Today should give us the first view of which punchers are ready and who are not.
The last riders to arrive have barely clicked into their pedals before Barbero is off.
After a couple of tries he gets away with Van der Ploeg and Tratnik.
With 100 km to go they have 2’30
90 km and 4’02
80 km and 3’21 Meiji – Cannondale looks determined to bring them in with Modolo and Nateghi dedicated to that mission.
Barbero takes the intermediate ahead of Van der Ploeg and Tratnik with 70 km to go and 2’50 to the peloton.
60 km and 2’21
50 km and 1’35
With the break within reach we start seeing attack from the peloton again. Chaoufi is the first to try.
The attacks only squeeze up the speed and with 38 km left everyone is back together.
With 20 km to go it’s chaotic with Quickstep, Meiji – Cannondale and Venchi – Ferranti setting a hard pace but not hard enough to scare pretty much everyone else from trying to attack.
Going into the final 10 km Simon has managed to get an 11 second gap to Taborre, Jiao and Lejman.
The peloton is a further 30 seconds behind. Meiji – Cannondale sends Hatanaka to the front and when they hit the final climb with 6,5 km to go the Japanese champion have reeled in everyone but Simon, who still has a 16 second gap.
As soon as Simon is caught by the Japanese punisher as well at the 5 km mark we see Taborre and Jiao trying it again with Simon and Lejman once again joining up!
At the 3 km mark they have 24 seconds and Hatanaka is still doing all the work.
2 km and the quartet in front have expanded to 30 seconds. Quickstep doesn’t seem to have understood the gravity of the situation as they have plenty of riders near the front but no one pulling for Froome.
Taborre opens the sprint in front with more than a km to go and Lejman immediatey cracks.
Nothing happens among the big favourites, but at the 1 km mark everyone starts sprinting in one big mess.
At the front Taborre looks to have cracked the others, but with 500 m of climb left nothing is certain!
Who am I kidding?
Taborre was just the strongest among the breakers and the rest was too afraid to win…
Armee wins the pelotons sprint as they catch up with Lejman right past the line.
