Stage Favourites:

Van Staeyen	Goss	Greipel
Hoffman		Napolitano

Macedonian champ, Petrovski, towards the front of the bunch on this hot day in Kiev. He would be looking to impress his team in their home country.



Mohoric & Polanc bridging across to form the break of the day.


The break on the 9% part of the hill, which would be passed 23 times today.

The first 6 riders to attack would form the break of the day, the break:

Lagkuti leads the peloton.

With 135 KM to go the break reach their maximum gap to the peloton of 7'30, it would close in from here on in. Two teams are doing all of the chasing, they are: Metinvest-Emirates & Venchi - Ferranti. Their respective sprinters must be feeling good today.

Notably there isn't any chasing being done by Meiji - Cannondale, who possess the 2013 winner of this race in their team.


85 KM later it is the same story.

With 50 km to go we have the same two teams riding on the front and the breakaway are ploughing on. The only difference is that the gap to the break has been cut to just 2'35.


Oz Cycling Project animate the race with 30 KM to go.

Sulzberger attacks on the hill with the break 1'50 ahead, would this be the precursor to other attacks?



Sulzberger is quickly brought back by three new teams who come to the front of the peloton with a big injection of pace, they are: Allianz-BMW Cycling Team, Gazelle (despite both having riders in the break) & Privatbank - Nemiroff.


10 KM to go: break @ '40.

Out-front the break are down to 5 riders with Wu dropped.

Behind Metinvest-Emirates and Venchi - Ferranti have taken up position, once again, as the only two teams riding on the front.

Vaitkus moves towards the front of the peloton and looks menacing!


Vaitkus attacks!

The Lithuanian puts in a big attack on the steepest part of the, now too familiar, hill. Fouquet also attacks and has no problem following the Lithuanian.


Meanwhile, at the rear of the peloton ...

Only 10 riders have been dropped, one of them is rank outsider Thorsen. Proving having a great sprint doesn't mean salt if you can't get over the speed bumps.


With 3.5 KM to go:

Metinvest-Emirates are left to do all of the chasing on the pan-flat run-in to the finish line. It will be a close run thing whether the break can hold on to the line or not.



A phenomenal lead-out by Grosu, raising the speed of the peloton to well over 70 km/h, ensures the break are all but caught with 350 meters to go.

The sprinters will settle this one today:

At well over 75 km/h Van Staeyen comes flying past Hoffman into the race lead with 100 meters left, buoyed by the tail wind finish. Napolitano is latched onto the Belgian's wheel but to come around he may have to go more than 80 km/h!


Victory Venchi - Ferranti.

It is another victory for, what is many, the team of the season so far. Corti did excellently to position Van Staeyen in the right place at the right time and the Belgian finished it off in style.

South African champ Hoffman more than makes up for last year's disastrous 15th place finish by finishing second after a really strange sprint where he was passed by Napolitano, 4th, before having a second kick and coming around the Italian in the dying meters.

Metinvest-Emirates and Venchi - Ferranti were the two most active teams in the peloton today and they leave the stage with the top two positions.

Gasparotto, after a good run in the final, manages to finish on the last step of the podium and Goss rounds out the top 5 for Oz Cycling Project.



Zordan, the last survivor from the break, finished in 10th which shows how close the break were caught from the finish line.

Privatbank - Nemiroff were not a match for their Ukrainian rivals, Metinvest-Emirates, today with Greipel, 9th, their best result.



It is another win for Venchi - Ferranti and Van Staeyen, who adds to his list of wins which includes the likes of Strade Bianchi. Can this team be stopped?