Today's stage: A one-day classic
disguised as part of a stage race.
Who won today's stage? Peter
Sagan (Liquigas) won his second stage in three days. While he isn't
automatic in a sprint like he was in California or Switzerland, these
hilly stages are easy marks for him right now.
What matters in the GC race?
Fabian Cancellara (RSNT) finished with the main group and retained
the yellow jersey, but not without a few tense moments as 3rd
place Sylvain Chavanel (OPQS) attacked and nearly stole the stage and
the jersey on the final climb. Among the overall threats, Bradley
Wiggins (Team Sky) is still the top man and everyone else still has
the same time as before.
What matters in other competitions?
Green Jersey (Points) – Sagan
extended his lead in the Green jersey competition with his stage win.
His main competition is defending champion Mark Cavendish (Team Sky)
who freelanced his way to top points in the intermediate sprint
remaining in range of catching Sagan.
Polka Dot Jersey (King of the
Mountains) – Michael Morkov (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff) got himself in
the break for the 3rd day day in a row. This allowed him
extend his lead. He is sure to retain the jersey tomorrow as there
aren't enough points available for anyone to pass him. Maybe he will
take a mch needed rest and avoid the breakaway tomorrow.
White Jersey (Best Young Rider)
– Tejay van Garderen (BMC) retained his white jersey finishing with
the main group. Boasson Hagen remains second after also finishing
with the group.
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. In other
words, ditto yesterday. This doesn't figure to change until the
mountains.
Biggest surprise: Morkov in the
break again. He is likely to pay dearly later, but his team's new
second sponsor Tinkoff has to be pleased with all of the screen time
they have gotten thus far. Still, when was the last time someone was
in the break three days in a row? Not even anyone from the FDJ
breakaway squad from last season managed that.
Biggest disappointment: Nobody
really challenged Sagan. It was too easy considering Sagan had a
chance to celebrate with a running man dance on the bike as he won.
At least Chavanel tried with his big attack. Everyone else either had
nothing for Sagan or didn't bother trying as they saved energy for GC
assaults later.
Other items of note: Today was a
festival of crashes. Early on Astana leader Jani Brajkovic crashed
(he is fine and still sits 13th overall). Later, Tyler
Farrar (Garmin-Sharp) and Kanstantin Siutsou (Team Sky) collided and
caused a decent sized pile up. Siutsou was forced to abandon because
of his injuries. Finally, there was a large pile up that included
Farrar again, JJ Rojas (Movistar), Johnny Hoogerland (Vacansoleil),
Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEdge) and many others. As a result of the
crashes, many were stuck behind the main field where the Movistar
team drove forward and dropped everyone. Notable among those that
lost time some amount of time: Christian Vandevelde (Garmin-Sharp),
Tom Danielson (Garmin-Sharp) and Thomas Voeckler (Europcar). Also of
note, Rojas was forced to abandon.
What is coming tomorrow?
Sprinters awaken again. Tomorrow is pancake flat for the final run in
and has no climbs above category 4 at all. This means sprinters all
the way.
Tomorrow's prediction: 1. Mark
Cavendish (Team Sky) 2. Andre Greipel (Lotto-Belisol) 3. Kenny Van
Hummel (Vaconsoleil)
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