The first of two hilly days before the mountain double header. This really is setting up to be one of the toughest Paris Nice races ever after yesterdays hard cold windy stage, the riders are in their thermals again in this hilly trickster.
Whilst this looks slightly easier than the next three days, lets not kid ourselves the parcours today are pretty nasty with three tough climbs before the category 1 cote de Haute prere-le-Chatelet crested just 20km before the finish with a category 3 climb squeezed in before the finish.
Unlike in grand tours, every stage counts in a race like Paris Nice and it is expected that Spilak and Sicard could be amongst the animators in todays stage.
The pack are in no mood to mess about chasing the early morning breakaway with the first attack sticking today. It involves two riders who thanks to decent Team time trials are well up on GC.
Jalleys is only five seconds down and Steensen is just 18 seconds down on GC. These two will be feeling they have some chances of a good GC hunt today with today possibly one for a break. The other here is certainly the KoM style rider in Quintana, he however was one of those that lost time in yesterdays toughmans test.
Quintana though is not allowed to take the fist 3rd category climb that Steensen nabs with Jalleys a fairly disinterested 3rd place.
The trio build a decent 7 minute lead before a conglomerate of Festina-Canal+, ING - Pro Cycling Team, Bouygues Telecom, Vesuvio - Accumalux and Pendleton's look to pull things back.
A lot of GC leaders look really keen you would guess to do something today with Taaramae, Schleck and Martin sending their teams forward.
Despite the steady pack chasing Monfort is determined to stick his head out and attacks up the second category climb that is our second ranked climb of the day.
Steensen once again crests first over Jallays this time with Quintana third and Monfort chasing in fourth.
Steensen however is edged out of the sprint by Jallays who has possibly been saving his strength for those six seconds.
This puts Jallays in a great position that if he could get caught and still move into the leaders jersey for a day if he finishes on the same time as others.
Steensen also gets edged out at the 3rd ranked climb of the day, another 2nd cat this time by Quintana.
However the breaks lead has been really cut down by a clearly ambitious pack with Swisscom - UBS actually putting the hammer down. This causes quite a large split in the middle of the bunch.
VolksWagen-Mapei are at the front of the second peloton and we scan down to see a miserable looking Sella in the second pack alongside Rujano.
This is going to be hard work for VolksWagen as much like yesterday a lot of teams are really interested in going for it today. Following the KoM point several rider look to attack clear of the pack.
Morobito Gusev Kunshin Frank
This move proves fairly short lived with teams unwilling to allow such riders breathing space, it does however keep the pace high which is bad news for our break and Sella.
30km to go:
Lead 3 - - - > pack at 2.20 - - - > Sella/Rujano group at 5.30
The leaders start the big 1st category climb with rain lashing down on them.
They hold two minutes gap here, though it is only now Quintana and Steensen that are able to contribute to the pace.
Their lead though is likely to be reduced as teams plans begin to be revealed with first Martin attacking with 3km to go to the summit.
His Pendletons team have been in amongst the pacing today and it is the type of stage the Irishman has to attack on if he is to get a high finish in this race. The goat-faced rider manages to hold a good 30 - 40 second gap on the pack as we approach the summit.
As Martin reaches Jallays on the back of our break group a few GC riders look to bridge across as Taaramae and Schleck attack.
Best Young rider Gonclaves calmly paces his leader Nibali behind these two. It is an astonishing pacing job bu Gonclaves who has gone way into the red for his effort. But it is a brilliant job as you look behind a 45 second gap has appeared.
A moment in lost concentration you would have to say from other GC riders as up front Steensen keeps the lead up to the summit ahead of Martin.
The B and O rider than will go comfortably into the KoM jersey tonight, however dreams of stage victory look unlikely with the GC riders here and on the rampage.
Just one rider has come out of the pack, Spilak has read the danger.
20km to go:
Steensen, Martin - - - > Taaramae at 23 seconds - - - > Quintana, Nibali, Jalleys, Schleck at 45 seconds - - - > Gonclaves at 1.14 - - - > Spilak at 1.33 - - - > Pack at 1.58 - - - > Sella at 4.12.
This 1st category climb has really split things up. Team managers are now screaming down their radios for a response from riders in the pack, realising that today could well be a big decisive day.
Sicard leads the attacks down the decent.
This is the moment where lots of GC riders can go with this being on a downhill.
Van Den Broeck Keinath Koleshnikov Pinot Dekker Velits Brambilla Faiers Fothen have all also jumped but cannot quite match Sicard's rapid descent as he gets ahead alone.
Up front Martin and Steensen are reeled in by two brave descenders.
Taaramae and Nibali have got across, whilst Schleck seems to have lost Nibali's wheel somehow and is sitting back there with Spilak who also has descended like a demon.
