Dan Martin took a famous win on Stage 2, but it wasn't enough to push him to the top of the standings. That honour is currently held by Amador, who is heavily favoured to keep the jersey at the end of today as well! Martin should be his top rival once again, with the likes of Aru and Borisavljevic not too far behind.
A look at today's top favourites in more detail...
A much larger breakaway group is formed today, comprising of twelve riders: Pantano Gomez Henao Serry Holmes Fedeli Ramos Ticona Van Gils Romo Christakos Van Tricht Finkler Stokbro
Finkler wins the first intermediate sprint ahead of Christakos and Romo.
100 kilometers to go for the peloton as Lierse, Glanbia and Volcanica have riders at the front. Aramco, Pas Normal and Kraftwerk jerseys can also be seen in the leading positions. They trail by 2'28".
8 kilometers to the top of the first climb, five riders have a gap to the rest of the breakaway - Pantano Gomez, Henao, Serry, Ramos Ticona and Van Tricht.
Van Tricht is dropped as well 2 kilometers later.
He is followed by Ramos Ticona being dropped another 2 kilometers later.
Henao wins the KOM sprint, followed by Serry and Pantano Gomez. Ramos Ticona and Holmes also pick up points.
Stokbro has been caught by the pack.
Here is the race situation at the start of the second climb, 44 kilometers to go:
E1 -> Henao, Serry, Pantano Gomez
E2 (32" ) -> Holmes, Fedeli, Ramos Ticona
The rest are spread out singly in the gap to the peloton which stands at 4'19". 55 riders remain in the pack, including all the favourites.
5 kilometers into the climb, all but the front six are caught by the pack.
Henao wins the second KOM sprint as well. Serry, Pantano Gomez, Holmes, Shapira, Ho and Guilllame Martin is the order behind. Fedeli and Ramos Ticona were caught just before the summit.
Holmes is also caught a few kilometers later.
Brenes is dropped from the peloton again today. He didn't get to ride this race for himself it seems, and has been working for Amador.
Salinas attacks on the downhill!
The reaction reduces the pack to just 18 riders, Yesterday's stage winner Dan Martin is one of those in trouble! He has Brandt in support and namesake Guillame for company.
U25 leader Helme has also been dropped and is even further behind the Martins.
Dzhus and Nitu have fallen even further behind.
Back out in front, the break have 15 kilometers to go where Henao has pulled out a 22 second lead on the others. The peloton trail by 2'37". Henao trails Amador by 7'26, with Serry at 9 minutes and Pantano Gomez down by 6 minutes. All three are looking at sizeable GC gains now.
GC leader Amador attacks the pack, looking to chase down the break. The pace had slowed a bit allowing the Martin and Dzhus groups to make it back.
8 kilometers to go. Henao leads by 29 seconds and he's pulling out the lead with every kilometer!
Kennaugh, Costagli, Fuchs, Tatarinov, G. Martin, Badilatti, Ratiy, Grigrian, Ho, Dzhus, Nitu, D. Martin and Brandt are all dropped from the peloton another two kilometers later.
3 kilometers to go for Henao and his lead is 31 seconds. The peloton are at 2'13".
Ratiy, Dan Martin, Dzhus, Brandt and Nitu have not made it back to the peloton. The other recently dropped riders have done so.
1 kilometer for Henao and his lead has stretched to 47 seconds.
Henao takes a comfortable win in the end. What a ride!
Behind him, the sprint starts with 500 meters left.
Serry edges out Pantano Gomez for 2nd. Both riders will be happy with their exploits today.
Just over a minute behind, Jaramillo leads the pack to the line to claim 4th. Tatarinov is 5th and Shapira is 6th.
Amador comes home safely in 7th and seals the GC. Pavlic, Roson and Holmes complete the Top 10. Borisavljevic, Lovik, Aru, Grigrian, Salinas, Atapuma, Kozhatayev, Badilatti and Costagli also finish in this group.
Dan Martin loses 1'11" to the Amador group. He will drop in the GC. Nitu, Dzhus, Brandt and Ratiy also finish in this group.
Today's winner - Sebastian Henao.
Apologies for not getting the full results but the export failed and I had to recreate the results from screenshots and my notes.
Stage Result
1
Sebastian Henao
Tafjord Kraft
4h56'57
2
Pieter Serry
Crabbe-CC Chevigny
+ 45
3
Jarlinson Pantano Gomez
Eurosport x GCN
s.t.
4
Daniel Alexander Jaramillo
Tafjord Kraft
+ 1'57
5
Gennadiy Tatarinov
Kraftwerk Man Machine
s.t.
6
Idan Shapira
Pas Normal Studios - Mikkeller
s.t.
