After many of the major sprinters were left disappointed yesterday, everyone has a new chance today. Here’s a look at the top of the Green Jersey competition:
Lahcen Saber
Swisslion Cycling Team
70
Jonas Ahlstrand
Volvo acc. by Spotify
57
Michael Van Stayen
Evonik - ELKO
53
Sondre Holst Enger
cycleYorkshire
38
Romain Vanderbiest
Indosat Ooredoo
30
There’s also the Mountain Classification that is up for grabs. 10 points can be scored today, leader Revard has 7 and more than a handful riders are within just 4 points of that, so they could take the lead by winning even one of the two sprints. The first of the two comes pretty early on, so expect a hectic opening few kilometers.
Indeed, it takes like 20 meters and Groselj is already on the attack! He was in the break two days ago and has 2 mountain points to his name already.
Boom leads the next wave of attackers, but domestiques in the peloton increase the pace immediately, so they don’t have a shot to actually break away.
Then a quartet with a few familiar faces gives it a go. Kastrantas, Peters and Krigbaum, who all were in breakaways or at least attempted breakaways already, are joined by van Zyl.
They make it to Groselj just in time as the KoM sprint comes into view and we have our group of the day. Only Peters has a single point, so if one of them is to take over the polkadots, they’d need to score in the Top 2 at both of the sprints.
Peters, van Zyl and Kastrantas are head and shoulders above the other two in terms of climbing ability, the Greek is easily the one with the best acceleration, so let’s write him down as the favorite for now. How much that means? We’ll see.
Kastrantas is also positioned well behind Krigbaum, who opens the sprint first.
He quickly takes the lead, but there’s still a good 500 meters left.
But Kastrantas has the stamina to sustain his effort all the way to the line and takes 5 points. 3 to van Zyl, 1 to Peters to increase his total to 2.
Same old, same old at the front of the peloton. Let’s hope for their sake that they time the catch of the escapees better this time. At least they keep them on a somewhat shorter leash, never letting the gap grow to much more than 4 minutes.
Fast forward to the intermediate sprint, which goes by almost unnoticed. The gap stands at 2’50.
We’re at the second mountain sprint now. A win for either Kastrantas or van Zyl, who is comfortably ahead of the former in the GC, gives them the polkadots. Peters needs to be first while Kastrantas can’t be second, but the Isostar rider is at the very end of the group. The climb is relatively short and not that steep, so Kastrantas is once again in great position.
Krigbaum is a bit more resistant at the front this time, but as long as van Zyl doesn’t win, a second place would be enough for Kastrantas.
But he doesn’t even let it come to that. Kastrantas takes the second KoM sprint as well and is the new leader of the Mountain Classification. The peloton is still 2 minutes behind them.
But the pack has more urgency today, which leads Groselj to attack with 32 kilometers left in the stage already. He holds out for a while but is caught with around 23 kilometers to go. However, he really wants that combativity award and attacks again right away. The peloton is less than a minute behind this group.
Evonik has taken control of the peloton, but cycleYorkshire takes part in the chase as well now, possibly encouraged by Enger’s second place yesterday.
But the breakaway, which has reunited at this point, proves once again to be very resilient. Stoltz is at the front now, trying to close the gap.
4 kilometers to go and the breakaway still holds out, but at least we have a more coordinated sprint preparation now. To the right, Halvorsen has Ahlstrand at his wheel, once again very early at the front. Jakobsen and Enger follow.
To the left, Reimer does his thing again, but interestingly, Holloway shows himself for the first time all race, next to Van der Lijke. Vanderbiest, Saber, Dzamastagic and Van Stayen are in the mix as well, then there’s a small gap to the rest.
EA Vesuvio have the most promising train with 2,5 kilometers to go as they finally move past the breakaway. Surprisingly, considering their approach so far, Van der Lijke is actually ahead of Holloway. A few of the second tier sprinters have found a way closer to the front, while Ahlstrand and Vanderbiest look like they’re ready to go to the front on their own already, which doesn’t seem like the smartest move.
Lots of movement here. Dzamastagic jumps to the front, we’ve seen that play out yesterday, and not work well. Holloway is suddenly ahead of Van der Lijke now, while Halvorsen has recovered and tries to bring Ahlstrand in a favorable position. There’s also a gap to the peloton again, which might stick. 1,7 kilometers to go.
Holloway blows past everyone else and he and Van der Lijke get a small gap.
But then both implode completely, what a weird sprint once again. Vanderbiest is going to the front, Ahlstrand seemingly in perfect position behind him. Van Stayen is on his own on the left.
Ahlstrand takes the lead with 700 meters to go, the dangerous Saber still in his slipstream.
Further behind, the likes of Nizzolo, Soupe, Santos and Van Poppel fight for the later Top 10 places. The peloton, by the way, has basically stopped riding alltogether, they’re around a minute behind the sprinters, even the former breakaway still has a gap on it.
But back to the front, where Ahlstrand displays his incredible speed. Only Saber manages to hold on, everyone else including Van Stayen is left in the dust.
Even with the slipstream, Saber can’t follow, what a monster performance by Ahlstrand. To the right, Santos flies past everyone with blazing speed on the way to his best result so far!
But no one is a match for Ahlstrand today! With a dominant win, he retakes the lead in the points classification as well by 7 Points.
Saber continues to impress with his third podium place in as many sprint stages. After imploding yesterday, Santos surprises everyone with a fantastic third place.
Van Stayen improves on yesterday, but a 4th place is still not ideal. Nizzolo on the other hand delivers back-to-back 5th places, which is a strong result for him. Enger and Vanderbiest follow ahead of Jakobsen.
EA Vesuvio are probably on the right track by including both Holloway and Van der Lijke in the sprint, but with Reimer burning out way too early, their timing was screwed once again. 9th and 11th for them, 10th for Soupe. Van Poppel, Dzamastagic and Halvorsen complete the group …
… and then we have this weird situation. The peloton, as mentioned earlier, has stopped cold in its tracks. The wild thing is that, after yesterday’s time gaps, Van Stayen is only 1’22 behind Herklotz and the gap is currently measured at 1’28.
A late push by Tivani sees the peloton crossing the line … 1’21 behind the winners. Herklotz keeps yellow by a single second, Enger moves up to 3rd overall. Both he and Van Stayen are now in a position to take yellow with bonus seconds at any point in the next three days.
Another weird consequence is that EA Vesuvio, despite their disappointing result, still get something out of this stage as they take the lead in the Team Classification.
The opportunity for Van Stayen and Enger to grab the yellow jersey arises tomorrow already with another stage that is categorized as flat, but that actually has a pretty steep climb inside the final kilometer. Will the peloton finally get their act together? Can Evonik and EA Vesuvio get the good stage result, maybe even the stage win they so desire? We’ll find out together.
Tour de France 
