Ulft and Gendringen only lie two kilometer apart, but the route designers made a 197 kilometer long stage through the Achterhoek region in the east of the Netherlands. As can be expected from the Netherlands it is almost completely flat, but there is some slight elevation in this region. A mountain sprint is drawn at the top of the Peeskesweg only fourteen kilometer into the stage, and since it's the only KoM of the race we expect a fierce a battle for it.
And as expected, a lot of attacks almost immediately from the get-go. Thurau starts the fire, Hnik and Potts are first to respond, followed by Kamyshev, Polnicky, Van den Berg, Van der Hoorn and Kneisky.
But we're not done yet. Vincent and Burghardt want to be in as well, Gaday forms a group with Kochetkov, Oram, Kalf, Peng, Boonratanathanakorn, Barbero and Teggart. The sixth and final group contains of only Gilanipoor and Matthews, but they rode away from the peloton while tasked with chasing all groups ahead.
The first four groups melt into one (up to and including Vincent/Burghardt) into one to form a leading group of ten. At a minute we have the peloton with the riders who just got caught chasing after the leaders, hoping to do so before the mountain sprint which is only three kilometer away.
One kilometer to go and the road is visibly going uphill. Potts led the group up to now but moves aside to allow Van der Hoorn to take the front with Van den Berg and Kneisky. Who will attack first? Points are available for the first five riders which will also be the order for the final mountain classification provided they finish the race.
What an anticlimax. I've massively hyped this epic battle for the KoM but then no one is interested. Do they even know there is a KoM classification? Anyway, Van der Hoorn kept his lead and presumably wins the jersey, ahead of Van den Berg, Kneisky, Kamyshev and Polnicky. Congratulations on the free ranking points!
Onto the actual stage. For the next twenty kilometer, a lot of teams chased after the breakaway and kept the gap at around 30 seconds. Kamyshev, Polnicky, Thurau and Burghardt attack from the break to increase their gap. These four got the clearance while the other six got caught.
The leaders reach the town of Ruurlo with a lead of two minutes with 110 kilometer to go. An intermediate sprint is drawn in the countryside, here is the result:
1
Thurau
6 pts
2
Polnicky
4 pts
3
Kamyshev
2 pts
4
Burghardt
0 pts
The gap got up to three minutes before the peloton reorganized themselves. Podium Ambition (Matthews), Puma ( Ganna) and eBuddy ( Tolhoek) start chasing, Bennelong and Aker also have riders near the front. Everything is looking towards a sprint finish.
Fast forward to the local laps around Gendringen. 30 kilometer to go and the gap is down to 1'30. The same teams still lead the chase, but the puppets have been replaced: Niu, Roosen and Novardianto. The local laps are about six kilometer long, but with the current gaps the chance of lapped riders is small.
The finish line doubles as intermediate sprint as well. The order is the same as the previous sprint, Thurau-Polnicky-Kamyshev. Burghardt's breakaway adventure ends without bonus seconds or points for any classification. The peloton at exactly one minute with four laps to go, 23 kilometer in total.
A twisty section in the town leads to some minor splits. Puma, Podium Ambition, Repsol and eBuddy have a lot of riders in the front group but not their sprinters. Especially Repsol's presence is one of opportunity since they don't have a true sprinter in the race.
15, not 20 kilometer to go and Repsol pulls an even bigger gap to the group behind. Basso, Barbero, Mosca and Vanmarcke are away, with Gaday, Meiler and Sanogo. Thirty seconds to the pack led by Lampaert, Wackermann and a full pack of Podium Ambition riders except Ewan, who's still in the mid-pack with all the other sprinters.
Eventually the order is restored, but as a result the leading quartet still has 1'20 with 10 kilometer (2 laps) to go. The sprinters have found their way forward now but still need to catch the breakaway, but a group with leadouts ended up on the wrong side of a split. except for some who are behind a split. Bauhaus, Clarke, Liepins, Meyer and Scully won't be able to help their lead sprinter today. Fablok and Generali with their entire team caught behind bar Guardini and Gaday respectively.
Six kilometer to go and the gap is 32 seconds, with mainly Podium Ambition pulling really hard. Edmondson, Thomas and Alaphilippe do everything they can to bring back the breakaway. Team Puma - SAP in the positions behind ready to take over.
Four kilometer, 25 seconds, Lammertink for eBuddy now after Podium Ambition burned out and Sagiv also taking a turn. Demare and Grosu are very close to the front already, but will they be sprinting for the victory?
Yes, they will. Lammertink's effort was enough to end the dreams of the breakaway just over two kilometer from the finish line. Here's how the front of the pack looks like:
Vermeltfoort
Keukeleire
Brus
Nelson
Grosu
Ewan
Groenewegen
Howard
Swift
Demare
Kennaugh
Guerao
Stoltz
Coquard
Van Stayen
Van der Lijke
Kristoff
Guardini
Zabel
Kump
Van Heerden
eBuddy versus Podium Ambition in the battle of the trains. Brus leads out Grosu, Nelson does the same for Ewan. Howard in prime position behind his fellow Australians, followed by Kennaugh, Groenewegen and Guardini. Swift a bit boxed in behind Keukeleire who just came off the front.
The two top dogs are released near-simultanious, but Ewan seems to win on initial acceleration. Howard has already drawn alongside Grosu with Kennaugh on his wheel. Groenewegen and Demare coming on the right side of the road, Swift is now free on the left. Guerao, Guardini and Van Stayen down the middle but behind at the moment.
Kennaugh makes it four wide 300 meters to go, Swift again in the unfortunate position of being blocked. Groenewegen still on the right side ahead of Demare who has Guerao and Guardini alongside him. Van Stayen relegated to the next rwo in between Kump and Van der Lijke.
Grosu blocks off both Groenewegen and Demare as he ran out of steam, Swift forcing his way through the middle between Ewan and Howard. Kennaugh leading ever so slightly but it's very close between the front four guys.
But Peter Kennaugh holds off the competiton to win the first stage in Gendringen. Swift with a good final few meters to take second ahead of Howard. Ewan and Grosu finish fourth and fifth after being in the best position with their trains.
Guerao, Guardini, Demare and Kump complete the top ten. Van der Lijke eleventh, van Stayen twelfth, Kristoff thirteenth, Zabel fourteenth, all were badly positioned and couldn't find their way around the others. Coquard only in sixteenth place.
Peter Kennaugh is the GC leader with his twenty-five bonus seconds. The top seven is the same as the stage result, with Thurau in eight due to his bonus seconds on the intermediate sprints. Kennaugh also leads the points classification but the jersey will be worn by Swift, while Van der Hoorn takes the KoM jersey which he'll keep until the end of the race. Ewan in white as the only rider eligible for the youth classifcation taking bonus seconds, and Evonik had the best three finishers of the day to lead in the teams classification.