7
Andrei Amador
Volcanica - Fox
s.t.
8
Marko Pavlic
Tafjord Kraft
s.t.
9
Jaime Roson
Gjensidige Pro Cycling Team
s.t.
10
Matthew Holmes
cycleYorkshire
s.t.
Amador wins the GC ahead of Borisavljevic and Costagli. Aru is 4th with Martin dropping to 5th.
GC
1
Andrei Amador
Volcanica - Fox
9h35'05
2
Milos Borisavljevic
Aramco DP
+ 53
3
Teodoro Costagli
Kraftwerk Man Machine
+ 1'02
4
Fabio Aru
Pas Normal Studios - Mikkeller
+ 1'23
5
Daniel Martin
Glanbia Foods Cycling Project
+ 1'53
6
Jaime Roson
Gjensidige Pro Cycling Team
+ 1'59
7
Jonathan Salinas
Gjensidige Pro Cycling Team
+ 2'02
8
Marko Pavlic
Tafjord Kraft
+ 2'52
9
Bakhtiyar Kozhatayev
BWT Hyundai N Cycling
+ 2'54
10
Volodymyr Dzhus
Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff
+ 2'56
11
Adrian Nitu
Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff
+ 3'00
12
Matteo Badilatti
Team UBS
+ 3'29
13
Artur Grigrian
Team UBS
+ 3'33
14
Daniel Alexander Jaramillo
Tafjord Kraft
+ 4'04
15
Darwin Atapuma
Tafjord Kraft
+ 4'19
16
Idan Shapira
Pas Normal Studios - Mikkeller
+ 4'22
17
Murilo Affonso
Los Pollos Hermanos
+ 4'47
18
asmund Romstad Lovik
Eddie Stobart
+ 4'49
19
Vadim Ratiy
Pas Normal Studios - Mikkeller
+ 4'50
20
Jarlinson Pantano Gomez
Eurosport x GCN
+ 4'56
21
Sasu Helme
Kraftwerk Man Machine
+ 4'57
22
Tyler Brandt
Glanbia Foods Cycling Project
+ 5'06
23
Dominik Fuchs
Team UBS
+ 5'14
24
Jesus Herrada
Volcanica - Fox
+ 5'23
25
Sebastian Henao
Tafjord Kraft
+ 5'29
Martin, Amador and Henao share the Points jersey.
Points
1
Daniel Martin
Glanbia Foods Cycling Project
25
2
Andrei Amador
Volcanica - Fox
25
3
Sebastian Henao
Tafjord Kraft
25
4
Fabio Aru
Pas Normal Studios - Mikkeller
24
5
Jaime Roson
Gjensidige Pro Cycling Team
21
6
Pieter Serry
Crabbe-CC Chevigny
20
7
Jarlinson Pantano Gomez
Eurosport x GCN
16
8
Gennadiy Tatarinov
Kraftwerk Man Machine
16
9
Daniel Alexander Jaramillo
Tafjord Kraft
15
10
Marko Pavlic
Kraftwerk Man Machine
14
Serry does enough to hold off Henao for the KOM jersey. Cuming is 3rd.
KOM
1
Pieter Serry
Crabbe-CC Chevigny
60
2
Sebastian Henao
Tafjord Kraft
54
3
Michael Cuming
Eurosport x GCN
38
4
Matthew Holmes
cycleYorkshire
28
5
Daniel Martin
Glanbia Foods Cycling Project
16
6
Jarlinson Pantano Gomez
Eurosport x GCN
16
7
Fabio Aru
Pas Normal Studios - Mikkeller
12
8
Alejandro Osorio
Los Pollos Hermanos
12
9
Andrei Amador
Volcanica - Fox
10
10
Jaime Roson
Gjensidige Pro Cycling Team
8
Helme edges out Fedeli for the U25 jersey. Pronskiy is a distant 3rd.
U25
1
Sasu Helme
Kraftwerk Man Machine
9h40'02
2
Alessandro Fedeli
Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam
+ 42
3
Vadim Pronskiy
Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff
+ 7'51
4
Dimitrios Christakos
cycleYorkshire
+ 10'56
5
Asbjorn Hellemose
Pas Normal Studios - Mikkeller
+ 11'27
6
Martin Papanov
Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff
+ 14'01
7
Giovanni Aleotti
Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam
+ 16'34
8
Nik Cemazar
Team UBS
+ 16'55
9
Alejandro Osorio
Los Pollos Hermanos
+ 16'56
10
Matteo Jorgenson
Volcanica - Fox
+ 16'57
Gjensidige claim the Teams win ahead of Tafjord and Pan Normal.
