180km of rugged terrain awaits the riders on day 3 here at the Tour of Northern Europe. A Cat 3 climb is followed by a Cat 2 and then a Cat 1 but the latter is crested 77km from the finish so should have a minimal impact. The deciding factor today is more likely to be the final kilometres which see the riders make their way up a short but steep hill to the finish line.
Goldstein is the only rider in front of the Peloton as he rolls through the first KOM of the day with a gap of 2'50.
The 3rd of 4 intermediate sprints today is still 127km from the finish and we see a bit of action as Bewley outsprints Scully, who won the first sprint of the day. The Israeli, Goldstein, is 3'20 ahead of the Peloton and faces a lonely day on the road.
It may be lonely out front but he's taking all of the KOM points on offer as he passes through the Cat 2 which we will see again in the finale. His lead as the Peloton crest the climb is up to 5'15!
91km to go as the gap has come down quickly to only 2'02. Our lone leader has just started the 16.6km Cat 1 climb.
Goldstein makes it 3/3 KOMs won today which gives him a 14 point lead in that classification. He holds a 2 minute gap with 76km to go.
Wow. At 50km to go the gap was still 2 minutes but the Peloton really upped the pace and now with 44km remaining, the catch has been made! A great opportunity for some opportunistic attacks now.
40km to go and a very short but very steep bump in the road has split the Peloton for the time being! Only 31 riders are in the front group which doesn't include the current Race Leader. The top puncheurs look to have made the split but some of the better cobble riders have work to do in the groups behind.
31km still remaining and the Peloton, led predominantly by Festina, MOL and Aegon is back together but very stretched out.
The 3 previously mentioned teams are still setting the pace with 15km left. Looks as if we may need to wait until the finish for the rest of the action from today's stage.
3km to go now and Pons is at the head of the Peloton. In terms of the top favourites, De Bie and Hagen are well placed while Waeytens and Koretzky have a bit of work to do.
De Bie goes early with still 2km to go! Hagen and Vincent look best placed right now to contest him.
1.5km to go and it's the duo of De Bie and Hagen who are showing off their strength here. Waeytens may still have enough to contest them but he'll have to put in a shift from 4th on the road as it stands.
900m remaining for the 2 leaders and one of them will win today's stage.
500m now and De Bie looks to be too strong for the Norwegian!
Further back, the battle for 3rd is heating up as Theuns looks better than his leader while Koretzky has come from a long way back to be in contention.
But back to the stage winner and it's De Bie who was the favourite to win today and he showed exactly why that is the case.
A valiant effort from Hagen but he has to settle for 2nd.
Koretzky finished quickly and gapped the others for 3rd. Oliveira is 4th.
Wirtgen comes in 5th ahead of the MOL trio of Waeytens, Theuns and Pons. Vincent and Gaday round out the Top 10.
137 riders are given the same time today so there is very little to no impact near the Top of the GC so Generali still fill up the Top 6 but the jersey changes shoulders to Kung.
Goldstein with a 14 point lead in the KOM. Scully leads the Points with Koretzky providing the closest competition. Menten remains in White. Generali also lead the Teams.
