The final stage. Crosswinds up to 35kmh and a short cobbles sector early into the stage (which really shouldn't do any damage though). A panflat parcours for most of the time, so surely a stage for the sprinters, who do not want to allow another solo breakaway victory like yesterday.
GC leader Wisniowski will fancy his chances to finish safely in the bunch. Points leader Kennaugh has Goss, Holloway, Kump as his biggest opponents. But also Vantomme looked promising yesterday and may aim for the stage now. Same goes for Kump, who finally wants to sprint to a podium result now.
11 riders are featured in the break of the day:
Hsu (KoM's 2nd, but no chance to attack Bazzana) Oka Owen Braico Brynjolfsson Svab Eaton Toribio Naesen Østergaard Usandizaga
No one cares for the sprints, it's simply about staying clear from the pack until the finish. The group never establishes a huge gap though, as it peaks at 4 minutes until teams like Indosaat and Netia would start to chase.
The gap is down to 1'50" with 40km to go..
..and down to a minute with now 23km remaining..
The crosswinds now blow at 48kmh and the pace from Indosaat, Netia and Orange Cycling now does some damage in the peloton! We see a stretched field and a major split occurs with 63 riders left in the first group!
The dropped group is quickly a minute in arrears and it's pretty unlikely that they will fight their way back. Let's see who's dropped:
A few of those guys have been involved in a crash or two in the past days. Like yesterday. Surely some of them have been hurt or do not have the energy to keep the pace of the chasing sprinter teams.
Back to the front, where the breakaway is still fighting against the first peloton: 6km to go and while the lead is down to 54", it's still a lead!
Still the same teams working hard at the front of the pack: Netia (Dahl-Olsen now), Orange and Indosaat. They narrow the gap further and while there's still a notable disadvantage, they look clearly faster than the early break now.
And yes, they made it: with 2.5km to go, the breakaway is caught! No proper trains today, as all those teams, who might have done one, worked so hard to catch the break. Only Netia and Orange come with a leadout for Vantomme and Kennaugh, as they fly past the breakaway group:
Mørkøv - Sobota - Vantomme Cisse - Kennaugh
Goss is further behind as the next sprinter Kump Van Asbroeck
Holloway even further down the road
Kennaugh now sprinting to the front with still more than a kilometre to go! Sobota/Vantomme still there, too.
Goss moving forward on the left side of the road, passing Ostergaard now.
Van Asbroeck and Kump not yet quite there, but still with a promising position!
Kennaugh though looks very strong and he opened up a notable gap now!
Vantomme now finding himself behind Goss, with Van Asbroeck and Kumo catching up! Holloway as the strongest from the rest of the sprinters..
Kennaugh going strong..
Vantomme now going past Goss in the final corner! The Aussie has now to hold off Kump and Van Asbroeck, who are aiming for crucial bonifications towards the GC! A clear gap to Holloway then, so the Top-5 of the stage should be known yet.
Dominating victory for Kennaugh, who takes his second stage-win and who obviously defends the narrow points-lead in the best possible way. Good stuff for the team, that had such a horrible start into the race (with Kennaugh and Kamyshev both crashing).
Behind him, there's still Vantomme on second with Goss struggling to hold off Kump!
Easy 2nd for Vantomme and a crucial 3rd place for Kump then!
Goss 4th ahead of Van Asbroeck, who misses out on bonifications.
Holloway 6th ahead of Rowe, Matthews, GC-winner Wisniowski and Afewerki. Again only 54 riders finishing in the main group..
Altur finishes 42nd on the stage and therefore no further time loss. He didn't look good after his bad luck yesterday though.
+ 3'23" for the next big group then, with the already mentioned riders losing some big minutes in this final stage. Breschel as the best placed to drop a few places in the GC then.
Wisniowski celebrating a phenomenal GC-win! After an opening stage, that disappointed so many people, he came back in style to take the most challenging flat stage with a strong solo move. Surely a big race for him: never too shabby to win a HC race with a stage-win as a bonus.
Kump moved up to 2nd thanks to his podium finish today! He's been up the front in every stage and his second podium result would make him move up to a strong runner-up in the GC. Relegation anyone?
Holloway with an impressive 3rd then. Definitely the biggest surprise to see him surviving the opener in the leading group and he did well to hold on to a podium spot until the end. Surely his manager didn't see that coming, GC-wise.
Jans and Van Asbroeck completing the Top-5. A big GC result for Isostar, thanks to some passive racing and Jans' second place in the first stage. Van Asbroeck with another good GC result in Dunkerque, even though you may hear his manager moaning about some missed opportunities in the sprints. He's been consistent though.
Rowe a strong 6th, surely another surprise just like Holloway. Vanbilsen, Tsatevich, Morkov and Daniel rounding up the Top-10 ahead of Albert, Bauer and Vastaranta. Altur 14th eventually, ahead of Vantomme, who climbed the GC thanks to his two podium finishes. Van Heerden 16th and not adding a further stage-win to his palmares. After doing so well in the opening stage, he's been a non-show in the sprints then.
The price for biggest disappointment has to go to Burghardt (we will keep his GC result as a secret for now).
Well deserved points-win for Kennaugh (76pts). Goss (64) and Kump (60) on the further positions. Both had some consistent sprints here, though missing out on a stage-win eventually.
Bazzana with the KoM victory and a stage-win. Surely a great race for both him and the team.
Altur at least securing the U25 victory thanks to also Polanc losing time in the previous stage (and today, too). It won't help against the pain to lose out on a possible GC podium, but it's at least something. Let's not forget, that he also rode to a stage-win here.
This is it. A disappointing opener and too many crashes. At least we've seen some good sprints and a gutsy solo victory for Wisniowski as well.
