Fraille holds the leader's jersey with Cattaneo and Gesink breathing down his neck after Stage 1. Among the punchers, who are expected to do better today, Izagirre is the only who posted a competitive time yesterday but that wasn't really a surprise. The punchers will be hoping to make this a very selective stage to put the TT riders in trouble and get back some time, or better overhaul, the GC.
Favourites
MON
HIL
RES
ACC
Izagirre
74
81
72
64
Schreurs
69
81
72
74
Borges
70
80
73
81
Paulinho
75
80
72
75
Prevar
71
80
70
73
Dowsett
65
80
69
71
Turgis
66
79
78
77
Gesink
81
79
77
65
Gautier
67
79
71
76
Bilbao
67
79
71
75
Yesterday's Time Trial has made things a little complicated. Why do I say so? Some of the punchers, who are likely to be at the front come the end of the stage, have decided to take advantage of their time deficits and attack at the start of the stage. The peloton don't look too perturbed either, letting them go and forming the break of the day. Could this be a mistake from the latter though?
Turgis wins the first KOM sprint with Gautier and Scheit following.
80 kilometers to go for the peloton and they trail by 2'16". MOL, Desigual, GCN, Polar, Duolingo, Repsol, Podium Ambition and Azteca have all put riders in the lead positions to chase the break.
Gautier wins the first intermediate sprint ahead of Dyrnes and Scheit.
Eight riders have attacked out of the pack in an attempt to catch the break - Borges (1'36" ), Bilbao (1'31" ), Klemme (1'23" ), Moazemi (1'3" ), Denz (1'14" ), Razumov (1'9" ), Dempster (1'15" ), Vanderpool (1'2" ).
Looks like a few more of the punchers are getting restless. Kraftwerk have a rider in the original break and four in the recent group.
Fernandes is the next to attack.
Fernandes catches up to E2 a few kilometers later.
However they're all caught with 61 kilometers remaining leaving the original breakaway as the only riders off the front once more.
Gautier wins the second intermediate sprint as well. Turgis is 2nd and Thurau is 3rd.
40 km to go. The peloton are all together and trail the break by 1'23".
Fast forward 20 kilometers. Gautier makes a run for it! Turgis is trying to follow. Their lead is down to just 49 seconds over the pack.
32 riders have got a gap at the front of the peloton. Izagirre, Prevar, Gesink, Dowsett and Bilbao, among others are in the trailing group.
Turgis and Gautier come together and now lead the others by 23 seconds.
Behind, the gap is increasing between the two groups.
The break come together with 9 km left.
Gautier wins the second KOM sprint ahead of Turgis. This means they're tied with 10 points with the climb at the finish to go. Incidentally, that too offers 10 points to the stage winner! De Witte takes 3rd.
The acceleration by the leading duo drops the other breakaway riders.
The dropped riders are caught soon after.
Gesink, Moazemi, Durasek and Martin set off from the dropped riders' group to try to catch up to the peloton.
Izagirre, Prevar and Konig are among those that remain in the second group.
2 kilometers to go. Gautier and Turgis are still ahead but the lead group are bearing down on them. Eastman, Borges, Bettiol and Dees are in the leading positions. The Gesink quartet, who attacked earlier, have caught up.
The Izagirre group is a minute back.
The break is caught 500 meters later.
Eastman immediately goes on the attack! Borges, Zmorka, Cataford and Dees remain in the bets potion in the pack.
15 riders are now chasing the lead group. This group includes some riders dropped from the lead group and some making up ground. The riders here are Schreurs, Izagirre, Gesink, Paulinho, Moazemi, Martin, Fraille and Bernal, among others. They trail by 55 seconds.
Eastman leads into the final kilometer. Dees, Cataford and Haga are the chasers, trailing by 15 seconds.
Borges, Turgis, Gautier, Bettiol, Klemme, Denz, Cattaneo, Paillot and Zmorka are in the group just behind the trio.
Fraille, the overnight leader, is further behind, in the next group on the road.
800 meters remain for Eastman as Bettiol attacks.
Fraille is in big trouble and is falling further back.
Eastman celebrates with 200 meters to go!
Haga has been dropped by the chasers and caught by Bettiol.
Famous win for Eastman as he stakes a claim for the race win as well!
Cataford outsprints Dees to 2nd. A great result for both riders.
Haga holds off Bettiol for 4th. Again, both riders will be very happy with this outcome.
Gonzalez Cortes makes up a lot of ground in the final kilometer to claim 6th. Klemme is 7th.
Denz makes it 6-7-8 for Kraftwerk. Cattaneo claims 9th.
Izagirre's late salvage job gets him a Top 10 placing, but that'll still not be enough according to his liking.
Turgis gets 11th after his breakaway ride.
Intxausti is 12th, ahead of Gautier and Paillot.
Figueiredo is 15th, making it four Farfetch riders in the Top 15.
Borges is 16th, with Selander and Martin in the next positions.
Zmorka and Nych round out the Top 20.
Today's winner - Ryan Eastman.
Beyond the Top 20, Gesink finished 23rd, losing more than 2 minutes. This pulls him down to 11th in the GC. Fraille finishes a disappointing 40th, more than 3 minutes behind, to fall to 29th in the GC! The punchers mostly did not enjoy that stage as the GC contenders sort of crowded them out in the closing stages. Only those joining the break could reap some sort of reward today, besides the previously mentioned Izagirre.
The Top 4 on the stage also translate their positions onto the GC. Eastman, Cataford and Dees is not a podium anyone would've guessed going into the final stage.
Eastman goes to the top of the Points standings. His win gave him 10 KOM points which makes it a three-way tie for the jersey with Turgis and Gautier! Nych now leads the U25s and Zalgiris are at the Top of the Teams classification.
