Today's stage:
Another long (190 km), flat stage ending in a sprint. There
really isn't much else that can be done in Denmark.
Who
won today's stage? Matt
Goss (Orica GreenEdge) bettered his second place from yesterday by
winning today over JJ Haedo (Saxo Bank) and Tyler Farrar (Garmin)
after yesterday's winner Mark Cavendish (Team Sky) was collected in a
crash (more on that later).
What matters in
the GC race? Nothing in the grand picture. In the short term,
current leader Taylor Phinney (BMC) was contesting the sprint and got
collected in the crash. He finished in an ambulance and may not
continue in the race, but he keeps the leaders jersey for now as the
crash happened inside the last three km during a sprint meaning he
gets the same time as everyone else.
Biggest
surprise: Goss was going to win the stage over Cavendish even
without the crash. Cavendish's team didn't do a great job of setting
him up resulting in a late start to his sprint. That was the main
reason he was collected in the crash and even without it likely could
have only reached 3rd place.
Biggest
disappointment: The crash itself was just stupid riding from
Roberto Ferrari (Androni-Giacatolli) who jumped right looking for a
gap that wasn't there (or even close to being there) and took
Cavendish's front wheel out. From there the pile up was on collecting
numerous other riders including Phinney.
Other
items of note: Riders
paid tribute to Wouter Weylandt, killed in a crash during stage 3
last season. His number (108) has been officially retired by the
race... Tonight is the longest transfer in Giro history with everyone
traveling to Italy to get the real fireworks started.
What
is coming tomorrow? Tomorrow
is a rest day because of the long transfer. Then it's Team Time Trial
day on Wednesday. The TTT is always interesting and nearly always
eliminates someone from GC contention because his team is awful in
this discipline. The question is who that will be.
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