Time for the second stage on this third day in Belgium: the concluding 11km timetrial will definitely mix the GC, where 39 riders are all within 40 seconds and only the Top-10 with the advantage of some maybe valuable bonus seconds.
Such as GC-leader Nepomnyachsniy, who has a 32"-advantage on one of today's top-favorites in Bibby and 40" on others like Koren, Westra, Danacik or Van Zandbeek. Will he be able to defend this gap?
This report will be split in two parts: the first covering TT-specialists, who lost all GC-ambitions and the second focussing on some of the most promising Top-39 riders.
It doesn't take too long to see a first notable best time, as one of Oz Cycling's TT-guys hits the road very early into the timetrial:
Olman
Finish: 14'49" - being rates as the second strongest TTler here, this is the time to beat.
Ford
Finish: 14'41" - new BT! Today's top-favorite beats his teammate by 8 seconds to prove his strengths.
Ligthart
Finish: + 14" on Ford, so quite a strong effort by the Aussie it seems!
Tennant
Finish: + 12" and slightly better than Ligthart.
Boaro
Finish: + 18" and no chance to go for the podium today.
That's it for those riders without any GC-hopes, as also some others (sorry for not showing all) failed to compete with Ford's BT.
Looking at the rather huge gaps so far, with already some of the best TTlers at the finish, this may be a long-lasting BT actually.
But now for those 39 riders, where several decent or okay TTlers may hope to go for a nice GC-position:
Bochman (GC's 31st, + 0.40)
Finish: + 28" for a maybe first notable time for those GC-contenders.
Franzoi (30th, + 0.40)
Finish: + 38" for the cobbler, who had some problems in the opening stage. May hope for a jump in GC.
Other riders, who may hope for further improvements cross the line as well:
Visconti + 52" Lee + 35"
Lee doing well, but Visconti might have hoped for a far better result.
Van Zandbeek (20th, + 0.40)
Finish: + 17" on Ford for the first of those strong TT-specialists in the Top-40. A strong effort!
Danacik (18th, + 0.40)
Finish: + 28" to finish with the same time as Bochman. This to prove Van Zandbeek's good performance maybe.
Next up another Quickstep-rider in this bunch of contenders. With Baugnies (+ 1.11) or Van Asbroeck (+ 1.00) lacking the skills here, Meersman will be one of two GC-hopes for the team:
Meersman (16th, + 0.40)
Finish: + 30" to finish only 2 seconds behind Danacik. Enough to make for a decent GC-result?
Now for one of the top-favorites for the ITT, who may also aim for the overall win with a very good performance:
Koren (15th, + 0.40)
Finish: + 3" as new 2nd! So Koren delivers, it seems. Finishing close behind teammate Ford for a provisional 1-2-3 for Oz.
Veelers 44" couldn't really put a strong performance though.
Also Gazelle has high hopes in both Westra to play his strengths to enter the Top-10 and Steegmans later on:
Westra (11th, + 0.40)
Finish: + 11" as new 4th! Not much worse than Koren, the TT-specialist is likely to make the Top-10 in GC that way.
And another team with two possible threats for the GC. Jaguar's Lagab finishes off the group of + 40"-riders and will aim for the Top-10:
Lagab (10th, + 0.40)
Finish: + 26" and a decent result ahead of riders such as Bochman or Danacik!
And also much stronger than GC's 9th Bolivar:
Bolivar + 58"
Next up - Ian Bibby. Something like the top-favorite for the GC, given his 32"-disadvantage ain't too much though. Anyway, kicking off the ITT with an 8"-advantage of strong performing Koren, he's at least the biggest threat for race-leader Nepomnyachsniy:
Bibby (8th, + 0.32)
Finish: + 4" as new 3rd! Ford's BT stands strong, but Bibby did enough to hold off Koren, which is most important for now.
Biggest hope for Quickstep is allrounder De Maar, who showed some aggressive racing and who definitely has the skills to attack the GC as well:
De Maar (7th, + 0.32)
Finish: + 31" and so well within the range of Danacik/Bochman, but also too slow to hold off Bibby/Koren/Van Zandbeek..
Steegmans (6th, + 0.28)
Finish: + 41" on Ford. So just like De Maar, he may hope to defend his Top-10 at least.
The two following riders ain't exactly known for good TT-skills and will most likely struggle to defend their Top-10:
Sparling + 1'30" Lilholt + 1'33" to finish around today's 100th best time. Both will drop down far, it seems.
Now for the Top-3 in GC, starting off with Kappa's Blot, who collected a lot of bonus seconds in the opening stage:
Blot (3rd, + 0.18)
Finish: + 1'00" and no chance to compete with the best. Given his 22"-advantage on most others in the Top-40, he still may have hopes for a decent GC-finish.
Same goes for former race-leader Joseph, who's got even more of an advantage on riders like Bibby or Koren:
Joseph (2nd, + 0.04)
Finish: + 1'08" and therefore definitely dropping behind the likes of Bibby/Koren/De Maar and more. But how far he goes down?
And how about the race-leader? Two impressive wins in the past two days should be an extra boost for the Kazakh, who will do everything to defend his 32" on Bibby or 40" on Koren, the two biggest threats after their strong performances today:
Nepomnyachsniy
Finish: + 56" on Ford, and therefore more than 50" on Bibby/Koren! The GC won't be his, but he might have defended his podium..
First of all, credit where credit is due: Ford taking out today's timetrial ain't exactly a huge surprise, but he did well to pull this pressure off.
Koren and Bibby podium the stage for crucial gains and Oz Cycling goes for 1-2-4 and also grabs the team's classification thanks to Koren and Visconti in particular.
Biggest news is Bibby winning the GC though! The gamble paid off and he celebrates a narrow 7"-win over Koren. Congrats to Bibby and his Jaguar-team!
Westra completes the podium with 15" in arrears, as Nepomnyachsniy drops to an unlucky 4th with 20" on Bibby. He did well though, holding off TT-specialists like Van Zandbeek and De Maar. Completing the Top-10 are Lagab, Danacik, Bochman and Steegmans. So especially Jaguar, Gazelle and also Kazzinc with a strong showing here in Belgium.
Former race-leader Joseph dropped to 12th place eventually, Blot has to settle for 14th. Star-cobbler Franzoi did enough to at least make the Top-15, while the duo Sparling/ Lilholt (35th, 36th) dropped far down the rankings today. Just like the likes of Baugnies or Del Nero.
Nepomnyachsniy tops the points-competition, well deserved. So overall a great race for the Kazakh and his team in general.
