Third day in Danmark and it's without a doubt a key stage for any GC contenders: a challenging parcours with again crosswinds between 30 and 40kmh. The hilly profile may not look too tough, but especially the final quarter of the stage is a quite undulating route with several short but steep climbs. There's some Ardennes character in it, but still the less strong puncheurs amongst the TT specialists will hope to finish somewhere in the leading group(s). Cornu and Ignatiev as the most promising TT guys.
Moazemi, Watson, Quevedo and Barbin as the best puncheurs, who will at least aim for the stage-win and to distance as many TT horses as possible. It could become an interesting day.
Opposing to the previous two stages, the breakaway group is quickly formed:
Beukeboom Politt Rybalkin Chen
A chance to attack KoM leader Page and of course there's hoping to somehow fool the peloton on such a tricky parcours.
Page does not want to give up his KoM lead unchallengend, even though he attacks too late to contest for the first mountain sprint: he's trying to bridge across to the breakaway with 115km to go, we're close to the first mountain sprint already.
And it's Politt, who takes the first sprint ahead of Rybalkin and Chen. Page is coming closer quickly, he will soon join the early break.
The efforts he put into his quick chase were quite though and Page can't counter-move Politt on the second and last mountain sprint today: the German adds further 6pts towards the KoM ranking and Beukeboom comes second ahead of Rybalkin.
This ain't good news for Page, who tried but failed to defend the KoM lead:
Provisional KoM: Politt 12, Page 8, Domene 6
With now 36km to go, the breakaway group leads by 2'10" on the already chasing peloton.
A crash with 4 riders happened a few moments before: Fuchs, Docker, Thièry
Matysiak had to abandon from the race right after the crash.
24.5km to go and the peloton is led by Ferrero now. Still 142 riders hanging on, but the team is now really upping the pace. The breakaway is 1'30" ahead, as we're now entering the most challenging part of the stage.
15km left and Chen has been dropped from the early break. Also Page could not follow anymore. The bigger news is, that we see the first attacks from some stage-favorites:
Watson is the first to launch his move!
Moazemi trying to follow immediately!
Just a few moments later, Watson opened up an 11" gap on Moazemi, who's joined by some more attackers now:
Barbin Kadri Edet
The advantage for the early escapees Politt and Beukeboom (Rybalkin got dropped now as well) is quickly down to less than 50 seconds!
12km remaining and the latest attacks have their impact already: the peloton has been shrunked down to 89 riders with the higher pace now. And Rybalkin, as well as Politt and Beukeboom are now back together with the latest attackers forming a new leading group that is 40" ahead of the peloton!
The most notable names being dropped from the peloton so far:
Li Quaade Fraile Ford, who's in the dead last group already
Fraile surely as the biggest surprise amongst those names. The Spaniard was actually considered one of the more promising TT specialists, who might be able to survive today's stage in one of the first groups. This obviously won't happen now.
8km to go and the next wave of attacks occur in the new leading group:
Barbin goes first, he's followed by Watson Edet Moazemi
Kadri can't follow for now and he's just 13" ahead of the peloton, where more and more riders get dropped now. Mainly sprinters now: Nelson, Maksimov, Serebriakov, Guardini, Keukeleire, Peeters, but also former KoM leader Page.
4.3km to go and the peloton is now down to 59 riders with Lobato del Valle and Isostar leading the chase!
Barbin/Watson 57" ahead, Moazemi/Edet just a few seconds behind the new leading duo.
Barbin is putting the hammer down and he drops Watson now, 4km to go!
Watson and Moazemi the new chasing duo with a 20" disadvantage on the solo leader!
Kadri caught up to Edet and they are further 17" behind.
It's been an action packed race so far, but now, more and more riders look dead empty with about 2km to go. Barbin clearly the strongest, who easily distanced the chasing duos until now!
Barbin riding towards the stage-win with now 1.6km to go for him!
