With almost 170km it`s a quite typical flat stage in professional cycling. For the Tour of Southland it`s already quite long as many stages have a maximum of 100km.
So todays sprint might be totally different than on the other stages.
Favourites nevertheless are Guillén, Maksimov and with a big questionmark due to the length Thorsen.
4 riders in the breakaway. With two Cat.4 rated mountain sprints the chance is high to get the KoM jersey afterwards.
Vassdal
Horgan
Hugentobler
Kochetkov
As a PCT team Evian - MIAT surely has a certain strength to control the race. So 3 riders are ordered to the front to make the pace. Race leader Rocchetti rides safely right behind them avoiding possible crashes this way.
Horgan takes the first sprint. As 19th and only +46s he is the best placed in this group and hoped for a coup today by taking the leader jersey eventually.
Kochetkov and Hugentobler follow him over the line while Vassdal is not showing any interest.
The 3 expected sprinter teams Banco Nacional de Costa Rica, Allianz-BMW and Team Privatbank come to the front now as well and take over from Evian - MIAT.
With 87km to go and a gap of a bit over 6min it`s time. With 6 possible sprint finishes the sprinters have best chances here to take the point jersey and several stage wins. So they won`t give it to the breakaway that easy.
Breakaway specialist Hugentobler wins the sprint at the first KoM. He already has good experience with the KoM jersey as he also wore it in the Tropicale Amissa Bongo earlier the season.
Vassdal and Horgan take the next points.
But as yesterdays final climb was rated Cat.3, Rocchetti still has a 1p lead here and the next KoM will be important.
2nd intermediate and again Horgan takes the bonus seconds. He is down to 34s now.
Kochetkov and Hugentobler again take the next places with Vassdal not spending any energy here.
Unlucky moment for Cadbury`s Horgan. Just when he attacked for the 2nd KoM sprint, he has chain issues and needs to wait for a new bike. So the 3 riders in front will decide this KoM.
Again Hugentobler is winning the uphill sprint going up to 10 points followed by Rocchetti now with 6 points.
Kochetkov takes 3 points now with Vasdall being at 4 point now equal to Firsanov.
So Hugentobler once again wears a KoM jersey this season.
With only 8km to the finish line the breakaway is caught by mainly Allianz now. Obviously they have high expectations in Thorsen and so they also send their GC rider Kirchen into the work.
All 3 teams, who did the main work today have still enough energy to form a 3 rider sprinter train with the other sprinters hanging behind them.
Kopp
Suray
Morales
Athanasiades
Havik
Guillén
Hoelgaard
Thorsen
Awang
Maksimov
Giacoppo
Drapac
Friedman
Torckler
Jang
Gavazzi
Porsev
Petit
Nardin
2km left and the last leadout riders take over. Privatbank surely being the smartest being on the more open right side going the shorter way in the third last corner.
Torckler and Gavazzi obviously thought the same and decided to move over behind Drapac. Ekspla is playing this smartly going with 3 sprinters on different trains here but maybe they could also create their own train.
1,3km left and another corner. Again the right side with some advantages.
Torckler opens the sprint and goes past Drapac with Gavazzi having the perfect wheel it seems.
Also Giacoppo in the middle and the sprint trains start their sprint.
Flamme Rouge. And Torcker and Giacoppo are in the lead.
Gavazzi obviously decided to wait a bit longer in the wind and didn`t follow him. Instead he went behind Drapac, who is also starting his sprint now, while all 3 top favourites still can save their energy.
Maksimov accelerated a lot and is passing Drapac and Giacoppo easily. Guillen has a small gap and needs to improve a bit, while Thorsen surely doesn`t have the necessary speed after such a long day with some climbs as well.
Dominant win by Maksimov. The Russian was definitely the fastest here and delivers for Team Privatbank. And it`s pretty impressive as well as his actual leadout Gomenyuk couldn`t help him due to his crash yesterday. He is already behind the peloton and seems to suffer a bit.
Drapac on a strong 2nd ahead of Giacoppo, who just saves his podium ahead of Guillén and Gavazzi in a very close sprint for the 3rd.
Awang, Thorsen, Torckler, Friedman and Petit complete the top 10 but surely didn`t have the quality to compete for the stage win today.
But Thorsen being 7th is already showing that you must count on him in the shorter stages.
As only the mentioned Gomenyuk finished behind the peloton there are no real changes in the GC. Only Horgan is climbing into the top10 with his gained bonus seconds today.