15km to go:
Nibali, Martin, Taaramae, Steensen - - > Spilak, Schleck at 38 seconds - - > Sicard, Gonclaves, Jallays, Quintana at 1.24 - - - > VdB, Keinath, Koleshnikov, Pinot, Dekker, Velits, Brambilla, Faiers, Fothen at 1.40 - - - > Gomez Marchente, Monfort at 2.24 - - - > 48 rider pack at 2.40 - - > Sella group at 4.03
Things if anything are spreading out, Sella is riding hard still and perhaps will hope to get back to the pack at least.
There is a merging of the third and fourth groups on the road with Sicard's group taken in by the VdB group. Fothen notably struggling at the back of this which is a surprise.
These guys are just over a minute behind the six others, who are not hanging around with Nibali refusing to allow Spilak and Schleck an easy rider across to his group.
The Italian is doing that vast majority of the pacing with the other three sitting on, Steensen very impressively hanging in there. Unfortunately he has to let go just before the summit of that late 3rd cat climb.
Nibali has his head down and is really pushing as he goes over the summit with Taaramae and Martin sitting behind gritting their teeth.
Spilak, Schleck and Steensen are 25 seconds behind with Spilak doing most of the work.
14 riders are now a minute or so back.
We can see here that Brambilla, VdB, Dekker, Sicard, Velits are pushing on ahead of the others (Koleshnikov, Pinot, Keinath, Gonclaves, Jalleys, Quintana, Fothen, Faiers, Monfort). Keinath and Pinot would later attack away from these.
Fans of Rothaus - Aegon will note that crappy Spanish racer Gomez Marchente has lost Monfort's wheel on this 3rd cat ascent. Indeed he has slipped back to the pack.
In fact Gomez Marchente has 48 riders on his wheel as he is forced to lead it as they are getting close to sitting up with the knowledge that the stage win has gone down the road and no GC ambitions.
Schleck just cannot descend in the wet here - as now he loses Spilaks wheel as the Slovak pushes on to try and at least catch the determined Nibali (and his wheelsuckers).
7.5km to go:
Nibali, Taaramae, Martin - - > Spilak at 15 seconds - - - > Schleck at 33 seconds - - - > Steensen at 44 seconds - - - > Brambilla at 1.01 - - - > Sicard, Dekker, Velits, Pinot, VdB, Keinath at 1.28 - - - > Kolesnikov, Gonclaves, Fothen, Monfort, Jalleys, Faeirs, Qunitana at 2.08 - - > Pack at 3.21 - - > Sella group at 4.24.
Spilak finally manages to bridge across to Nibali, the Italian though remains determined to at least get a gap on Schleck and everyone else and continues to tap out a high speed.
This was quite a hard chase for Spilak but crucial for him not to lose any more time than that already lost on stage one in the team chrono. Schleck meanwhile is not really able to make any impression. one rider who is, is young Brambilla.
5km to go:
Spilak, Nibali, Taaramae, Martin - - - > Schleck at 36 seconds - - - > Brambilla, Steensen at 52 seconds - - - > Dekker, Sicard, Velits, VdB, Keinath, Pinot at 1.49 - - - > pack having absorbed the others at 3.30.
More GC names like Fothen and Faiers unable to show themselves here in the rain.
Up ahead Nibali just continues to ride and why not with Schleck the better mountain climber still not quite on to these four. The Italian will lead out the sprint.
Remarkable ride from Brambilla who has almost caught Schleck.
Spilak, Taaramae and Martin queue up to have a pop at Nibali as they wait for the right moment to pounce.
Taaramae shows the cleanest pair of heels with Martin slightly trapped and Spilak unsurprisingly out of gas.
The Estonian takes the win, he played it smart behind Nibali after making his move on the 1st category climb.
Dan Martin will rue getting trapped their in the sprint, though he still looked second fastest as he easily beats Spilak for second place. A good day for the attacking Irishman, Spilak manages to gain 8 seconds on Nibali but also a lot of time on other GC riders by finishing third.
Nibali finishes with same time on 4th, he has shown he wants to win this race today with a cracking ride. Schleck did not descend that well but at least made his move, he finishes with the brilliant Brambilla who had a superb last 10kms. These two are at 37 seconds.
Pinot wins the sprint behind from the chasers - who did not catch Steensen. Their gap to Taaramae and the other three leaders was 1.48 at the end, they did not work well on their way to the finish.
Kolesnikov wins the sprint from the pack, which in the end was caught by the Sella group. Very long day for VolksWagen today - the race went on well ahead of them.
