It`s possibly the most awaited stage here. Lots of cobbles and hill, which should really see lots of riders struggle.
Some of the best puncheurs in the peloton are the weakest cobblers as well. Other top cobblers are awful puncheurs.
Surprisingly the favourites lists the puncheurs a bit higher.
Two riders to watch out for today are Langeveld and De Maar. Both are still in the GC fight and combine solid puncheur and cobble skills.
Already on the first cobbled section a dozen of riders lost contact. This is going to be a tough season for many.
8 riders though decide to go into the breakaway and by the look of it, some of those with a smart move. Being a good cobbler in todays break could really work seeing that lots of GC favourites might not be able to go the highest pace today. Andersson Masuda Dabrowski (+56s) Wang Verhelst Pancake Stevenson Moreno Hernandez (+46s/3. KoM)
Except for those two all others have lost time earlier and are more than 4min behind. Good for the GC riders as those two are 50 and 52 cobblers only.
It`s Chiquita doing the main work today and having reduced the peloton to just 60 riders at halftime. 7min gap for the break and 90km to go.
Chiquita`s leader Kinney is one of the best puncheurs. Though very average only on the paves, so it comes rather surprising to see his team working and going quite a high pace.
Meanwhile lots of sprints happened and it became obvious that Moreno Hernandez struggled to get as many points as he had hoped as he clearly struggled on any cobbled section and half of the KoM`s were on a cobbled climb.
Spoiler
Cat. 3
Masuda
6
Andersson
4
Dabrowski
2
Sprint
Verhelst
6
Andersson
4
Stevenson
2
Cat. 3
Andersson
6
Verhelst
4
Stevenson
2
Cat. 3
Andersson
6
Moreno Hernandez
4
Verhelst
2
Sprint
Wang
6
Verhelst
4
Masuda
2
Cat. 3
Andersson
6
Verhelst
4
Stevenson
2
Cat. 3
Verhelst
6
Andersson
4
Stevenson
2
A bit behind at the moment some decent placed riders:
Moser
Selander
Hung
Nieve
Banihammad
Uchima
Altanzul
While very weak cobblers Gaimon or Kuboki are still in the first group.
That said, the gap is not big and some riders might make it back.
Cat. 3
Verhelst
6
Andersson
4
Stevenson
2
Nasty crash. And it`s one of the best cobblers in the peloton, who might have had an eye on todays stage: Joseph. He finds himself in the 2nd group, which is up to 83 riders chasing the reduced favourite group hard.
Chiquita still working hard. Rathe and Le Montagner really doing an incredible job today. But they are not really being able to distance the dropped riders enough where Actavis and Generali work hard as well.
Apparently high GC riders Boaro, Tennant, Pfingsten, Pökäkä, Der, Flückiger are in this later group as well.
Good for the front group that In and Out decided to support Chiquita now. With all their riders they try to keep the gap to the later group. Gaimon as the peloton`s worst cobbler still fighting in the first group is nice to see. Possibly he did sent the team to the front as well to slower the pace a bit as he starts to struggle and still almost 60km to go?
Indeed it was. On the next uphill cobbled section, he got dropped. Good for him that 7! team mates were still in the 32 rider group. They all decide to wait for him. With 50km left this could become a long fight.
Together they make it back a bit later and another rider to take profit from this move is Moreno Moser, who jumped to the group and is also in the first favourite group again.
The group is down to 25 riders now and Kruopis realizes the chance to drop some of the better puncheurs before tomorrows stage. So the former race leader goes into the lead himself making the race hard for riders like Gaimon.
Meanwhile Moreno Hernandez gets caught as first of the break. But it`s actually just Stevenson, Verhelst and Andersson in the lead as all others got dropped as well.
And again Gaimon struggles. His team mates drop back to support him again. Same goes for Moser, who is a bit ahead also behind the group.
Good for Generali though as Molard and Malacarne are more GC options in the first group.
The leading trio still has a 2min gap to the favourites and only Dabrowski is somewhere in betwen.
Meanwhile Strava`s Tulik is working for Langeveld. 3 cobbled sections left for him to distance the puncheurs.
Even though Gaimon got dropped again on the 3rd last section, he comes back again with great team work. Strava stopped their higher pace again. Obviously Tulik has no energy left. So it`s Chiquita again keeping the pace high.
With 20km left and a gap of 2min for the breakaway, it might work out for those. All of them are more than 4min behind and are no GC danger. More important though, that they are stronger cobblers and can play this card out now.
2nd last section finished and Gaimon unsurprisingly a bit behind again just like Moser. With only 4km left, this is going to be a tough task to come back again. In especially as the final kilometer is on cobbles again.
Chiquita also keeping a high pace in front makes it harder.
Riders still in that group are Langeveld, Vastaranta, Kruopis, De Maar, Favilli, Selvaggi, Molard, Kinney, Malacarne or Kuboki to name the biggest GC riders.
2km for the trio and only 49s left. The upcoming cobbles will favour them but they look really exhausted after such a long day in the attack.
The Gaimon group is another 42s behind.
Verhelst looks the strongest of those. On the paves he gaps his two companions and goes a step towards the stage win.
Still 3 helpers for Kinney when they hit the final cobbles. 15 riders in that group including most GC riders. 4 Strava riders and 2 Generali riders also show their depth here, while all others seem to be isoated.
No chance to catch Verhelst though. Lierse on their terrain was unbeatable today and with the bad luck of Joseph, it`s good to see them winning.
Langeveld with a good 2nd coming in 29s later. It might not look like this but he is actually getting a 8s gap to the next improving his GC a bit.
Stevenson stays ahead of the next riders to take a nice 3rd for Carlsberg and also helps the next couplt of riders to reduce the gap a bit. Behind him in the same group: Vastaranta, Andersson, De Maar, Rathe and Favili.
Next group comes in with +55: Le Montagner, Selvaggi, Kruopis , Tulik and Molard. So still in a good position for the Gc.
Kinney losing another 21s is surely not ideal for Chiquita. He comes in together with Aulas as best In-n-Out rider today, who climbed very fast in the end.
Struggling on those final climb were Malacarne and Kuboki with +1'40.
Moser +2'49 and Gaimon with +3'09 lose a bit more dropping to the later top20 in GC.
New GC leader is (again) Kruopis, who is at the same time as Langeveld though. With Vastaranta, De Maar, Favilli and also Molard, Kuboki, Kinney not being too far behind though, tomorrows hilly stage should become exciting.
