The final stage's big GC battle is almost upon us, but there's still one flat stage remaining, to give the sprinters a last chance to build up a buffer.
In fact, today's parcours is probably the easiest of all in the race, meaning that even the likes of Kip should stay around for the expected mass sprint finish.
As you could've anticipated just by looking at the profile for today, the break succeeding never even comes into question. Under the banner indicating 10 km to the finish, they're reeled in after spending several hours up front.
Salgueiro made sure to take maximum profit out of the escape at least, as he won all four intermediate sprints and moves up to a provisional 7th in the GC. His companions Dennis, Chernetskiy, Quintana, Hnik and Hansen don't have much to be happy about, on the other hand.
Moving closer to the end, an interesting development in the race shows that SRAM aren't the only ones forming a train. In fact, they're struggling to match the strength of airBaltic and AMEX, as the other sprinters desperately try to pick the best possible wheel.
Van Wyk
Reinhardt
Briggs
Selig
Koch
Rowe
Kupfernagel
Eichler
Gajek
Giaux
Haussler
Kip
Cucinotta
Irvine
Feillu
Priamo
Interestingly, the most notable name missing from the front rows is the previously so confident Gavazzi. Along with yesterday's runner-up Bazayev, he is trawling for better position without success.
Back at the peloton's head, Eichler opens the sprint first to take Haussler past the rivalling leadouts.
Briggs and Selig both quickly react, both being their respective teams' final leadout man.
Undistracted by those response attempts, Eichler easily outpowers the others and pulls Haussler clear.
Kip, Cucinotta and Irvine have taken the positions behind.
Once again using the waiting strategy, Haussler plays it cool all the way until 800m from the line, when he finally makes the jump.
This causes Cucinotta and Irvine to feel forced to go as well.
A few hundred metres later, Kip also leaves the slipstream with an own burst. However, like all others, he can't seem to match Haussler's speed!
Instead, riders are starting to overtake from behind - Giaux, Bazayev, Priamo and Kupfernagel with the highest speed.
Nonetheless, it is Haussler who wins his second stage in a row!
Kip is 2nd, despite clearly not having anything left in the tank for an own acceleration. 3rd goes to Giaux, who came up very quickly in the end and possibly could've challenged for the win with better position.
The two final top 5 spots go to Priamo and Kupfernagel, with Bazayev, Cucinotta, Irvine, Rowe and Crespo completing the top 10.
Another five places down, in 15th, is Gavazzi. Unlike Bazayev, he never found his way back into contention again after the initial bad position. A tough day for him, as he loses the jersey to Haussler.
Bad luck also for Traficante, who joins team mate Ascani on the list of abandons after a crash early in the day.
Stage
1
Heinrich Haussler
Sram-Riboxx Cycling Team
3h20'46
2
Ismaël Kip
ING Cycling - Project
s.t.
3
Jérome Giaux
Swedbank-PEAB
s.t.
4
Matteo Priamo
Team UPC - Boehringer-Ingelheim
s.t.
5
Danilo Kupfernagel
AMEX Pro Cycling
s.t.
6
Assan Bazajev
ING Cycling - Project
s.t.
7
Claudio Cucinotta
Rothaus - Aegon
s.t.
8
Martyn Irvine
Adira-Isq Project
s.t.
9
Matt Rowe
airBaltic - Endura
s.t.
10
Marcos Crespo
Vattenfall Cycling
s.t.
11
Nicolas Roche
ING Cycling - Project
s.t.
12
Christian Ranneries
Vattenfall Cycling
s.t.
13
Artur Gajek
Adira-Isq Project
s.t.
14
Ivan Rovny
Tinkoff Bank - Rosneft OJSC
s.t.
15
Francesco Gavazzi
Team UPC - Boehringer-Ingelheim
s.t.
16
Ermin Van Wyk
airBaltic - Endura
s.t.
17
Romain Feillu
Team BPost
s.t.
18
Graham Briggs
airBaltic - Endura
s.t.
19
Rüdiger Selig
AMEX Pro Cycling
s.t.
20
Dietmar Mehr-Wenige
Adira-Isq Project
s.t.
21
Jakob Fuglsang
Team Vueling Airlines
s.t.
22
David Garbelli
Vespa-Aprilia Racing
s.t.
23
Markus Eichler
Sram-Riboxx Cycling Team
s.t.
24
Vasili Kiryenka
Tinkoff Bank - Rosneft OJSC
s.t.
25
Ben Hermans
Swedbank-PEAB
s.t.
26
Sven Vandousselaere
Team BPost
s.t.
27
Jan Oelerich
Team UPC - Boehringer-Ingelheim
s.t.
28
Massimo Iannetti
ING Cycling - Project
s.t.
29
Theo Reinhardt
AMEX Pro Cycling
s.t.
30
Lars Boom
Rothaus - Aegon
s.t.
31
Aleksandr Kolobnev
Tinkoff Bank - Rosneft OJSC
s.t.
32
Maximillian Schachmann
Rothaus - Aegon
s.t.
33
Rob Ruijgh
Rothaus - Aegon
s.t.
34
Kevin Seeldraeyers
Team Bintang
s.t.
