The Corsica International will be wrapped up by this short time trial that whilst not completely flat is expected to favour the specialists. It is an incredibly windy day though things are set to remain fairly consistent throughout and the GC candidates will likely experience similar conditions.
The big TT specialists go early so we will look at them first before looking closer at the GC battles later on. The first really serious contender out on course is Zakkari Dempster
The Australian is becoming known as a key lead out man for Allan Davis, though the sprint didn't really work out yesterday he looks to make amends here. Out on course about the same time is Maciej Bodnar
and two of yesterdays attackers: Lucas Schädlich
and Adrian Laidler
The latter two knowing a good result here could get them the green points jersey overall.
The results from these four then
1
Lucas
Schädlich
10.19
2
Zakkari
Dempster
10.26
3
Maciej
Bodnar
10.28
4
Adrian
Laidler
10.32
A really quick time by Schladlich who has had an excellent couple of days as we go through the field it is clear on the very best time triallists will be able to get anywhere near to the VolksWagen youngsters time.
Haijun Ma
Michiel Elijzen
and later on Gustav Larsson
and Kristjan Koren
for example were listed as favourites earlier and look good on their bikes out there. Some of those names manage to change things at the top end of the leaderboard.
1
Lucas
Schädlich
10.19
2
Gustav
Larsson
10.21
3
Michiel
Elijzen
10.24
4
Zakkari
Dempster
10.26
5
Kristjan
Koren
10.26
Schladlich looks confident following the Larsson finishing time and he should be as the wind is picking up as we move into the leading 15 riders on GC. This will count against the riders from now on, mind you Pedro Nicácio
still posts a time close to that of Korens.
This along with Jonas Bjelkmark
setting a time of 10.31 puts them into a clubhouse lead on GC.
Kolesnikov one of T.CS Bank's numerous strong man cannot quite hold off Bjelkmark or Nicacio's GC position losing his four seconds lead and then some with a 10.40 ride. Meanwhile CalGiant's number two Brandt also manages to split Nicacio and Bjelkmark with a decent 10.35.
The next group of riders then had 16 seconds on Nicacio it seems certain that one of them should become the new clubhouse leader.
are those riders all whom were unable to jump with the others on stage 1. Lovkvist proves the fastest of these with 10.36 ahead of Ratiy on 10.39, Rujano with 10.43 and Efimkin with 10.50.
It puts Lovkvist top of the tree with Ruijgh at 1.05 next with 14 seconds in hand on the Swede.
Rob Ruijgh
is certainly having a magnificent ride in this race.
Today is about damage limitation and he does that reasonable well by finishing with 10.52, squeezing into provisional second place on GC with six left to go.
The Brazilian is not the greatest against the clock though he does have a fairly hefty 20 seconds on Lovkvist and he needs almost every single one of them to sneak inside of Lovkvist to hang onto 6th overall with a ride of 10.55.
The top five then in reverse order should all be good enough to hold themselves in the top five but in what order:
Ryan Eastman
California Giant Berry Farms-Specialized
+ 50
Jurgen Van den Broeck
Pirelli - Alfa Romeo
+ 50
Alejandro Valverde
Proximus - Trek
+ 42
Fabio Duarte
Team Venchi ProCycling
+ 38
Jose Alarcon
Aker Solutions - Bergans
0
Jurgen Van den Broeck
looks the strongest against the clock on paper.
Ryan Eastman
is probably going to have to accept 5th place but that's not too bad for a 20 year old.
Meanwhile anything short of a podium for Alejandro Valverde
would be a disappointment.
Perhaps one of the surprises in this race has been the performance of Columbian TT champion Fabio Duarte
He looks set for a podium if he can hold off VdB and Valv Piti. Though surely the winner of stage one Jose Alarcon
cannot concede too much time today to take the overall win.
Van den Broeck posts the best time of these five with 10.31, Eastman was certainly not too shabby with 10.40 and Duarte 10.33. It is Valverde he has some trouble really posting a below par 10.39, fortunately for him he just is inside Van den Broeck for eight seconds meaning he holds off the Belgian.
Alarcon just needed to finish inside of 11.11 which would place him alongside the likes of Sammy Dumoulin which was not going to happen! He clocks 10.53 and so takes the Corsica International. Duarte is second, Valverde 3rd with Van den Broeck 4th - Eastman is 5th and best young rider.
VolksWagen will be bouyed by Schladlich's stage win and capture of the points jersey this makes up for a slightly disappointing GC effort from Ratiy. Venchi can be delighted with Agnoli's King of the Mountains crown with Duarte's stunning second place.