Nibali now has a nice 41 second lead on Taaramae with Martin at 43 seconds and Spilak at 58 seconds and Schleck at a minute.
Youth
The top 3 here all had noteworthy rides today. Pinot attacked out of the pack with other favourites, whilst Jallays rode decently in the break and Gonclaves set his team leader up amazingly on the days big climb.
Name
Team
General Time
Thibaut Pinot
Wikipedia
9h44'38 (1)
Welle Jallays
Team Bpost - Vlaanderen
+ 54 (2)
Jose Goncalves
Swisscom - UBS
+ 55 (3)
Chen Shikai
Vesuvio - Accumalux
+ 1'18 (4)
Bob Jungels
Vesuvio - Accumalux
+ 1'18 (5)
Magnus Cort Nielsen
Team B&O
+ 1'19 (6)
Luke Durbridge
Wikipedia
+ 1'31 (7)
Anton Vorobev
Tinkoff Credit Systems Bank
+ 1'40 (8)
Michael Hepburn
Becherovka - Kiwibank
+ 1'46 (9)
Mattia Cattaneo
Good Energy
+ 1'49 (10)
Tim Kennaugh
Pendleton's
+ 1'50 (11)
Joseph Dombrowski
Pendleton's
+ 1'54 (12)
Johan Le Bon
Simply Red Bull
+ 1'54 (13)
Tom Dumoulin
Rothaus - Aegon
+ 2'00 (14)
Youcef Reguigui
Rothaus - Aegon
+ 2'01 (15)
Marc Goos
Festina-Canal+
+ 2'02 (16)
Yoann Paillot
Festina-Canal+
+ 2'04 (17)
Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier
Festina-Canal+
+ 2'06 (18)
Wesley Kreder
Project 1t4i
+ 2'09 (19)
Davide Villella
Rothaus - Aegon
+ 2'09 (20)
Davide Formolo
Gazelle
+ 2'16 (21)
Patrick Konrad
Gazelle
+ 2'18 (22)
Matthias Brändle
VolksWagen-Mapei
+ 2'20 (23)
Charalampas Kastrantas
Gazelle
+ 2'26 (24)
Frederico Figueiredo
Prio - Porto
+ 5'04 (25)
Alexander Krieger
Rothaus - Aegon
+ 5'18 (26)
Nacer Bouhanni
VolksWagen-Mapei
+ 5'34 (27)
Wen Hao Li
Wikipedia
+ 5'37 (28)
Reinhardt Janse van Rensburg
Wikipedia
+ 5'42 (29)
Nairo Quintana
Team Vueling Airlines
+ 6'04 (30)
Alfredo Balloni
Prio - Porto
+ 6'10 (31)
Nelson Oliveira
Prio - Porto
+ 6'10 (32)
Domingos Gonçalves
Prio - Porto
+ 6'16 (33)
Rafel Majka
Project 1t4i
+ 6'27 (34)
Johan Fredrik Ziesler
Aker-MOT
+ 7'04 (35)
Vegard Stake Laengen
Aker-MOT
+ 7'04 (36)
Michael Cuming
Good Energy
+ 7'16 (37)
Idan Shapira
Good Energy
+ 7'24 (38)
Frederik Frison
Rothaus - Aegon
+ 7'43 (39)
Phan Age Haugard
VolksWagen-Mapei
+ 8'03 (40)
Shane Archbold
VolksWagen-Mapei
+ 8'05 (41)
Dadi Suryadi
Pokerstars.com
+ 8'15 (42)
Rafael Reis
Prio - Porto
+ 9'03 (43)
Josh Atkins
Becherovka - Kiwibank
+ 9'54 (44)
Samuel Pökälä
Aker-MOT
+ 9'58 (45)
Sean Downey
Pendleton's
+ 9'59 (46)
Silvan Dillier
Swisscom - UBS
+ 10'45 (47)
Kevin Predatsch
VolksWagen-Mapei
+ 11'24 (48)
Enrico Battaglin
Good Energy
+ 12'12 (49)
Panagiotis Vlatos
Festina-Canal+
+ 13'27 (50)
Dion Beukeboom
Team Bpost - Vlaanderen
+ 13'31 (51)
Emilien Viennet
Team Vueling Airlines
+ 14'16 (52)
Loic Desirac
Lotto - Australia Post
+ 14'52 (53)
Damien Howson
Aker-MOT
+ 15'22 (54)
Andrea Dal Col
Good Energy
+ 15'44 (55)
Aberlardo Ablenado
Santander
+ 16'38 (56)
Jon Ander Insausti
Santander
+ 17'59 (57)
Rohan Dennis
Lotto - Australia Post
+ 19'27 (58)
Teams
Steensen's stormer moves B and O to the top of the team standings.
