The third and final stage takes the riders around the town of Formaai, my self-invented Dutch translation of Fourmies. This area was part of the Habsburgian Netherlands in the 16th century, when Spain controlled things around here. In 1579 the Unie van Atrecht (Arras) was signed, and Fourmies was part of that. In response the Unie van Utrecht was created, which would become the predecessor of the Netherlands nowadays. Come for the cycling, remain for the historic facts.
The first round of attacks contain Peng, Fiedler, Riabushenko and Ji. A counter-attacked was formed by Venturini, Potts, Vanmarcke, Krigbaum, Van den Berg and Vincent, but when they caught the leaders the peloton caught them as well.
Round two is initiated by Van der Poel, Hansen, Manakov and Ganna. Venturini then tried to join again which caused a chain reaction with more riders following, which in turn led to the peloton sweeping them up again.
Van der Poel goes again, this time with Kneisky and Wisniowski. 170 kilometer remaining, the banners may make things quite confusing.
The trio kept its lead until kilometer 150, but then Van der Poel and Wisniowski drop Kneisky for whatever reason. Things didn't calm down behind either, Pluchkin, Fiedler and Vanmarcke are on their way to the leaders.
Despite the earlier shenanigans, the six reunite and form today's breakaway. The gap to the peloton is three minutes with 140 kilometer to go, as Podium Ambition and Evonik have blocked the road and won't allow any further attacks. For the remainder of the day, the chasing will be done by these teams as well as Bennelong, eBuddy and SPAR. Air France once again observes but doesn't have to do the dirty work themselves.
100k and the lead remains constant, dipping slightly below three at the moment. A good time to remind us of the GC situation:
Kennaugh leads by 20 seconds over Howard and 22 over Grosu. If we head to a sprint finish, there are 25 bonus seconds on offer for the winner, which means one of these three wins. No intermediate sprints, so all time has to be gained at the finish line. Or we might have a lucky breakaway or late attack to steal the victory away from the sprinters.
From the breakaway, everyone except Kneisky is at 50 seconds in the GC. If one of them wins the stage and the gap to the peloton is more than 25 seconds, they will win. There are some strong riders in the break, Wisniowski and Vanmarcke are classic specialists so should know how to attack on the flat, Fiedler as time trialist can ride a good pace, Pluchkin might be out of his element but a rider of his caliber should be capable of anything, Van der Poel is the young kid in the break but don't underestimate him either.
The chance of a breakaway victory shrinks every passing kilometer. 40 kilometer to the finish line and the gap is down to a minute, which causes unrest at the front. The break halves with Fiedler, Vanmarcke and Wisniowski attacking. In the background we can see the peloton, where there also appears to be a split.
World Champion Kump is on the wrong side! Zabel is here as well, just behind him, as well as a lot of Tinkoff riders ( Meyer, Serebriakov and Van Heerden). More riders with a possible race-ending situation are Kemboi, Ulanowski, Goss and Nelson.
Tinkoff realizes the danger and partly brings the group back, their sprinters and Kump are now at the back of the peloton again. Zabel is still behind though, and the distance to the finish line is getting shorter.
Back to the front, where the split has also been undone and we have six leaders once more. They can dream a bit more, as the gap increases to 1'30 and it's not like the peloton behind has fallen asleep either.
Having heard Zabel is behind and Kump is at the back, Evonik, Bennelong and eBuddy push even harder. Blythe leads the peloton with Schreurs, O'Shea, Dzamastagic and Vermeltfoort. Kump was briefly dropped again but appears to be a cat with nine lives today. The gap to group Zabel is up to 1'30 again, but the breakaway's lead is still a minute.
Not the finish line yet, but Wisniowski attacks again with two laps to go. He gets a considerable gap for his solo attempt. Meanwhile, group Zabel is closing again and is within striking distance of the first peloton.
Clarke gets this information from his manager and increases the pace again, reducing the "peloton" to just 27 riders. Kump is dropped again with, amongst others, Demare! Puma is now controlling the second group in an attempt to get them back. Zabel also further behind now after nearly rejoining.
17k, now Aker ( Yzeiraj) and Festina ( Karatzios) pulling the group along. A long stretch of straight road so we can assess the carnage that has unfolded:
Coquard Ewan Swift Grosu Kennaugh Howard Groenewegen
in the first twenty positions and ahead of the first noticeable gap.
Kump Van Stayen Guerao Demare Van der Lijke Guardini Kristoff
not that far behind, Puma giving everything to close the gap.
Zabel Polnicky Stoltz Boonratanathanakorn
all the way at the back, even if the peloton merges they have a difficult task ahead of them. Some riders drop out of their promising GC position.
You'd almost forget a breakaway is out in front, or in fact there was a solo attempt, but Wisniowski is brought back. The breakaway still leads by 55 seconds over the peloton, where the split becomes more noticeable. Puma struggling to bring back their leader and the other casualties, the gap now measures 45 seconds.
Group 3 has given up! The gap to the first peloton is over two minutes. No way they will be able to close it in 13 kilometer, that's goodbye GC position for some. The first peloton only contains nineteen riders: Groenewegen, Thurau, Van der Hoorn Kennaugh, Bernaudeau, Clarke Swift, Anderberg, Yzeiraj Howard, Oram, Schreurs, Wohler Grosu, Lampaert Coquard, Karatzios Ewan, Novardianto
So seven sprinters, each with at least one teammate. These sprinters are currently all in the top eight of the GC, with only Van der Lijke (7th) in the group behind.
