So the first stage was easy? Well, this isn't. 170 km long, the peloton starts off with climbing a very long and quite steep mountain which will definitely make a lot of riders drop. After that, it's not as tough, but by then the riders will be too tired to do much. This is a stage for the favourites to show themselves.
The very first intermediate sprint was placed right at the start, and it was won by the first guy who attacked on today's stage, Dasani's Kazakh rider Dyadichkin. Behind him, Nydam (Slipstream) and one of the attackers from yesterday's stage, Azevedo, were trying to bridge the gap, and while doing that, they secured the rest of the points. Behind the three of them we find Barton of Fed Ex B, Rajala of American Suzuki and Esmaeli of Slipstream B. There's about 1'30 between each of the groups, meaning that the peloton with 143 km left had 6'39 up to the Dyadichkin.
Meanwhile, the peloton were getting smaller and smaller, just as expected. Although the pace wasn't high, it was still way too much for the many bad climbers which we find in the peloton. Besides, do the attackers really pose a threat? Time will tell. I can just conclude that Dyadichkin took the first mountain points of this tour with a gap of 10'33 to the peloton and 1'30 to the closest "poursouivants"
After having passed the top, the peloton is down to 48 riders. As expected, it's Fed-Ex leading along with some British Airways riders. In front, Nydam and Azevedo is getting closer and closer to Dyadichkin who probably needs help if he acttually has a goal of winning this tough stage.
Despite setting a pace in front, Fed-Ex and co. still has a gap of 11 minutes to close with 100 km to go.
With 85 km to go, Nydam and Azevedo finally managed to close the gap to Dyadichkin.
The peloton soon started to pick up some speed, and the gap was quickly reduced to about 7 minutes with 70 km to go. The three riders, Esmaeli, Rajala and Barton, were caught shortly after, so it's up to the leading three to create the surprise.
It doesn't look likely, though, as Dyadichkin is dropped just before the next intermediate sprints. The sprint was won by Nydam ahead of Azevedo with Dyachkin shortly after. 2 minutes after, the peloton crossed the line. All three riders also managed to take the mountain points with Nydam crossing the line first, and right after that Azevedo decided to drop Nydam and go solo. In the same moment, Dyachkin was finally caught by the peloton.
With 33 km to go it was over for Nydam, and 10 km. later it was a done day for Azevedo with Sonnery taking the intermediate sprint points. This also symbolized the start of the last hill of the day, meaning that if we were to get any action today it would be now with 20 km to go.
Despite Fed-Ex setting a tough pace, not much happened. Just before the mountain sprint, 3 riders attacked: Arriagada (Wiggle), Marquez (Benfica) and Torres (Fed-Ex B). And it wasn't just for the mountain points - it was for the win!
Unfortunately for them, Fed-Ex were too strong. Marquez managed to get a small gap, but was caught again shortly after. Therefore, this is set for the sprinters. Can Sonnery take the victory again, or has this been too hard?
Well, here with a little more than 1 km to go, no sprinters have moved to the front, but it seems like Fed-Ex has a chance here with that many riders up front. Who will win?
