So this should be the decisive day of this 2013 edition of Tour of Denmark. There's also a flat option tomorrow for the sprinters but they will need to keep close today and that could prove hard with the strong time trial corps that's gathered on this fine afternoon in the eastern part of the country. Lars Boom only trails Kennaugh by 24 seconds while other strong time trial specialists like Dave Zabriskie, Gustav Larsson, Dominique Cornu, Kai Reus, Sven Vandousselaere and Vasili Kiryenka are only sitting 36 seconds behind. Also Betancourt could be in for a stormy ride today. He is only 2 seconds behind Kennaugh but his small frame isn't really build for riding fast on flat roads like the ones today.
The Oz have not been impressive in this race so far. Apart from some aggresive riding from Laidler they have not shown much in this race. If there's one thing the Aussies can do though, it's time trialing and they brought a strong team indeed for just that today. First rider with a fast time is of course Michael Ford who completes the course in 18'54. A very strong ride from a rider that really could gain some big results if he grew a pair of climbing legs. That's probably not gon' happen dough.
Another Oz rider here as Alex Rasmussen goes 41 seconds slower than Ford. A result that's only good enough for 26th place today. Dissapointing ride.
Next rider with a bit of time trial power in his legs is Freddy Cruz. He goes 3rd at the intermediate and the finish. One seconds slower than Rasmussen.
Ho-Ting Kwok bests Rasmussen's time as he goes provisional 2nd, at '35.
Then it's the turn of Sebastian Lang to cross the finish line. He has a solid ride today as he finishes 27 seconds slower than Ford and that is of course good enough for provisional 2nd place.
Miles Olman is another of those Oz riders who can go into beast mode in races like this one today but unfortuneately has a tendency to get dropped in one of the earlier stages. He puts in a very good ride though as he cuts Ford's advantage to second place to just 12 seconds now!
Vespa took a great win with Guarnieri yesterday and they also have riders who can go fast in time trials. Luca Ascani proves that right here as he takes provisional 3rd place just 23 seconds off the pace of Ford.
Adrian Laidler is another Oz rider who can do things in this terrain. He's been active in the breaks of this race and today he does well again as he goes 4th at the first check and at the finish he's 5th. A fraction of a second slower than Lang.
Very unfortuneate for Hollister, Izagirre lost a lot of time in yesterday's crash that took him out of the GC equation. He is just 32 seconds slower than Ford today, so a decent ride from the Spaniard.
Dylan Van Baarle has been the feel good moment of this race. An inspiring effort in stage 3 saw him gain enough points in the KoM Competition to make that his for the remainder of the race. Today he goes 69th.
Michiel Van Aelbroeck of Rothaus was sitting 58th in the GC before today. He is bound to bump that up a bit higher today of course as he goes 7th at the first check, 18 seconds slower than Ford, he finishes in the same time as Ho-Ting Kwok.
Lifted by some good sprints by Heinrich Haussler and some breakaway participations by Iljo Keisse, Sram has been mediocre here. Thomas Bontenackels has a good ride today for the team as he is just 29 seconds slower than Michael Ford, who has been sitting in the hot seat for quite some time now.
That almost comes to an end close after as 51st on GC, Dennis van Winden has put in a strong charge today! He is only 1 second shy of Fords time at the midway point. Can he kick it up just a notch?
NO! Just outside the time of Ford by one louse second! So he's the second rider to go below the 19-minute mark today. Surely he would have been a candidate for the overall podium could he have stayed with the favourites in stage 3.
Then we have a small break in fast time trial riders before we hit the overall favourites of the race. Meanwhile though Böchmann and Traficante have posted virtual Top 10 rides.
Martin Velits is the first of the favourites. He is one of the 18 riders who were sitting 36 seconds behind Kennaugh before today. He is just outside the virtual Top 10 as he crosses. 33 seconds down all of the riders in front him are well behind him in the GC though so this could be a good result for him!
And here is the big favourite Dave Zabriskie. Can he finally beat Ford?
ABSOLUTELY! He crushes the Aussies time by a whopping 28 seconds! That's definitely a strong bid for the overall win.
Next rider big favourite in is the defending champion Kai Reus!
He goes provisional 4th though, 31 seconds slower than Dave Z and that's one down for the American!
Gustav Larsson will comes in now and he will also be looking a good GC result. He is 6th at the first check, can he claw back time an best Reus?
He cannot! It's good enough for provisional 6th though with Van Winden, Ford and Olman all well behind on GC.
Here comes the Belgian champion Cornu. He won the race in 2011, but he trailed Zabriskie with 9 seconds at the first check.
This is a good time though! 2nd fastest, 23 seconds behind Zabriskie!
Kiryenka was 10th at the check.
Good enough for provisional 12th, 56 seconds down. A good GC result for Kiryenka.
Here comes Lars Boom. He lead Zabriskie by 12 seconds coming into this time trial. At the first check he's already lost 22 seconds though.
He finishes in 8th today, 44 seconds back which means he will miss the podium by one second, assuming that neither Haussler, Betancourt or Kennaugh pulls out a miracle ride and puts him down even further.
Haussler is not much of a time trialist though and he can only manage 75th today. Goodbye podium.
Also Betancourt will plummit as he is 2'12 after Zabriskie today. A good ride in general though by Betancourt who really animated stage 3 alongside Dylan van Baarle.
Peter Kennaugh ends his yellow dreams today. He got three days in yellow but hands it over to Zabriskie after what has been a great race for him. He still leads the Points competition though and that is very much up for grabs tomorrow.
So yellow jersey for Zabriskie with the two former winners Cornu and Reus in 2nd and 3rd. That is not likely to change tomorrow in the final stage.
