Stage 1 : Ochjor - Ochjor
  
   In season 22 the first hill/sprint stage was ruled by the GC contenders. The sprinters had to watch from the second row. This year, the roles were turned around and we saw what we considered to be the two strongest sprinters fighting it out. In the end, Duardo Salgado from PEKAC B took the win in front of Heinrich Matthaus. Jacob Roberts completed the podium.
   For the GC contenders it was Felipe Maximiliano who took 4th spot. De Craene, Herzog, Evans and van der Werff all were in the top 10 as well. Dittrich, Huynh and Wacker already lost some time on their rivals.
  
   Stage 2 : Ochjor - Perm
  
   The sprinters had to make room for the climbers for this stage. Experience seems key in the Russian mountains as it was oldie De Craene from SilenceLotteFan who brought home the bacon. Most GC contenders were still pretty close with Huynh and van der Werff on the podium and Maximiliano, Evans, Bright and Bertovic close behind him. Dittrich lost some more time and so did Roosendael and Wacker.
  
   Stage 3 : Perm -

Perm (ITT)
  
   The stage that decides this tour is the individual time trial. Every year this time trial crashes hopes and brings big surprises. The biggest surprise was probably Drew Weis who, without real TT skills, took out sixth spot. Biggest disappointment was without a doubt De Craene, who looked really strong the day ago but lost nearly 4 minutes in the time trial. Dittrich was also nowhere to be seen and the Russian won't play any role of importance in his home tour. Evans and the very consistent Maximiliano were the strongest GC contenders while van der Werff minimised the damage. Maximiliano would win Perm and Evans and van der Werff would join him on the spots below him.
  
   Stage 4 : Perm Parade
  
   Diedrich Rinzema came to Perm with one goal only: win stage 4. And this is exactly what he did! Waechter from Albatros (sorry for calling you one of the weakest teams, you got a result out of the tour!) and Evans from Cremtec completed the top3.
   Does anyone know where the top sprinters from the first stage ended up? Matthaus came 9th, Salgado even further back

with a 19th spot! Their underachieving in this stage made Evans to take the SC jersey.
  
   Overview:
  
   Felipe Maximiliano from Oekiewakkie controlled the whole tour and doesn't really seem to have any weakness as he finished close no matter what the roads looked like. Freek van der Werff and Slavomil Dittrich were the pre-race favourites and the last one really disappointed. The love/hate relation Finz has with Perm flips a bit further to the hate side. Evans couldn't hold on to his title but the second spot with only 8 seconds behind Felipe was perhaps more then he hoped for, especially with the SC on top of this. PEKAC B and Optimus Prime have to be angry with their sprinters for missing this unique opportunity to bring their team a jersey.
   Cody Bright (EricV) and Erik Van Engelen (POM Wonderful) rode mostly unnoticed but still got a second and third spot in the YC, Although the near 2 minute gap tells us they were no match for Maximiliano...
  
  
  
  
   Written by freelancer Cremtec from Cremtec to the OCMagazine