45" behind, Watson/Moazemi and Kadri/Edet are now swallowed by the peloton, that is down to 31 riders. Let's have a look, who's in this group:
Moazemi, Boonratanathanakorn Watson Edet, Kennaugh, Viennet Kadri Quevedo, Navardauskas, Jans, Laas, Brändle Ignatiev, Modolo Cornu Yates, Bridges Appollonio, Steensen, Veilleux Van Asbroeck Abreu Van der Sande Lavery Kuboki, Uchima Reinhardt
A next group with Paillot, Goncalves and Pökälä is more than a minute behind and another group with Lo Cicero, Grivko and Hudecek is 19 seconds behind group De Maar. A bigger group with Bouhanni and Mohs is further 47" in arrears, so all other TT guys will probably lose big minutes today!
A few may fancy their chances for the GC now though: Ignatiev, Cornu, Brändle and Steensen surely as the biggest names in the main group now!
Isostar responsible for catching Watson/Moazemi and Edet/Kadri. And Kennaugh is still visible at the front of the group. A strong effort from the GC leader so far.
Barbin though has been a class of his own today, as he's already crossing the finish line! Dead empty and too tired to celebrate, as this final climb is short but explosive. He surprisingly lost minutes yesterday (+ 4 minutes in the GC), but the stage-win is bagged. A huge effort and impressive race in the final few kilometres.
The main group is on the final metres as well and the steep slopes will surely make for some gaps between those riders, that were mentioned earlier: 13 riders currently with a small gap on further 12 riders!
Lobato del Valle is a strong sprinter, but given the climb, it's rather surprising to see him sprinting towards a strong runner-up here!
Steensen with a huge climb as well, currently ahead of Watson, Laas, Moazemi, Kaderi and Ignatiev! Also Edet, Quevedo, Yates, Modolo, Jans and Navardauskas in this group now.
Gaps may be bitchy here, as the next group is already 39" behind: Brändle and Cornu, as well as Kennaugh and Viennet as the most notable names to be mentioned!
Just a few metres to go for Lobato, who's clearly ahead of Steensen and Watson! Laas is dead empty and he may fear to be overtaken eventually.
+ 18" for Lobato del Valle as 2nd! An impressive performance on this final climb!
The same definitely goes for Steensen, who sprints to a strong and crucial 3rd place! He should be amongst the most promising riders for the GC now. What a day for him, this came surely unexpected.
Watson comes in 4th with the same time as Lobato. A little bit unlucky after his earlier efforts. But given his at least not too shabby TT skills, it might have been a good day anyway.
A strong finishing Ignatiev does not only celebrate Barbin's stage-win, but also a valuable 5th place for himself. Steensen has been impressive, but Ignatiev finishes with the same time and will fancy his chances to fight for the GC win here.
Moazemi 6th ahead of Laas, Quevedo, Kadri and Yates. Navardauskas 11th ahead of Edet, Modolo and Jans as 14th. All those riders finish with the same time as Lobato, so 18" behind Barbin, who lost some ground on the final climb then.
+ 54" for a small group with Cornu as the most important GC contender. Abreu leading this group across the line, with also Van Asbroeck, Veilleux, Lavery, Kuboki, Van der Sande and Viennet finishing with the same time. A super strong result for Viennet as well!
+ 1'17" for a next group with race-leader Kennaugh and Brändle as the most notable names. Also Appollonio amongst those riders. Kennaugh fought hard, but it was too less to defend yellow. No real surprise though. Brändle might have hoped for more, but he will be still amongst the best TT specialists after this stage.
A few more riders tumble across the line until the next TT specialists finishes off a tough day:
+ 2'15" for a group with Paillot and Pökälä, as well as Goncalves and Walker
Barbin finally celebrating his stage-win on the podium then. He surely gained too less time to be a GC factor (65th), but will be happy to at least take some points home from this race.
Lobato del Valle definitely the biggest surprise of the day, as he stormed to an unexpected GC lead today! Given his underwhelming TT skills, he should be expected to drop far down the rankings in the timetrial, but it's a great moment for him anyway.
Steensen with a key result as well: 4 seconds down as 2nd and therefore 8 seconds ahead of Ignatiev, who's 3rd in the GC now. Navardauskas (5th) maybe as the biggest threat for those two TT specialists, as he's at the same time with Ignatiev.
48 seconds for Cornu, Viennet and Abreu then. That's quite a disadvantage on Steensen and Ignatiev, but they are in striking distance. Same goes for Brändle (+ 1.11) and maybe Paillot (+ 2.09). At least they should be able to fight for a Top-10 in the GC, with many less strong TT riders ahead of them for now.
