13:41 - Peiper Concludes His Preview...
The HTC-Columbia team has conceded that the green jersey is probably out of reach but a few more stage wins for Cavendish are still on offer and Peiper told LeTour.fr how the team will contest the stage. “Today the tactics for us will be to use a couple of the climbers first – like Monfort and Sivtsov – to control the group. Then we’ll call on Grabsch and Martin and Rogers as late in the final as possible. And then Eisel will pilot him to the sprint.”
13:40 - Points Winners At 29.5km
The result of the intermediate sprint at the 29.5km mark is: 1. Matti Breschel (SAX) 6pts 2. Daniel Oss (LIQ) 4pts 3. Jerome Pineau (QST) 2pts
13:36 - “Cavendish Looks Good...”
We should have an ally in Lampre today that will help us control a group that goes away,” Peiper continued. “We have to see what we can do with the guys who we’ve got. Cav copes well yesterday. He got dropped early but descended cleverly to get back with the main group on the backside of the Marie-Blanque and he stayed in the bunch until the next climb and he was never in trouble after that and this is a good sign. He looks good.”
13:57 - Oss Following Similar Progression To Renshaw...[absent the head-butting, one wonders...]
When he was still a junior, Daniel Oss was a versatile rider capable of winning medals at the national level in Italy in a wide variety of disciplines. In 2004, he was the gold medalist in the individual pursuit (3,000m for juniors), 3rd in the team pursuit, 3rd in the scratch race, 2nd in the road time trial... and 3rd in the team sprint at the European championships. These days his role is a lead-out man but he may become a sprinter in his own right...
13:52 - Oss A Force For The Future...
At the end of March the young Italian from Liquigas who is in the escape today, Daniel Oss, made a big impression with his work as a lead-out man. The 23-year-old was the last lead-out man for Daniele Bennati in the one-day Classic, Milan-San Remo... he led the peloton under the ’flamme rouge’ and paced his team’s sprinter for over 500m as the pack charged towards the line. He has a history as a track pursuiter and is riding his first Tour this year. He was sixth in stage one.