Van der Poel is the first of the breakaway to feel the pain of this endeavor, as he lets go heading into the final lap around Fourmies, sorry, Formaai. He might be of use for his leader, Groenewegen, in chasing his former breakaway companions. At the moment, Novardianto, Yzeiraj and Bernaudeau are doing that work.
Ten kilometer, 51 seconds. The group of favorites has some real trouble in bringing the gap down, and we might be on for a surprise breakaway victory. Group Van der Lijke at four minutes! Van der Poel is still hanging on somewhere between groups one and two.
Van der Poel is rolled up by the Aker train of Anderberg-Yzeiraj-Swift. 40 seconds is what remains for the breakaway only 7 kilometer from the finish line. Wohler currently guides Howard with Grosu follows the Australians closely. Kennaugh is at the back of the group, but his yellow jersey might be in danger.
Five kilometer, 33 seconds. Fiedler tows the breakaway but they all look tired as the gap is coming down. Anderberg has used up his energy as well, Yzeiraj takes over for Swift. Karatzios and Van der Hoorn are the other helpers chasing the leaders.
Three kilometer, 25 seconds. Karatzios now leading the pack but it will go down to the wire. Groenewegen best placed amongst the sprinters in third position, with Swift in fifth position. Ewan, Grosu and Howard are looking for their teammate to lead them out. Coquard looking for a wheel to join. Kennaugh still far at the back. Group 3 is closing in again to 2'30 but they will come too late.
Two kilometer, 23 seconds. The gap hasn't gone down so the breakaway appears to have the stage win in the back, but the winner needs a gap of 25 seconds to displace Kennaugh at the top of the GC. Vanmarcke manages to ride the same tempo after a long breakaway as Van der Hoorn who has just come to the front in the favorites group. Groenewegen right behind the KoM winner, Swift on his wheel discarding his leadouts.
Out of the final turn, 800 meters and Wisniowski takes the lead in the sprint for the stage victory. Fiedler and Kneisky are able to match the initial acceleration but started a bit behind him. Vanmarcke is too tired to sprint.
The chasing group starts sprinting pretty late, which isn't optimal for their GC positions you'd think. Van der Hoorn still lead the group heading into the final kink, but released Groenewegen quite well as he's leading the sprint so far. Swift got off to an average start while the others were caught napping. Coquard and Ewan though approaching on the left side of the road.
Kneisky is gaining a bit of ground on Wisniowski but it doesn't look like the Pole will throw away his advantage. Fiedler has dropped back and is battling Pluchkin for third.
Groenewegen versus Swift for P5 or P6, depending on if they catch Vanmarcke who is falling back rapidly. This could be crucial for Kennaugh with respect to the measurement of time gaps. Ewan versus Coquard for the next positions. Grosu, Howard and Kennaugh will fight over the minor places today.
Lukasz Wisniowski wins the third and final stage in Formaai! Fair play for believing in a breakaway miracle. Now it's waiting for Kennaugh to cross the line to see if he wins the GC as well.
Second place for Kneisky, just edging out Pluchkin. Fiedler fourth. All should make a nice jump in the GC.
Vanmarcke does manage to hold on to fifth place by the narrowest of margins, which might actually be bad new for Wisniowski and good new for Kennaugh as the latter will likely be given the same time as the Belgian.
Swift wins the battle of the sprinters for sixth place, for only a few bonus seconds. Groenewegen seventh, Ewan eighth, Coquard ninth in what ended up very close. Howard tenth and the final bonus seconds, Kennaugh not picking up any bonus seconds in eleventh and now awaiting confirmation of the GC decision, Grosu twelfth. All the domestiques with the exception of Van der Poel managed to stay with this group, which will be rewarded with a nice jump in the GC.
Van der Lijke wins the sprint for bacon and beans as the Dutch saying goes, 26th place at 2'46 from Wisniowski. Kristoff, Demare, Guardini and Van Stayen made an effort to sprint, Guerao and Kump didn't. Group Zabel finishes at 4'07. They will all drop out of the GC top twenty. And now the decision of the jury:
Indeed, group Kennaugh is given the same time as Vanmarcke, but Vanmarcke is given the same time as Wisniowski, thus by the laws of transitivity, Kennaugh is given the same time as Wisniowski. Therefore, Peter Kennaugh is the winner of the second Ronde van Nederland!
Howard and Grosu hold on to their podium positions despite taking only minimal bonus seconds today. Ewan and Swift scored better, but not enough to grab a podium place. They did score enough to keep Wisniowski behind, who with his 25 bonus seconds jumps to sixth. Groenewegen drops a place to seventh, while Pluchkin and Fiedler enter the top ten in eighth and ninth. Coquard drops from eighth to tenth, with the same time as Vanmarcke. Thurau twelfth thanks to his bonus seconds on day one, followed by the domestiques who were in the favorites group today. Van der Lijke was seventh before today, and has now dropped to 26th as everyone who finished ahead today is also ahead in the GC.
The points classification logically goes to Kennaugh as well with his two stage wins. Van der Hoorn reached the finish line, thus confirming his mountain classification. Ewan was unthreatened for the youth classification, with teammate Novardianto making it a 1-2 for Podium Ambition due to his work today. Aker and Aegon has three riders in the front group at every stage, but Aker - MOT wins the teams classification on the tiebreaker.
