A short prologue of 1,5km in Taipai to start the race with. It`s more for the own presentation than being that important for the further race actually.
Prologue specialists are:
Adrian Laidler & William Ford
Jure Zrimsek
Gustavo Veloso
and
Florian Morizot
But next to the stage win it`s interesting to see how big the time gaps are between the race favourites in especially:
John Gadret
and
Robert Kiserlovski
First favourites on the road:
Jure Zrimsek
Manuel Quinziato
and
Florian Morizot
As expected they also take the first 3 places so far.
1
Florian Morizot
Focused Cycling
1'59
2
Jure Zrimsek
Aker Solutions - Bergans
+ 1
3
Manuel Quinziato
Vespa - Aprilia - De Rosa
+ 2
Time for a first climber with good prologue skills.
Gustavo Veloso
He already rides pretty early as also
Adrian Laidler
Ho-Ting Kwok
Mikayil Krasnoperov
and
William Ford
None of them can beat Morizot`s time, but all of them come really close. Just 1s each, but Kwok with +2s.
1
Florian Morizot
Focused Cycling
1'59
2
Gustavo Veloso
Jayco - Red Bull
+ 1
3
Adrian Laidler
Oz Cycling Project
s.t.
4
Mikayil Krasnoperov
Emu Export
s.t.
5
William Ford
Oz Cycling Project
s.t.
As expected no big time gaps on this short prologue. Was this already the stage decision with the best having already finished?
There is still the fight of the overall favourites and some of them might join the best times.
Starting with the ambitious
Junya Sano
Matteo Carrara
John-Lee Augustyn
Romain Sicard
Nobody was a able to jump intothe top 5 of the day. They are pretty close together. Only Carrara lost some seconds.
Actual GC guys ranking
2
Gustavo Veloso
Jayco - Red Bull
2'00
14
Romain Sicard
Focused Cycling
+ 3
22
Junya Sano
Meiji - Fuji
+ 4
23
John-Lee Augustyn
Emu Export
s.t.
64
Matteo Carrara
Vespa - Aprilia - De Rosa
+ 10
Last but not least the two biggest favourites:
John Gadret
Robert Kiserlovski
Kiserlovski (+4) wins the first duel in Taiwan against Gadret (+6). But the more important gaps must be made on the other 9 stages. More important for both of them is that they are within the other favourites, where just Carrara had a weaker day.
Morizot takes the stage win ahead of Veloso and Laidler but all sprinters are within reach to get the leader jersey on tomorrows flat stage.