35
Matteo Bono
Vespa-Aprilia Racing
s.t.
36
Linus Gerdemann
Sram-Riboxx Cycling Team
s.t.
37
Jerome Cousin
Team BPost
s.t.
38
Johan Lindgren
Swedbank-PEAB
s.t.
39
Martin Velits
Rothaus - Aegon
s.t.
40
Ignas Konovalovas
airBaltic - Endura
s.t.
41
Dominique Cornu
Team BPost
s.t.
42
Patrick Gretsch
AMEX Pro Cycling
s.t.
43
Michiel Elijzen
Team UPC - Boehringer-Ingelheim
s.t.
44
Salvatore Puccio
Team Vueling Airlines
s.t.
45
Jiri Hudecek
Sram-Riboxx Cycling Team
s.t.
46
Sergey Chernetskiy
Tinkoff Bank - Rosneft OJSC
s.t.
47
Pavel Brutt
Tinkoff Bank - Rosneft OJSC
s.t.
48
Michel Koch
Sram-Riboxx Cycling Team
s.t.
49
Dennis Van Winden
ING Cycling - Project
s.t.
50
Manuel Quinziato
Vespa-Aprilia Racing
s.t.
51
Emilien Viennet
Team Vueling Airlines
s.t.
52
Patrik Sinkewitz
Team Vueling Airlines
s.t.
53
Christian Bertilsson
Swedbank-PEAB
s.t.
54
Mathieu La Lavandier
Team BPost
s.t.
55
Cristiano Salerno
Cisco Cycling Team
s.t.
56
Tim Declerq
Team BPost
s.t.
57
Jonathan Hivert
Team Vueling Airlines
s.t.
58
Sergio Ghisalberti
Team Bintang
s.t.
59
Jan Dieteren
AMEX Pro Cycling
s.t.
60
Alexander Sulimov
Tinkoff Bank - Rosneft OJSC
s.t.
61
Tobias Ludvigsson
Swedbank-PEAB
s.t.
62
David Loosli
Vespa-Aprilia Racing
s.t.
63
Jonas Ahlstrand
Swedbank-PEAB
s.t.
64
Enrique Salgueiro
Vespa-Aprilia Racing
s.t.
65
Sami Tiainen
Vattenfall Cycling
s.t.
66
Fabio Silvestre
Adira-Isq Project
s.t.
67
Egoitz Murgoitio
ING Cycling - Project
s.t.
68
William Maesen
Team BPost
s.t.
69
André Cardoso
Adira-Isq Project
s.t.
70
Sylvain Chavanel
AMEX Pro Cycling
s.t.
71
Paul Voss
Rothaus - Aegon
s.t.
72
Lawrence Warbasse
Sram-Riboxx Cycling Team
s.t.
73
Yuriy Vasyliv
Sram-Riboxx Cycling Team
s.t.
74
Andrei Sakalou
Tinkoff Bank - Rosneft OJSC
s.t.
75
Joe Hicks
Adira-Isq Project
s.t.
76
Simon Geschke
Rothaus - Aegon
s.t.
77
Artis Pujats
Vattenfall Cycling
s.t.
78
Anders Lund
Swedbank-PEAB
s.t.
79
Trent Lowe
airBaltic - Endura
s.t.
80
Rohan Dennis
Adira-Isq Project
s.t.
81
Michael Valgren Andersen
Team Vueling Airlines
s.t.
82
Artur Grigrian
Team Bintang
s.t.
83
Fabien Taillefour
AMEX Pro Cycling
s.t.
84
Risto Raid
airBaltic - Endura
s.t.
85
Giovanny Báez
Team Bintang
s.t.
86
Kristoffer Skjerping
Vattenfall Cycling
s.t.
87
Ivan Seledkov
Team Bintang
s.t.
88
Edward King
ING Cycling - Project
s.t.
89
Michael Hepburn
Cisco Cycling Team
s.t.
90
Lasse Norman Hansen
Vattenfall Cycling
s.t.
91
Anders Ekh Dahlberg
Vattenfall Cycling
s.t.
92
Josh Atkins
Cisco Cycling Team
s.t.
93
Stefano Agostini
Cisco Cycling Team
s.t.
94
Dylan Van Baarle
airBaltic - Endura
s.t.
95
Gracjan Lejman
Team Bintang
s.t.
96
Patrick Schelling
Cisco Cycling Team
s.t.
97
Moris Possoni
Cisco Cycling Team
s.t.
98
Jokin Niño
Team Bintang
s.t.
99
Karel Hnik
Cisco Cycling Team
s.t.
100
Nairo Quintana
Team Vueling Airlines
+ 2'17
101
Mike Teunissen
Team UPC - Boehringer-Ingelheim
+ 4'26
102
Eugert Zhupa
Team UPC - Boehringer-Ingelheim
+ 6'20
103
Danny Van Poppel
Team UPC - Boehringer-Ingelheim
s.t.
Today's big bonus means that Haussler now has a healthy lead over everyone else, including Gavazzi, who is now 14 seconds back. Riders like Sinkewitz have lots of work to do if they want to win the overall.