With everyone knowing the KOM jersey would be decided on the final climbs at the end of the stage, there was no interest in the peloton for the remanding KOM points.
Grupo Nutresa defending the race lead. They were well aware that Zabalo would find it difficult to keep the race lead today.
Gradek is really showing the rest of the break some moves today. With 92 KM to go he wins the intermediate sprint and 6 points/ 6 bonus seconds ahead of
Safarzadeh &
Ahmed Zamri.
80 KM to go: Break @ 5'30.
With 80 KM to go
Grupo Nutresa and
Team TomTom decide enough is enough and begin to increase the tempo, slowly but surely reducing the gap to the leading quartet.
Stoltz leads the peloton.
However, it was not solely two teams controlling the peloton. Lone riders from the likes of
Evonik - Signal Iduna were seen setting the pace.
32 KM to go: Break @ 2'20.
The race is meandering on when two riders put in an attack off the front of the peloton, they are
Schafer &
Jovanovic.
Both are outside threats for the GC and are quickly brought back.
Gradek has been the strongest in the break all stage long and he confirms this with 17 KM to go as he distances the rest of the break. However, with only 1'00 back to the peloton his chances for the stage win are almost non-existent.
Gradek is caught with 4.8 KM to go.
The last of the break is caught, by the two teams who have chased for most of the stage, at the exact moment as we hit the final climb.
Who will be the first of the big favourites to make a move?
BOLE!
Grega Bole looks in great shape as he is the first favourite to put in a big attack on the final climb. This move seems to catch many of the big names unawares.
GC leader
Zabalo, battles on, but moves further and further back in the bunch.
Wyss and
Lejman respond to the attack with under 3 KM to go. However, they can't immediately bridge across to
Grega Bole, which indicates the strength of the Slovenian.
Three more attackers with under 2 KM to go.
Montaguti,
Fonte and
Mendes are the next to attack off the head of the, still large, peloton.
With a teammate up the road it wasn't
Montaguti's best ever idea to encourage, the most feared puncheur here,
Mendes, to make a move.
Duggan and
Marentes set pace, leading a 30 man group including the yellow jersey and the rest of the favourites. With the road running out it is now about limiting losses for these riders.
<300 meters to go.
Bole is finally caught by
Lejman and
Wyss with the road running out. Of this trio, without doubt, it is the
FCB - Polska rider who looks the freshest.
Behind, the peloton merges with the
Montaguti group.
It is now or never for
Mendes, the Portuguese puts in a huge attack. Surely, he can't bridge across to the leading trio?
Mendes makes huge inroads to those up ahead, but the finish is within sight.
Lejman moves into the lead on the road, passing
Bole who has led the race for the last 4 kilometres.
Stage Win Lejman!
Lejman takes the stage win and moves into the race lead after taking a very respectable stage win from a select group,
Bole hung on for second finishing a bike length behind the stage winner.
Wyss finished third, another great result for
Team Vontobel. It is no stage win for
Mendes, 4
th, but he can count himself lucky he was credited with the same time as the trio ahead of him.
What a stage for
FCB - Polska, they had the best rider in the break and end up taking the stage win with their GC hope.
Duggan,
Sobal and
Fonte lead home a 31 man group, containing the rest of the favourites, at '31 behind the stage winner. The group contained former yellow jersey
Zabalo.
Outside favourite and late attacker
Jovanovic, losing 1'30, was the GC man who lost most time-wise today.
All of these riders' GC hopes are severely damaged going into stage 3.
