Another sprint finish looks on the cards, can Hochmann make it 2 for 2?

Stage Favourites:

Vingerling	Farrar	Fonseca
Vanderaerden		Peeters

Three riders are just out-front as the break reaches the 1st category climb.

Rathe, Sørensen and Bauhaus summit the climb first with plenty of KOM points on offer for those behind ......


Grand wants the polka-dots!

Grand would be the next rider across the summit. He would claim 8 points which would put him level on 30 points with Kulppi in the race for the mountains jersey.

KOM summit with 135 KM to go:

16 - Rathe

12 - Sørensen

10 - Bauhaus

8 - Grand

6 - Gavenda

4 - Verhelst

2 - Cerny

Rathe shows his dominance in the break.

Shortly afterwards a four man break would establish, consisting of: Rathe, Sørensen, Bahaus and Orbe. Rathe would finish first at the first two intermediate sprint points and would also claim 6 KOM points for summiting the 3rd category climb first.


Angolan, Antonio, leads the peloton.

With the white leader's jersey on the shoulders of Hochmann, as expected, Team Ameriabank were doing the lion-share of the chasing today.


The break are caught early today.

With a sprint point approaching with 22 KM to go the sprinter teams brought back the last of the escapees, Sørensen & Rathe, with 26 KM to go. Along with Ameriabank, Fletcher - Garneau & Team TomTom are doing a lot of riding on the front.


Peeters wins the intermediate.

With 22 KM to go Peeters, after a disappointing final yesterday, wins the final intermediate sprint of the stage, securing 6 points/ 6 bonus seconds with Hochmann in second and Vingerling in third.


15 KM to go: Minions down! Minions down!

A crash, half way down the peloton, takes out more than a dozen riders. Team Chiquita - Universal, with multiple riders down, look to be the worst off. However, arguably the biggest name rider down is the 2013 winner of this race Olsson.

The biggest names caught up: Schinker, Chavanel, Firsanov, Moinard, Olsson, Schmidt, Eefting, Saramotins and Selander.


12 KM to go: Dearden drives along the peloton.

The frenetic pace of the peloton means the lead group is down to just 29 riders The likes of Bugge, Kolobnev and all the big name sprinters are in the front group.


9 KM to go: the peloton whittles down further.

Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo Cycling Team push on the pace and the lead group loses Duque and Duggan and we are down to 26 riders.

A 74 man group is around 1'00 behind and starting to gain time on the 26 man group up ahead.


Fletcher - Garneau take charge leading into the sprint.

Haller
Ariesen
Vanderaerden
Hochmann
	Peeters
	Vingerling
	Farrar
	Marentes
Averin
	Bole
		Haas
		Fonseca

Risa - Ergon have their two big GC hopes in the lead group, which is now down to 20 riders with Fonte the last man in the group, however, both of their sprinters are in the group behind.



Fletcher - Garneau give Vanderaerden an ideal lead-out, can he finish it off?


Vanderaerden can't finish it off.

Hochmann, Peters and Vingerling quickly come aside the Belgian with 100 meters left, Farrar is finishing very quickly too .....


Vingerling takes the win!

The TomTom rider would have expected a stage win before this tour started and now he has one. Farrar was the fastest finisher, but runs out road, he will settle for second. It is not back to back stage wins for Hochmann, but his third place finish, and the resulting bonus seconds, are good enough to see him hang on to the race lead.

Fonseca, will be disappointed with his sprint today, he finished 12th and was very fortunate to be credited with the same time as the stage winner as the gaps were notable.


No time gaps means 91 riders are credited with the same finish time.

Riders from Stijn Joseph, in 21st, and down can count themselves lucky they didn't lost 1'00+ thanks to lenient timekeepers today as the gaps should have warranted time differences.