2 GC days in the legs, now a calmer day again and a second opportunity for the sprinters.Some Cat.4s on the way, but nothing too hard to give Demare a real advantage over the others. Avelino and Ciolek the favourites with Groenewegen as well, who had an anonymous first sprint. Tzortzakis and Bertilsson as 1-2 in Napoli surely in good form as well.
A trio was allowed to go and those are now deciding the first KoM in the following order: Olsson Ludvigsson Per
None of them had any KoM point before and neither is any danger for the GC.
Ludvigsson being more aggressive the next two climbs and taking the 5 points in both. No change though as Voisekalns at 32 remains easily in the lead ahead of Mraouni at 25 and Morton at 22.
Behind mainly Aker, Puma and Porto were doing the pace all day and with 5km to go Per is again trying but the peloton is also catching him a bit later than the others.
Puma is setting up their train the best by the look of it with Aker still not 100% and also Groenewegen in the mix today with a bit under 2km to go.
Hadi
Felline
Demare
Scully
Bertilsson
Silvestre
Ciolek
Dakteris
Hayakawa
Van Poppel
Mansilla
Avelino
Tzortzakis
Groenewegen
Dzamastagic
Saber
Chen
Docker
Well, it was a short moment for Groenewegen at the front. He didn`t really follow the other trains and is now back in the peloton. Was already weird as he yet again wasn`t covered as the others and instead had to protect Dekker himself early on.
The decision will be made by the other sprinters. Puma has lost the advantage with Felline a bit ahead of Demare but other sprinters are coming faster. Scully with a good leadout but it`s Bertilsson behind him and then only Ciolek.
Avelino on the left side of the road as well going now.
Close. Avelino might be in the lead over Bertilsson with Ciolek, Saber, Van Poppel all coming and so are Silvestre, Hayakawa and Demare.
Tzortzakis not as strong today and also Docker is having a meter gap.
Close and hard to say. Van Poppel definitely was fastest in the end but apparently he wasn`t first over the line. And nobody is celebrating really.
But seconds later it`s clear and quite a shocker again. None of the top favourites did it. It`s Bertilsson with a huge win showing that his Tour of America win in 2017 wasn`t the biggest result yet. 2018 delivers him a first GT stage but it was close as he couldn`t have gone faster any single meter.
Avelino and Van Poppel as well in a photo finish then showing that the Portuguese was a bit ahead.
Saber as 4th followed by Hayakawa and Ciolek in 6th only ahead of Demare. Both not with a good sprint today.
And neither Groenewegen had as pre-stage favourite. 13th is looking a lot better than he actually did. Basically dropped back to 30th position with 1,5km to go and then passed a lot towards 13th in his sprint.
