Second consecutive flat stage, as we're heading for a stage from Vancouver through a circuit in Coquitlam and back to Vancouver for the long finishing stretch. Probably the easiest of the three flat stages here, as we don't have too challenging climbs in the circuit. Anyway, there's a speedbump, that has to be raced a few times. The pure sprinters though looked fine on a more challening stage yesterday, so even though we again notice some strong crosswinds blowing, it's another day for the sprint favorites:
Guardini as yesterday's stage-winner is obviously amongst the most promising riders again. Moser, Bouhanni and Silvestre will hope for a better result, while Hayakawa and Pelucchi were quite impressive twenty-four hours ago. No mountain sprints, so it's all about points today.
A first attempt to break clear from the pack is reeled in quickly:
mutsumine craven nielsen ackermann
The next wave of attacks then and three riders manage to establish a gap immediatel. Those three will form the break of the day:
wang (taking the first sprint) stöhr vega
They build a lead up to six minutes halfway through the race and wang also takes the second intermediate sprint ahead of stöhr. He had four points in the sprint competition prior to the stage and so already added another twelve with this two sprints so far today.
Just when the peloton would raise the pace, we see a bigger crash in the peloton about 96km before the finish. 11 riders involved and we spot a few notable names in here:
hayakawa (yesterday's 2nd on the stage) pelucchi (3rd) king (5th) sarmiento, haga silva shapira jeannesson, morales domagalski mannion
Three of yesterday's best sprinters hit the ground and it's then a quite big group with several domestiques working hard to bring them back to the peloton: 24 riders strong, the group would manage to catch up to the pack 82km before the finish. While it's definitely too early to say, if anyone got seriously hurt, they are all brought back safely and no one has to abandon or got dropped.
In the meantime, the breakaway would also contest the last two intermediate sprints and wang keeps dominating, taking all of today's four sprints. That's quite an achievement and he earns the virtual lead in the points classification that way:
provisional points
#
rider
pts
1
wang
26
2
amador
25
3
guardini
25
If we get the expected bunch sprint, he probably won't keep that lead until the end of the day, but for now, it's surely a nice little moment to share.
About 22km before finish, the pack was still on the chase. The top sprinter teams (euskaltel, fablok, indosaat) looked in control so far, as they reduced the gap to about a minute at this point.
And now that we have already entered the final 5km of the race, the breakaway is finally caught. nareklishvili is pulling the strings hard at the front of the peloton, with his team leader guardini already right behind him.
The battle for the prime positions in the bunch sprint is on!
And here's what we got today. The fablok train is joined by two more trains and the big names in between or right behind them:
nareklishvili
guardini
d fernandez
manarelli
bodnar
russo
anton martin
silvestre
ji
aregger
bouhanni
morales
moser
pelucchi
king
park
keukeleire
hadi
ben youcef
hayakawa
Guardini's train now struggling: they might have been too long in the wind eventually? Still a way to go though.
Anton Martin trying to pull bouhanni, who's not perfectly positioned behind him, it seems. Ji now pulling moser like yesterday. And a pretty packed bunch of those other sprinters behind them.
The race leader is popping up: amador obviously feels great and tries his luck in the sprint!
At the front, it's now anton martin in the leading position with still not the perfect leadout for bouhanni, who isn't much further behind though. Aregger right behind him, with silvestre and moser in the most promising positions behind them.
bodnar/guardini moving forward as well, just like a strong hadi. Also keukeleire in the mix today, opposing to hayakawa, who's been easily dropped. He actually may suffer from his crash or efforts to get back to the pack then.
Aregger now storming into the lead with a few hundred metres to go! Silvestre also looking strong today and so does bouhanni, who's catching up to the leading duo with some great speed now.
Moser trying to hang on and then there's a gap to hadi, keukeleire, a now struggling guardini and king. Amador also not capable to compete with those names, which does not come as a surprise.
This is another close battle to the line and while silvestre has a narrow lead, there's still aregger and bouhanni in the mix for the stage win!
Moser is pretty fast as well, but he got the wrong side of the road and is boxed in by aregger, who's not as fast as bouhanni at this point!
..and bouhanni indeed had the fastest finish, as he outsprinted silvestre by a small margin to take the stage! Quite an impressive sprint, as his leadout from anton martin didn't really work that well.
aregger succesfully boxed in moser (though not intended) and sprints to a notable podium finish. He played it smart, but might have went a little bit too early.
Behind a celebrating bouhanni, it's guardini lunging in for a still solid 5th place ahead of king, manarelli, a strong hadi, park and keukeleire. Probably not, what guardini had hoped for, but it may just be enough to claim the points lead afterall.
Indeed. While amador comfortably defended yellow with a 16th place on the stage, he has to give the points lead to a sprinter now:
guardini takes the lead with 37pts, bouhanni (32) provisional 2nd. Moser, silvestre (28), aregger, wang (26) and amador (25) on the further positions. With still two mountain stages and just one flat stage to come, it's an all-open battle for the green jersey here.
Tomorrow we will have the first real mountain stage then: a challenging climb up the Cypress will surely see the best climbers trying to attack amador. The race leader showed some strength today, but of course anything can happen on a rather bad day. We are looking forward to it anyway.
