The third stage of the Tour of Southern Europe, as we now have more stages in Southern France than any region considered to be Northern Europe. The stage will be the first one to favor the puncheurs, with an uphill finish and many other climbs to conquer before the finish line. The cobblestone specialists will want to limit their loss today, in order to be in a good shape for tomorrow.
Six riders form the initial breakaway on the Cote de Tourtour: Sanogo (2nd KoM, 8 pts) Lane De Souza Summerhill (KoM leader, 17 pts) Boros (2nd KoM, 8 pts) David
Rabottini and Costa on their way and would join halfway up the climb, more riders attacking though.
The last arrival and only additional arrival wins the category three mountain sprint: Benoot ahead of Rabottini and Lane, Summerhill fourth with no points. Boros wears the mountain jersey as Summerhill is also entitled to wear green after his stage victory yesterday. The now nine leaders lead by four minutes over the top, the peloton satisfied with the composition.
Benoot also wins the intermediate after the downhill ahead of Sanogo and Boros, Summerhill only fifth but still the virtual leader there as well. The gap has grown to six minutes, 150 kilometer to go.
The peloton determined six minutes is enough and the chase is on. EA Vesuvio, Aegon, Gazelle, Farfetch, Generali and Puma all with one rider or more. Summerhill at 1'01 the most dangerous rider in the break, and now the holder of three virtual jerseys.
Summerhill avenges on the second intermediate twenty kilometer later. Sanogo second, Benoot just edged out by De Souza for third. The gap has gone down to five minutes in this short period.
De Souza wins the category two Côte des Tuillieres with some margin, and puts his name on the leaderboard with ten points. Rabottini second for eight, Benoot third for sixth, Lane fourth for four and Summerhill only fifth for two points. Summerhill still the virtual leader but there is a category one climb further down the stage, worth sixteen points. David did not participate and lost a minute in the final kilometer alone, but fought his way back to the group.
The lead comes down rapidly in the next phase, the break reaches the foot of the Col de Mos with only two minutes left. Unsurprisingly, Bakari is the only rider dropped so far, he has to fight against the time limit again to be able to ride on his favorite surface next stage.
About one third into the climb and the first major group drops off, Gerts the most surprising name on the back foot. Also some cobble specialists in here, such as Blythe, Kristoff, Kamyshev, Daniel, Vanmarcke and Van Avermaet.
Out front, things also start to split with only 40 odd riders at front. Yellow jersey Hadi is in there, as are the puncheurs De Bie, Gastauer and McCarthy. Wisniowski, Theuns and Teunissen are the best cobblers, Bewley not far behind this group though. Aegon setting a decent pace with Koep and Van Hooydonck.
Out front the break manages to maintain the two minute lead, though Boros has dropped off. A larger peloton is closing in on group yellow jersey, including a recovery ride from Gerts and a survival act from Bewley.
The sprint for the mountain points led to further separation. Lane won with a small gap over De Souza, Summerhill, Rabottini and Costa, with Benoot not far behind them. After them, the gap grows to David and Sanogo, who could not participate in the sprint. Boros is almost caught by the yellow jersey group. As this is the last categorized climb of the day, Summerhill will remain leader with 29 points, with De Souza and Lane tied for second at 22 and Rabottini fourth at 20.
The group yellow jersey, led by Fritsch, crosses the top three minutes later. There are fifty riders, with another twenty in very close proximity and ready to join on the downhill. Bewley has already made it to the front group, Gerts and Polanc are in the second. A group with Cavagna, Declerq and Senechal at a minute thirty, followed by a larger group containing Sulimov, Bolivar, Bush, Burghardt, Altur, Pedersen and Trentin as top cobblers.
Gerts gives it everything, but the gap is up to 1'30 after the downhill and the yellow jersey group is riding further away. He has 65 kilometer to close the gap on the undulating roads. The front five lead by 2'10 over the group yellow jersey, with Benoot 40 seconds behind them and the others already caught or about to be caught.
Fritsch continues to lead the group over a steep climb, thinning out the group to 33 riders and catching Benoot, the five leaders still at 2 minutes. Bewley and Teunissen amongst those who fell away, forced to drop back to group Gerts which was closing in a bit, but the climb set them back to 1'30 as Gerts couldn't make the jump.
We finally have a regroup at 40 kilometers from the line, just before the Mur de Fayence. The group yellow jersey is now 60 riders large, the next group including Trentin, Declerq and Pedersen four minutes behind.
The Mur itself reinforces the split along roughly the same lines, Gerts again in the second group together with Teunissen, Theuns and Polanc. Bewley just about made it in the front group. He and Wisniowski are the two cobblestone specialists set to gain the most time if these groups stay as they are, along with Summerhill if he doesn't have a major implosion.
