Today’s 175-kilometre stage ended in a mass sprint between strong classics riders. Tony Martin’s (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) solo attack, which ended at the finish line for a seventh place stage finish, made for a very exciting finale. The Danish road cycling champion Michael Mørkøv (Saxo-Tinkoff Bank) claimed his first Grand Tour victory on this flat stage with no mountain classifications, ahead of Maximiliano Richeze (Lampre-Merida), who finished second once again, and Fabian Cancellara (Radioshack-Leopard). Daniel Schorn reached the finish line today in 16th place, once again finishing in the top 20. There were no changes in the general classification.

“Today went pretty well. We saved energy on this stage and could relax and prepare for the sprint, which unfortunately didn’t go according to plan. The final kilometres were technically demanding and we intended to protect Leopold König as best as possible so that he wouldn’t lose any time. Tomorrow’s flat 205-kilometre stage is rather long, but it isn’t supposed to be as windy, so we should be able to recharge our energy for the upcoming days,” said Enrico Poitschke, Sport Director of Team NetApp-Endura.

Today, the route started in Guijuelo in Spain’s Extremadura and continued south to the region’s second largest city, Cáceres. This sprint stage was considered the next to last opportunity for fast riders in the field to ride for a stage win before facing a summit finish with a category-one mountain classification in the south of the peninsula on Saturday. Tony Martin tried his luck as the only breakaway rider at the beginning of the stage and was able to maintain a narrow lead for nearly 175 kilometres up until the end, which was also due to the fact that the sprint trains in the field formed rather late. At the 1,000 metre mark, he was still nearly six seconds ahead of the field until ultimately being overtaken just ten metres before the finish line.