this race.
If he can again take advantage of his better puncheur skills he could be in a good position before the mountain stages.
By looking at the last third of todays stage it`s obvious that it`s not the hardest finish. The hills before the final one aren`t that hard and although the finish isn`t as steep as the Mur de Huy, it`s probably the only chance today for an attack or some selections.
That said there are the first attacks on the first of those hills. Boswell Meintjes Borges Bazhkou
But as the profile isn`t that hard, it`s Volkswagen with Edmondson, Le Bon and Haugard to bring them back.
Kinoshita and Amanuel are the next in the attack right afterwards.
Houle and Lutsenko this time follow. This duo also attacked on the 2nd stage and there it was looking pretty well for some time.
But again the Volkswagen trio has everything under control.
A bit more than 10km to go and the breakaway still has a 1'20 gap. Could be close.
And with Puma taking over from Volkswagen the pace became a bit slower which favours the breakaway of course.
Kinoshita also realizes this and attacks again followed by Amanuel, Bazhkou and Lutsenko.
Also Boswell and Watson attack a bit later followed by Houle, Meintjes and Borges.
5km mark and Van Baarle has the solo lead 15s ahead of his breakaway companions.
But already 16s behind those we have the group of new attackers except for Meintjes and Borges being 30s ahead of the 187 rider peloton.
12 riders in front now with 2,3km to go as the two groups fusioned. Still 28s for the peloton but the finish climb can easily reduce this quickly.
Going up the hill we soon see a split in the breakaway with Houle, Lutsenko, Bazhkou and surprisingly former breakaway riders Christian, Ludvigsson and Atkins being the stronger while Kinoshita, Amanuel, Boswell and the other breakaway riders can`t follow and are soon to be overtaken by the peloton.
700m to go and everything looks like a duel between Lutsenko and Houle. Behind still a mix of all those attackers while the peloton is 300m behind them but coming fast now.
And Lutsenko wins! How did his manager knew?
Houle is closely beaten by him but takes a good 2nd.
Kinoshita with a strong sprint coming in 3rd ahead of Bazhkou, Amanuel and Ludvigsson. All of those are counted 8s down to the first two. So this might mean we also have gaps in the later groups.
Weiss being the winner of the peloton for 7th as he comes in 30s later ahead of Boswell, Skujins and Christian. So we see a mix of peloton and former breakaway, who just didn`t make it in the end.
And there we have a first bigger gap. It`s between Koch in 59. and Blikra as 60. of the day. So until Koch all riders are counted 30s down which includes most puncheurs and GC wise the climbers Kirsch (23.), Grmay (25.), Koep (28.), Meintjes (32.), Lecuisinier (35.), Bennett (36.), Kennaugh (40.), Barguil (42.), Bardet (46.), Campero (48.) and no one else!!! So no Cattaneo, Arndt, Olivier, Bongiorno, Mat Senan, Elissonde, Shikai, Dombrowski and all the other decent climbers. But how much do they lose?
The officials make it +1'32 behind the winner which means +1'02 behind the first half of the peloton.
So the big winners today are surely Bennett and Kennaugh alongside the puncheurs, who already got a decent gap, that the climbers first have to reduce in the mountains.
Still Cattaneo is expected to be able to do so as also the time trial is to his favour.
Result
Unfortunately PCM didn`t allow me to export the result at all, but luckily I have made some screenshots due to the gaps. So here at least most of it even though it misses the winner Lutsenko.
Tanovitchii
Borges
