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Tooling Along
Once the peloton had pulled the two escapees back to within 2 minutes they really pulled back the throttle. Perhaps they were just toying with the pair up the road, but their average speed was only 35 kilometers per hour (that would be the top end of what I could hope to manage) well under what the organizers thought would be the slowest possible rate of speed. Stijn Vandenbergh (Etixx-Quickstep) did most of the pace setting, nearly 150 kilometers, on the front of the peloton honoring the tradition of the team that holds the Yellow Jersey rides tempo on the front. Vandenbergh was marked closely by Astana, Team Sky, and Orica GreenEdge.