Originally Posted by bbattle

The breakaways do often fail but every once in a while, they succeed. On a flat, sprinter stage, they are most likely to fail as the sprinter teams have a vested interest in reeling them in. On a hilly stage like today, the breakaway, especially a nine man one, has a good shot. Cervelo wasn't defending, the other gc guys were just watching each other, and the sprinters weren't going to get over the climbs in order to contest the win. So, good day to attack.

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