Greig Leach

Louis Vervaeke (Lotto Soudal) had sprinted out of the peloton for the intermediate sprint points inbetween the two climbs of the day. Once he had gotten off of the front of the group, he decided that he might as well continue on. The breakaways have been succeeding at a surprisingly high percentage of the time, perhaps that peloton would get it wrong yet again. Then there is always the thought that without taking a chance, I am sure he felt he had no chance of a stage win. Any chance no matter how slim is better than no chance at all. Vittoria, an Italian tire manufacturer, is sponsoring the neutral service vehicles. They are there to provide a replacement wheel or bike should Vaeraeke have a mechanical while his team car is trapped behind the peloton. As Simon Gerrans (Orica GreenEdge) learned today, that wait for the team car can be very long indeed.