Today's stage: Another
transition stage along the Mediterranean coast, this one expected to
end in a sprint.
Who won today's stage? Andre
Greipel (Lotto-Belisol) got himself over the very difficult cat. 3
climb (it was short but the average gradient was over 10%) in range
of the leaders, ws apced back to the group and then beat Peter Sagan
(Liquigas) and Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Sky) in the sprint.
What matters in the GC race? No
changes. All the top guys finished with the front group while many
others were dropped. No changes as the Sky combo of Bradley Wiggins
and Chris Froome are still 1-2.
What matters in other competitions?
Green Jersey (Points) – After
Matt Goss' (Orica-GreenEdge) penalty, he was dropped on the climb
today. With Sagan finishing second on the stage, this competition is
nearly over in favor of Sagan.
Polka Dot Jersey (King of the
Mountains) – No changes here again with only one climb today.
Fredrik Kessiakoff (Astana) still leads. Tomorrow has a cat. 2 and
two cat. 1's in a possible breakaway stage. This means someone far
down on the GC like Kessiakoff could go in the breakaway and get a
load of points tomorrow.
White Jersey (Best Young Rider)
– No changes here either. Tejay van Garderen (BMC) still leads over
Thiabult Pinot (FDJ).
Team Classification (Calculated by
adding the three best times on each team each day) –
Considering the top six teams had the same time today, there was no
change here. RSNT still leads Team Sky by 12 minutes.
Biggest surprise: Bradley
Wiggins on the front of the lead out train. Wiggins is the yellow
jersey. It's not often you see him leading out a teammate looking for
a stage win and while Edvald Boasson Hagen didn't finish the win off,
it was still a nice gesture from Wiggins to give his teammate an
opportunity.
Biggest disappointment: Where
were the other sprinters? This stage was supposed to be a sprint
battle royale in between the mountains, but that climb that Greipel
and Sagan got over shed everyone else. Sagan is the best climber
among the sprinters so him getting over was expected. But Greipel is
an awful climber. If he can get over, everyone else should have
managed to be close enough to bridge back as well.
Other items of note: Jurgen Van
den Broeck (Lotto-Belisol) was also paying back a teammate with some
extra work. Van den Broeck sits 5th on GC, but he helped
close down a short attack in the final kilometers for his teammate
Greipel... Over the next few days, we are likely to see a few more
abandonments along the way with more mountains. Tomorrow is a high
mountain transitional stage again and Monday is mostly flat Wednesday
and Thursday are both beastly stages in the Pyrenees.
What is coming tomorrow? The
opposite of yesterday with a similar result. Breakaway will stay away
after an early small climb and two late category 1 climbs that are
too far to make a difference for the GC riders.
Tomorrow's prediction: 1. Jeremy
Roy (FDJ) 2. Jerome Pineau (OPQS) 3. Fredrik Kessiakoff (Astana)
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