Wow, what a stage... as always the first 2 hours are when the real racing happens. Team Saxo blackmailed the breakaway into waiting for Sorensen.

The peloton was absolutely on the limit, guys getting dropped, abandoning, attack after attack.

Then the break finally got away with 5 guys, but not Sorensen (Saxo), who had been active in every previous move.

That's where it got interesting. Sorensen was chasing alone, 30-45 sec's down on the break, but 6 minutes up on the field which had sat up. But Sorensen was fading, looking like he wasn't gonna catch the break.

So... Team Saxo back in the field, hits the front and just drills it. Single file peloton, guys getting dropped all over again, time gap starts coming down rapidly.

At first I was like, wow that's brutal, if your guy can't make it across then chase him and the whole break down. But then it dawned on me. Saxo was blackmailing the other teams in the break: "if you guys don't wait for our guy, we'll bring the whole break back"

A couple minutes later, voila, Sorensen catches the break and Saxo sits up again back in the field.

Race radios at work. And a bit of blackmail.