Today's stage: A hilly stage
around the area near where the Liege-Bastogne-Liege classic takes
place.
Who won today's stage? Peter
Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) continued his reign of terror that
started when he won five stages of the Tour of California in May
followed by four stage wins at the Tour de Suisse. Today, he beat
Fabian Cancellara (RSNT) and Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Sky) in a
three man sprint.
What matters in the GC race?
Cancellara finished second on the stage and retained his yellow
jersey for another day. Behind him, not much happened. Everyone of
consequence finished with the main group except for Chris Horner
(RSNT) who lost a minute and Peter Velits (OPQS) who lost 2 minutes
because of an ill-timed puncture.
What matters in other competitions?
Green Jersey (Points) –
Cancellara now also leads this competition. Behind him are Sagan, and
Boasson Hagen meaning Sagan will wear the jersey tomorrow as
Cancellara is in yellow.
Polka Dot Jersey (King of the
Mountains) – Michael Morkov (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff) was in the
breakaway and absorbed the most points on the hills of today's course
to take the first KoM jersey of the race.
White Jersey (Best Young Rider)
– Tejay van Garderen (BMC) retained his white jersey finishing with
the main group. Boasson Hagen remains second after being involved in
the final sprint for the stage victory.
Team Classification (Calculated by
adding the three best times on each team each day) – With a
large group finishing together, there was no change here. Team Sky
retains the lead and they will continue to wear the new yellow
helmets that go along with leadership in this competition.
Biggest surprise: Nothing. Sagan
winning this stage given his talents and recent hot streak should
surprise nobody. Cancellara finishing second because he dragged
someone with a better sprint to the finish line with him should also
surprise nobody (it happened at Milan-San Remo earlier this season
and usually happens at least once in every Tour de France).
Biggest disappointment: The GC
guys didn't try anything today. The final climb was fairly steep and
many non-climbers were spat out the back of the peloton. Guys like
Gesnik and Nibali need to find time whenever possible in this race
because of all the time trial kms.
Other items of note: Tony Martin
(OPQS) saw his personal nightmare Tour continue. He fell just 11 km
into the race after his puncture yesterday in the prologue. He hurt
his wrist but did finish the stage... There were two other crashes,
one of which collected Luis Leon Sanchez (Rabobank) and caused him to
lose four minutes today. The Sanchez crash also collected two
Movistar riders and Team Sky's Michael Rogers. The other crash caused
no injury but was a larger pile up.
What is coming tomorrow?
Sprinty. Sprint. Tomorrow is nearly pancake flat. It is fast men all
the way for a bunch sprint finish as the race crosses into France for
the first time.
Tomorrow's prediction: 1. Peter
Sagan (Liquigas) 2. Marcel Kittel (Argos-Shimano) 3. Mark Cavendish
(Team Sky)
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