Summerhill and De Souza didn't ride away, they were the only two interested in the intermediate sprint, the American adding more points to his total. The breakaway maintains its two-minute gap to group Hadi, group Gerts 1'20 behind them.
The pace in the yellow jersey group is high, leaving only twenty riders able to follow: Boom, De Bie, Koep, Zardini Bibby, Furdi, Kruijswijk Brown, Kung, Oliveira Feng, Russo Bewley Cataford Chernetskiy Gastauer Hadi McCarthy Walsleben Wisniowski
Dekker and Geoghegan Hart just dropped after working to create this group. Gerts is now at two minutes, his group also fractured with Teunissen down at three minutes.
Rabottini briefly tries a move from 25k out but is given no room. The yellow jersey group closing in to one minute and reducing its size to 16: Brown, Feng, Koep and Russo are out. The gap to Gerts is only increasing, time to write him and the others off.
Perhaps that was a premature conclusion, as with fifteen kilometer to go his group of 25, including Dekker and Theuns, is only 1'20 behind the yellow jersey group, which is still a minute behind group Summerhill. The amount of helpers for the puncheurs is running out. Gastauer, Chernetskiy and McCarthy leading the group themselves but obviously not wanting to burn too much for the finale.
An attack from Oliveira with 12 kilometer to go. Gastauer and Furdi respond, followed by McCarthy and Chernetskiy.
His attack led to nothing, not even a time gain to the breakaway, which is still a minute with only eight kilometers. The only it achieved is placing group Gerts back down to two minutes.
The gap between the front two groups is even up to 1'10 into the final five kilometer, prompting Lane to attack with a counter from Summerhill. De Souza responds a bit too late, Costa and Rabottini have run out of gas.
De Souza makes it back, Costa and Rabottini at 14 seconds with only three kilometer to go, the final two kilometer is uphill. The gap to the favorites is 1'30, Summerhill at 1'01 in the GC looking solid to take yellow today, something he felt he was robbed of yesterday.
The breakaway regroups shortly up the climb, Costa and Rabottini back with the other three. The group yellow jersey already closing in to 1'05, De Bie and Furdi leading the way.
Summerhill leads into the final 800 meters, with De Souza, Rabottini and Lane on his wheel, but the yellow jersey group has closed the gap! Gastauer moves alongside De Bie, Kruijswijk and Oliveira behind them...
..and yellow jersey Hadi is struggling to keep up! In the case he loses time, Kruijswijk and Bibby are at 20 seconds as closest GC riders in the group. De Bie and Boom at 38 seconds.
500 meters and it's over for Summerhill and company. Gastauer and De Bie lead, followed by McCarthy, Boom, Bibby and Kruijswijk. Hadi also feeling better and moving up places.
Gastauer and De Bie have a small gap over McCarthy and Bibby. Lane has found some additional energy.
Bibby makes a very strong move, but at 150 meters it might be too late. Lane had to sit down again, Rabottini now leading the battle for fourth but McCarthy is launching again.
Ben Gastauer wins the stage, De Bie takes second and Bibby just too late, taking third. They should be awarded a gap over the rest of the group.
This is indeed the case, as Cataford with a late sprint takes fourth at twelve seconds. McCarthy finishes fifth ahead of Rabottini, Kruijswijk and Lane.
Props to yellow jersey Hadi for finishing ninth, with Boom completing the top ten. Kung, Bewley, Chernetskiy, Oliveira and Wisniowski finish eleventh to fifteenth, all in the same time as Cataford, twelve seconds down. Summerhill collapsed towards the end, losing 36 seconds to the winners together with Walsleben.
Bibby was twenty seconds behind Hadi, and gains twelve seconds on the road and eight second bonus, hence they are tied for the GC lead. The milliseconds from the team time trial come into play, which means Janvier Hadi holds on to the yellow jersey! De Bie third at fourteen seconds, Kruijswijk fourth at twenty and Boom fifth at 38. Summerhill, Wisniowski and Walsleben all just over a minute behind the leaders, but they have a great position going into the cobblestone stage. Kung and Oliveira completing the top ten at 1'28. Bewley up to fourteenth at 2'19.
Gerts spend so much energy chasing that he doesn't have the energy for a final uphill sprint. He finishes down in 27th at 3'17, with Theuns even riding away from him on the final climb to lose a minute less. Polanc loses 4'38, with a group containing Bush, Declerq, Pedersen, Teunissen and Trentin at seven minutes. Kristoff finishes nine minutes down. Senechal, Altur and Vanmarcke at ten minutes. Blyhte and Kamyshev losing fifteen minutes, Daniel nearly half an hour and Bakari, as last finisher but inside the time limit, 40 minutes.
In terms of the minor classifications, Summerhill still leads the points and mountains classification. The youth classification goes to Geoghegan Hart, nineteen seconds ahead of Ganna. Gazelle takes the lead in the team classification as Puma, bar Hadi, was nowhere today.
