We’re looking at a stage similar to yesterday's. Pretty much entirely flat, three intermediate sprints, but it’s 30 kilometers longer, so stamina might come into play at the end. There are only marginal differences between the sprinters in this regard though, no big outliers.
The start line isn’t even out of sight and we have the first attacks. Once again, the amateur teams are very active. Pajek intitiates the move, Yang and Jenko are the first to respond.
As if to underscore my point, Dobre and Bellan also join this group that has 2 minutes on the peloton just 10 kilometers into the stage. Misbah was a late attacker, he is about a minute behind this group, slowly catching up.
Just before the first intermediate sprint, Misbah makes contact. Jenko wins the sprint pretty easily ahead of Yang and Bellan.
Jenko wins the second sprint as well, this time ahead of Yang and Misbah. This group is more effective than yesterday’s, managing to push their lead to more than four minutes at one point. It’s back below three by now, with the usual suspects doing the bulk of the work in the peloton.
A few kilometers later, Pajek suffers a puncture. He would not make it back to his former companions and is the first of them to be caught again with around 50 kilometers to go. Back in the peloton, Chavanne is struck with the same fate. He will lose quite some time, and Sauber is missing a big piece of their sprint preparations now.
As the peloton is coming closer and closer, Jenko tries one last desperate attack!
He just barely makes it to the final intermediate sprint to deny the peloton the maximum amount of points. Lo Cicero takes four ahead of Salleh. Jenko’s solo ride is over a few hundred meters later.
Let’s jump a bit ahead: The sprint is about to begin and Europcar are once again in prominent position. Matthews just raw accelerates from 3 kilometers out at the front of the peloton, Lo Cicero sits firmly behind Lay a few positions further behind, Selig right behind him.
Silvestre is the Berg rider to Selig’s left, followed by yesterday’s winner Manninen in green, Coutinho to the Finn’s right.
Behind those two, it’s Hofstetter, Wippert and Suryadi from left to right, with Zabel in his teammate’s slipstream. The Sauber crew around Salleh are a few positions behind them, they have to hurry to get to the front now.
We’re coming closer to the flamme rouge. Matthews is still in front but on the other side of the road it’s Lay who goes for it with a lot of speed. Silvestre is behind Kiskonen in the middle of the road but Coutinho tries to go past them on their left to give his leader a better wheel to grab. Salleh is still a long way back.
There are two nasty 90 degree corners on the way to the line and as the riders are about to take the first, two clear trains have emerged: Lay with Lo Cicero, Selig and Manninen to the right;
Coutinho with Silvestre, Hofstetter, Zabel and Wippert to the left.
Suryadi is in no-man’s-land to the right, Salleh needs to start his sprint to make up all that ground.
You can see the wild routing in this shot. The finish line is very close, but due to all the corners, it was difficult to overtake anyone. Lo Cicero and Manninen charge to the front in the middle of the two leadouts dropping off now. Silvestre and Selig are in the best positions behind them, but how much more is even possible now?
Lo Cicero is still in front, but Manninen is slightly faster, as is Silvestre, who has to get around his teammate first though. Selig is the only one who might interfere with that trio to get onto the podium.
With a phenomenal final acceleration, Manninen makes it back-to-back stage wins! What a performance! Lo Cicero comes just short of rewarding Europcar for all their efforts, but it’s at least a better result than yesterday. Silvestre collects a second podium finish as he finishes third, Selig is fourth.
With this win, Manninen obviously takes the sole lead in the points classification he had previously shared with overall leader Durbridge. He also climbs to 23rd overall, Silvestre now sits in 28th place.
Coutinho fends off a late push by Zabel and Wippert, consolidating a good day for Berg Cycles. Suryadi manages to finish 8th, two further leadouts in Lay and Hofstetter complete the Top 10, the latter possibly the biggest surprise of the day …
… with maybe the exception of Sauber’s performance. This finish was a terrible one to be in bad position early, which they were, leading to Salleh finishing only 12th, even behind 3 kilometer sprinter Matthews.
Olympia’s Tour 
