It’s Day 3 here in Germany and after yesterday’s time trial the GC is starting to crystalize. Today we might see even more changes as we have a very hilly profile for this stage and we will no doubt see a lot of riders being dropped. Either a break will make it or we will see a very small peloton make it home to the line to battle it out for the win. Either way, the Top 10 will not be the same after this stage.
After the first hill on the stage, which wasn’t categorized the break of the day had already settled up the road and the three riders in it were Visconti (Warner Brothers), Joly (Eurosport) and Coyot (Erste). Also Borrajo (Sony Ericsson) had gone clear of the pack but he would never catch up with the leaders. Coyot had to let go of Visconti and Joly on the small hill after the points sprint, which Coyot actually won, and he wouldn’t catch up again either.
Visconti and Joly testing their luck.
At the start of the stage there wasn’t any particular team pulling the pack, as they were taking it easy from the outset. We do notice that WikiPedia for most of the time had three riders relaying at the front, so maybe they have something planned for Evans today, although you would think he wouldn’t make a move until the first real mountain stage. Another favourite today is Carlsberg’s Stefan Schumacher who will be looking to shine before his homecrowd.
With a 130 kilometres to go the breaks gap topped at 13 minutes as the leading team Credit Lyonnais took the front alongside WikiPedia. This was when we were just about to enter the hills, meaning we would have a lot riders go off the back shortly.
Up front Visconti and Joly kept their lead more or less static as they still had ten minutes with 100 kilometres to go.
On the third climb with about 85 kilometres to go they still had more than 9 minutes. Joly took full points at the third summit and Lhottelerie will definitely lose his jersey to one of these two riders.
On the fourth climb the gap was still about 8 minutes with 70 kilometres to go. Joly also took full points at this summit as he is now ever so close to the polka dot jersey.
Some Italian fans trying to inspire Visconti up the fourth climb of the day.
The fifth categorized climb on today’s programme was also by far the toughest. 10 kilometres at a gradient of about 8 percent will definitely have its impact on the pack. For Visconti and Joly this is a crucial ascent. If they can get over here with a decent gap it’s not impossible they will battle it out for the stage win. They hit the bottom with more than 7 minutes to the peloton, where France Television were now also taking part in the chase, while Credit Lyonnais had dropped back. A few kilometres up the climb and Coyot is finally back in the pack. So there’s still ways to go to the duo up front.
WikiPedia was determined though as they were rapidly eating into the advantage of Visconti and Joly on the climb. Because of WikiPedia’s high pace the pack was cut to just 60 riders halfway up, with race leader William Bonnet in serious problems.
With 1,7 kilometres to the top Kai Reus attacked. Schumacher and Nibali counters, and they will get a gap while Reus will be caught by the pack again. Schumacher had a solo lead over the top, crossing about 3 minutes after the leaders, with Nibali not far back.
Nibali caught Schumacher in the descent and they started working together. The two built a nice gap of 42 seconds before they with 30 kilometres to go gave up on their bold effort and dropped back. Ten kilometres later it was all over for Visconti and Joly though, after a great effort that got both of them into a good position in the KoM competition with Joly holding a narrow lead over the Italian.
Because of the high pace sat by WikiPedia the pack is now down to just 34 riders. The winner of the Deutschland Tour will come from this very selective bunch. All the favourites are in it aswell.
There were a few lumps very close to the finish line and with 10 kilometres to go, last year’s winner Markus Fothen jumps off the front with Evans and Gadret countering, and they get a gap!
Rogers also managed to gap the pack, where co-operation was completely gone as WikiPedia naturally didn’t want to work anymore.
With 3 kilometres to go they have almost one and half minute and it going to be between Fothen, Evans and Gadret. We don’t see these riders sprint very often, so who’s the fastest?
It’s Evans! He takes the stage and the yellow jersey because of the boni seconds. Gadret will only be one second down on the Australian though, while Fothen moves to 4th place. Rogers holds off the pack by a wide margin as he climbs to 3rd in the GC, but he and Gadret will have problems keeping up in the mountains eventhough you can’t rule any of them out.
Pieter Weening leads in the pack to take 5th on the stage. No favourites finished after the pack, so we should still have a very open race here.
Bonnet finished more than 8 minutes back. He was hoping he could hand over the jersey to Gadret, but Evans will wear it on tomorrow’s stage.
1. Cadel Evans
2. John Gadret s.t.
3. Markus Fothen s.t.
4. Michael Rogers + 52”
5. Pieter Weening + 1’36”
