Welcome to the first road stage of Le Tour de France - again starting in Prague, and it’s the longest of the race. A much-maligned 268km GT stage, and one for the sprinters today. A great day for Grosu with some difficulties towards the end as this is the route of the old classic Praha - Karlovy Vary - Praha, but the big favourites are Ahlstrand along with Mohs and Cavendish.
Leung with the first attack of the day and the white jersey clearly has designs on yellow! Doing it today will be tough, if he is even let go, given the length of the route, but with up to 18 bonuses via intermediates available he can definitely do it. Fejes and home rider Boroš follow.
Surprisingly for the Tour de France, the first move is let go and these three riders already have about 5 minutes' gap before the first intermediate sprint!
A nailbiting first sprint with Boros on the inside just clipping Leung, who came around the outside and drew level but couldn't quite come around! So the white jersey now tied with Boom thanks to those bonuses. However at the second sprint Leung makes sure to lead out as Boros did, and is rewarded with the win there ahead of the Czechian.
The sprinters' teams and Aegon control the pace, which is leisurely as to be expected as the breakaway gains around 12 minutes at its peak.
Fejes benefits from his rest at the intermediate sprints and takes the first KoM points after leading out as well. Leung seems happy not to go for them, perhaps a deal struck with Fejes. And of course to pull off this coup he'll need the energy to hang on to the bunch at the end of the stage.
Fejes though actually takes the third intermediate sprint as well with Leung in second, and so the Hongkonger has 10 seconds' GC advantage over Boom now as well as the steadily decreasing 6 minutes on the road. With just 25 points available at the finish he'll also be our green jersey leader at the end of the day in all likelihood, being on 28 now.
Fejes also takes the second KoM point in a close fight with Boros, and drops Leung momentarily. With 51km to go the gap is 3'20 and we should see a bunch sprint.
A repeat over the third KoM sprint to confirm Fejes as the wearer of the KoM jersey tomorrow! Except this time, Leung is gone permanently - maybe a decision to try and finish in the pack though.
Meanwhile in (or now out) of the peloton, 11th on GC Korsaeth and 5th on GC Boaro have been dropped. We knew the distance would see some behind, let's hope it's not any actual GC riders today!
Volvo and eBuddy make the catch with 16km to go of the surviving duo, it's all set up for a sprint! We should see trains forming soon.
7km to go and Leung is dropped. A valiant effort to grab yellow for sure, but he couldn't finish it off. However I'm sure he would say that this was worth it as given the upcoming hills this was his only shot.
A chaotic sprint setup with 4km to go here but it looks like Volvo vs eBuddy, with Kraftwerk also trying to form a train. No sign of Mohs or Cavendish yet but Mansilla, Tzortzakis, Vesely, Houle and Afewerki are well positioned already as well as Ahlstrand and Grosu.
Calmejane and Ariesen burying themselves here as their trains hit the front: Calmejane-Gerts-Grosu for eBuddy and Ariesen-Bertilsson-Ahlstrand for Volvo. Surely the latter with more sprint power coming up, but don't discount the powerful Gerts. Kreder and Haller have lost Cav and are a bit behind with Afewerki, Stepniak and Mansilla in tow, whilst Tzortzakis, Vesely, Mohs and Houle are following the two front trains.
Kupfernagel and Havik are behind Grosu whilst the others have plumped for Ahlstrand. Cav has caught his train but he's stuck behind Afewerki and Stepniak to get to Haller's wheel. 3km to go.
Meanwhile Houle and Mohs are engaging in some argy-bargy for Vesley's wheel, whilst Boeckmans has joined onto that train. Reinhardt is coming from UBS but is a wee way off - Orue with the yellow jersey Boom are the next riders behind the sprinters.
Bertilsson with the advantage as the leadouts launch, whilst Tzortzakis has lost the wheel and is in the wind now!
Disaster for eBuddy as Gerts and Calmejane can't keep up and Grosu is boxed in! Reinhardt trying to go himself to Ahlstrand's wheel as the Swede is getting an advantage thanks to a great Bertilsson leadout! Meanwhile Haller is launching ahead of a cluster of riders, whilst Cav is still rather boxed in with Mohs even further behind him!
A great effort from Reinhardt to catch Ahlstrand but with still 1.6km to go it might be too early for such exertion! Haller dropping everyone except home favourite Vesely, whilst Afewerki is in the wind and Cav looks to catch up to his leadout!
Flamme rouge and Ahlstrand launching maybe a bit earlier than wanted, but from pole position! Cav has opted to go into Reinhardt's wheel, who, like Vesely on the right here is trying to challenge Ahlstrand! Meanwhile on the left here Stepniak going for himself and going across the road, whilst Mohs is still quite out of position!
Cavendish with Kupfernagel and Mansilla in tow coming fast now around the outside with the speed advantage but it's maybe Vesely who is best placed on the inside of this left-hand bend. 800m still to go and a long way, time for Cav, Reinhardt if he has energy or Kupfernagel to come for these front two.
Vesely just behind Ahlstrand and equally as quick! But not coming around. The Manx Missile the fastest here but a long way to come yet around the outside! Afewerki with a second win now and into Vesley's wheel, what can he do with a decent gap to the Czechian's left?
Tzortzakis coming fast now too and he and Afewerki are equal with Cav with 400m left, can any of these three overtake Vesely or Ahlstrand though? Mohs now into the Greek's wheel, is there room to go through - or even the legs to?
Ahlstrand with a dominant sprint here and maybe even speeding up on this slightly downhill run to the line! 300m left and Vesely cracking a bit with Tzortzakis looking to come around very fast, to the detriment of Afewerki. Cav not able to catch Ahlstrand. Meanwhile Mansilla and Grosu finding their way from behind to hunt for a top 5!
Victory for Ahlstrand, the strongest team won and a very comfortable sprint in the end - longer than he'd have hoped for and his gap decreased all the time, but still almost a full bike length to Cavendish in second! Meanwhile it's going to be close but
Tzortzakis will hold off Grosu and Kupfernagel for the final podium spot. Meanwhile a surprising sprint from Mansilla to claim sixth ahead of Mohs.
Vesely fades to 8th, with Afewerki in 9th and Houle rounding out the top 10. A dissapointing day for Boeckmans (11th) and Reinhardt (13th), whilst Boom and Taaramäe are not leaving anything to chance and both come in the top 20.
Another day in yellow for Boom, but Cavendish coming close with his second there. Obviously the Manxman won't keep it with tomorrow's hilltop finish though - and the Dutchman willl have an... ahem... uphill battle to keep it as well.
A bittersweet day for Leung as his yellow jersey attempt didn't pay off, but he does earn the green jersey (and loses his white one) instead and could keep that for a couple of days actually.
Fejes will enjoy at least tomorrow in the KoM jersey, but may have to defend it if he wants to keep it!
And at least Leung's white jersey stays in the family, as teammate Barbio inherits it. A nice swap.
