25 km uphill - alone, all by yourself, with no help - only a lot of shouting spectators. This is good. it's really good! Welcome to the mountain time trial of Dauphine Libere! This stage, of course, suits the climbers the best, but being good at time trialling never hurts Nothing's for sure, except that Zabriskie will most likely lose his jersey.
The first rider to set his mark on today's TT was Solis from Cycling 24. He set a really good time and even managed to pass 1-2 riders on his way to the top. Solis managed to climb the Mont Vetoux in 1 hour, 2 minutes and 8 seconds. And it definitely seemed like Solis had ridden the time trial of his life -- it took a very long time, before anyone came anywhere near his time.
Actually, we had to wait for 60 riders to get started before we finally saw one who could compete with Solis. These guys were Marzano and Cardenas who were placed respectively 71st and 68th before today's stage. Both were riding really well and had managed to beat Solis' time on the first check. But later on, they were just not good enough. Cardenas got 2nd on the 2nd time check and Marzano third, and their hopes were definitely out.
20 riders later, some of the GC-hopes was sent out on the route. Especially Rujano seemed like a good bet for today's victory. At this point, we also have Simoni and Igor Anton out on the route. Rujano rode really well, and, as expected, Solis had to give up his dreams of victory. In fact, Simoni and Anton also beat Solis.
A few minutes later, Andy Schleck made the cameras follow him when he came in 2nd on the 2nd time check, but it didn't take long before an even more interesting person took the spotlight: Michael Rasmussen! Despite TT'ing not being his favourite discipline he manages to take the 2nd place, 2 seconds after Rujano, 1 second in front of Andy Schleck.
After that, a lot of other interesting GC-guys was out on the route, including Sastre, Kash-dope, Valv.Piti and Contador, but none of them were really anywhere near getting close to the victory. Rujano was already celebrating his victory when he suddenly got the message that Cadel Evans had set the best time on the 2nd intermediate check point, beating Rujano's time with 4 seconds.
Cadel Evans finally reaches the finish line, and yes, he does clock the best time of the day. There are 9 riders after him, but it does very much seem like he will take the victory.