The tour continues with another quite challenging flat stage, as we're leaving Ballarat and head for Bendigo. The final quarter of the stage is quite tricky with also a short climb close to the finish. Again some notable crosswinds, it won't be easier than yesterday.
Anderson took an impressive win in the opening stage, with also Kreder looking strong to beat an unlucky solo escapee Partridge. The pure sprinters may hope to do better today, even though the two climbs may hurt their legs again.
A first breakaway attempt by Taborre, Afoa, Monfort and Stöhr had been shut down quickly, but Taborre and Monfort kept going to build the break of the day eventually - joined by a third rider:
Two strong puncheurs with Monfort and Taborre and it's Taborre, who takes the first intermediate sprint ahead of Monfort - with then 123km to go, the group has build a gap of 5'20" on the pack.
Novardianto would take the second sprint ahead of Taborre and Monfort then, the group leads by 4'25" with then 80km remaining..
..some bad news for Xero 50km before the finish though (just ahead of today's most challenging climb):
Clarke crashed, just like Drucker and Geoghegan Hart! With the peloton upping the pace in order to further reduce the now 3'14" disadvantage on the early break, it's the worst possible moment for Clarke to go down. Despite being supported by Onodera, Lloyd, Kennett and Ngamoki-Cameron, the gap is quickly at more than two minutes and let's keep it short: he won't make it back to the peloton!
44km to go for the escaping group, where Taborre takes the Cat2 climb ahead Monfort - that's the virtual KoM lead with still one mountain sprint to come though.
Novardianto can't follow anymore and also the peloton struggles to narrow the gap: 3'40" advantage for the new leading duo..
..good news for Novardianto on the downhill sector then, as he catches up back to the duo!
21km to go and the peloton has finally set a higher pace to narrow the gap to 1'10" in the meantime. The climb made for a split in the pack, as we have just 77 riders left in the main group:
In-n-Out, cycleYorkshire and Sauber as the most active teams in the chase now and the crosswinds could definitely do some more damage as well..
Indeed, both the climb and the wind do make several riders suffering big time. Several small groups being dropped and we have some TT specialists amongst those riders:
Stannard unsurprisingly got dropped on the climb Rijntjes Flens Robert Laizer
as some more names being dropped - a few of them lost already minutes yesterday.. cycleYorkshire losing two GC options, but Robert and Stannard as the expected names to struggle on those two challenging opening stages..
We're entering the final 10km of the race and just like yesterday, the peloton had a few moments of slowing down in the meantime! The breakaway's gap is back to 1'45" now.. that's a risky "move" from the pack, to say at least..
Novardianto took the third intermediate sprint ahead of Taborre, but it's the best puncheur in the group, who tries to go clear on the final short climb 7.5km before the finish in Bendigo:
Monfort goes and the peloton is still 1'48" in arrears!
He also takes the mountain sprint, obviously, for a tied lead in the KoM ranking: Monfort/Taboree 13, Novardianto 7
Taborre ain't giving up though and he easily dropped Novardianto trying to bridge across Monfort! Just 3km to go and Monfort is holding on to a small gap on Taborre..
..and the peloton? Slowed down again for no reason: at this point, Monfort's gap has grown above two minutes!
And here comes the bunch, that failed pretty big time today: both Monfort and Taborre will probably move up to the highest GC places and there could even be quite a comfortable gap eventually! Novardianto also still in between the leaders and the pack:
Bercz Park Haller - Salleh Meyer Rowe Von Hoff - Altunzal Kreder - Dennis Angarita - Van Keirsbulck Le Bon
Anderson further behind, but safely in the front rows, too..
Taborre fought hard, but he couldn't catch up to Monfort, who's going strong towards a crucial stage-win..
Monfort takes the stage and the gap on the peloton has been quite comfortable at the latest timing! He clearly picked the perfect stage to play his puncheur skills to perfection. It must be said though, that the peloton once again played it too risky with some questionable slow downs..
Taborre a strong 2nd with the same time as Monfort..
Novardianto about a minute behind and still fighting to hold off the peloton, that has not yet entered the final kilometre of the stage:
Bercz, Haller, Salleh, Von Hoff and Kreder went clear from the pack once they launched their sprint!
Bole at the front of the back, a few seconds in arrears already.. Anderson as well, Angartia, Opie, Rowe and Meyer in the mix for a minor Top-10 result maybe..
Von Hoff now moving to the leading position with Bercz struggling to keep his pace. Haller closely behind the Aussie, Kreder and Salleh can't really follow anymore..
..Novardianto still ahead though, it might be a close one for the third escapee of the day..
..but he survives the stage ahead of the sprinters:
Novardianto comes in 3rd an the clock stops at?
+ 1'08" for Novardianto and Von Hoff comes in 4th ahead of Haller!
Bercz and Kreder as 6th and 7th on the stage and despite there being a small gap between Kreder and Horton as 8th on the stage, there's no further official gap rewarded eventually. That's good news for Anderson (9th on the stage), who does not lose seconds on Kreder that way.. but of course there was this minute gap on Monfort and Taborre..
..and so it's Monfort, who slips into the leader shirt today! Taborre just 2 seconds off as 2nd and the duo has quite a comfortable gap thanks to bonifications gained in addition to the actual gap!
Anderson drops to 3rd with 1'16" off Monfort! The biggest TT contenders (Dennis, Reus, Grabovski, Mullen et cetera) are 1'36" behind - that should become an interesting 17km ITT tomorrow. One thing is for sure though: many teams won't be happy to allow Monfort and Taborre such a gap today. They definitely stand a chance to keep their prime positions tomorrow!
The mentioned dropped TT specialists lost big minutes eventuelly and one rider (Burmann/Balkan Cycling) had to abandon the race.
