Also today the pure sprinters won`t have much to enjoy. A lot of hills on that circuit in Stirling. Already the start is difficult as it`s going uphill to the first and only KoM of the day.
Afterwards a circuit with a double climb has to be raced 6 times with the last lap finishing the stage on top of that climb.
So it`s the first uphill finish in this race and a first sign of what might happen on Willunga Hill.
It`s the next chance for the top puncheurs Froome, Ulissi, Dowsett to distance other riders such as in especially Van Stayen.
5 riders did attack early and also reach the KoM first. But at the moment the gap is tiny and no breakaway is secured yet.
Slagter ahead of Jensen and Minnard is the order here.
A couple of minutes later we see some of those riders again with a few new faces as the breakaway finally is formed and the gap goes up. Talabardon (67./+40) Minnard (95./+3'14) Oelerich (71./+1'59) Failli (74./+1'59) Lahsaini (26./+40)
So a few teams really wanted to be in the break, who lost their leader behind a split yesterday. Those were Kappa and Gazelle but also Hornbach, who only had Trentin within the first group.
The other two teams still have Roy and Dowsett in an excellent position and put the pressure on other teams this way.
Two riders only with +40s in the GC. But the sprint is highly contested. In the end Oelerich takes it ahead of Failli and Talabardon is able to sprint for 2 bonus seconds.
We also have to give you more news from yesterdays stage, that haven`t been covered. Bintunimana had a nasty crash on that 2nd stage but was able to finish the stage.
But as he is already losing contact on the end of lap 1, it might be a very long fight for him today. Not a good way to start his MG career of course.
Also the next sprint is contested a lot by the breakaway riders.
Failli is the fastest and outsprints Oelerich and Talabardon. So 2 more seconds for him at least.
So far the race was a Venchi domination, which is also shown in the race jerseys.
Van Stayen - leader jersey
Aregger - U25 jersey
Dockx - point jersey (being 2nd in points and GC behind Van Stayen each)
Still they have to ignore their own ambitions first and work for their undisputed leader. 70km left and a gap of 5min and melting. Can Van Stayen defend his lead today?
60km and a gap of 4min when we see a change at the front. Venchi stopped chasing and instead Bacardi (Ulissi), Meiji (Efimkin) and Kenya (Ben Nasser) come to the front with only Aregger being in between those for Venchi but not really working a lot.
The pace definitely is a bit slower than before though.
This was also realized by other riders and so we have the first attacks with 34km to go and 1 1/2 laps to go. Shushemoin (47./+40) Mehr-Wenige (96./+3'14)
first and second mentioned surely can`t be happy with his Amex debut as his GC chances are rarely given anymore.
Also Proni (43./+40) tries to follow them a little bit later.
Behind it`s Morton and Wegmann keeping a high pace to bring those back.
But instead we see lots of more attacks. This time by Simon, who already proved to be very aggressive yesterday. Shushemoin a bit behind him together with Oz` leader Jiao.
Also Leijman, Proni and Mehr-Wenige still ahead of the peloton.
We are one climb from the final and some riders already test the finish with another attack.
At the moment it`s this situation:
Breakaway <20s> Simon <17s> Shushemoin <22s> New attackers/peloton
But let`s come to the latest attackers which are definitely some to mention. Rabon Van Stayen Gautier Efimkin Dowsett Ben Nasser Jiao Proni Vastaranta Visconti
One rider almost missed the attack but also he is attacking now: Froome.
So the leader is on his way alongside some of the biggest favourites as also a great move by La Vie Claire and Magna who have two riders in front now. But let`s have a look on who is missing.
First name is obvious: Ulissi did not attack and instead sent two of his strongest helpers to the front in Bilbao and Perget. So far they at least neutralized the move of the latest attackers around Froome, Visconti, Jiao and Proni.
Also the likes of Barrio, Betancourt, Kump, Mehr-Wenige, Weening... are still in the peloton.
Meanwhile Simon reached the breakaway, who extended their gap to 45s again.
But they are followed by a group of 10 now as Froome and Visconti again jumped to the Van Stayen group.
Peloton
<36s>
Van Stayen
<45s>
Failli
Dowsett
Simon
Rabon
Minnard
Ben Nasser
Oelerich
Gautier
Talabardon
Vastaranta
Lahsaini
Efimkin
Shushemoin
Froome
Visconti
Bacardi got solid support by other teams. In especially CT team Risa - Ergon was of great help and so the group of 10 is caught again with 14km left.
The former breakaway plus Julien Simon though is yet again 58s ahead.
10km left and more riders attack once again. Dowsett Betancourt Visconti Rabon Gautier Ben Nasser Vastaranta Ulissi Froome Proni Van Stayen
So this time we have all 3 top puncheurs alongside the leader jersey of Van Stayen.
Missing out are last years runner up Efimkin, Kump, Barrio, Leijman, Mehr-Wenige or Weening.
Also the breakaway no longer works together very well as Lahsaini attacks trying to go for the win. Even the leader jersey is still possible for him as the gap is staying at ~50s at the moment.
But with 5km to go Simon is leading the group together again. Really strong performance by the French today.
We are already on the way up and even though we can see the peloton behind, the gap got bigger with 1'18 to a single attacker now in another surprising strong Proni, who created a 18s gap to the rest of the peloton, who caught the favourites once again.
Reaching the final kilometers some favourites are again trying to destroy the peloton. This time it`s race leader Van Stayen together with Froome, Ben Nasser and McEvoy, who so far relaxed within the big pack.
A bit behind those a trio of Gautier, Ulissi and also Ventoso for the first time today. But the next group of favourites is not far behind neither.
But it looks like the breakaway surprisingly can get this here today.
That said Lahsaini and Talabardon look to exhausted to follow when Simon starts the sprint followed by the other three.
Minnard and Proni take the lead with Simon finally having no energy left after his effort in the final. Also Oelerich looks more exhausted while the gap to the next is already quite big.
Behind you see single Proni and the group of 4 around Van Stayen just ahead of the peloton. There clearly will be gaps today.
A long train of favourites has formed.
Breakaway
<12s>
Lahsaini, Talabardon
<26s>
Proni
<16s>
Froome, Van Stayen, McEvoy, Ben Nasser
<9s>
Ulissi, Gautier, Ventoso, Kump, Vastaranta, Rabon, Betancourt, Dowsett
<21s>
Peloton (Efimkin, Mehr-Wenige, Weening, Jiao, Visconti, Barrio, Haas)
But the victory is decided in front and it`s Minnard taking it. It might be a small compensation for the team, who failed GC wise here so far.
Failli comes over the line next and officials also gave Oelerich in 3rd and Simon as 4th the same time. So last mentioned makes a huge jump in the GC today as behind him there definitely is a gap.
Lahsaini and Talabardon come in next ahead of Proni. And as the gaps here aren`t given also the next group of top favourites gets the Lahsaini time, which can be discussed a lot as the clock says 33s, which allows Van Stayen to keep the lead by 7s only on Simon!
Also Lahsaini and Talabardon make a huge jump into the top5 GC, while the top puncheurs are right there as well 40s behind Van Stayen already.
We also have big losers today as Efimkin, Roy, Oz Cycling, Haas, Barrio, Weening, Mehr-Wenige etc. all lose 1'25 in the end which is a bit less than 1min on the top puncheurs.
So GC seems to be done for those.
