Today the first of two time trials in Roubaix having a small cobbled section and finishing just like tomorrow in the Roubaix velodrome.
It will be interesting to see if the pavement has any influence on the result. Otherwise all the pure time trialists will have best chances here starting with Cancellara, Kittel or wildcard rider Ignatiev.
First some of the pure timetrialists, that already lost lots of time.
Red lantern and Australian champion Ford
German champion Lang
and to check the influence of the pavement his teammate Mortensen.
Obviously the influence is not given so it might be a normal time trial.
A bit surprisingly Lang is first with a very good time with Ford following just within the same second while Mortensen already lost 35s to these two.
13'57 is already a pretty strong time and should hold quite long.
Gretsch
Johansson
Mottin
and the next German in Kittel
None of these four is able to beat Lang`s time. But in especially Kittel is coming very close while in especially Johansson has one of his weaker days.
And a few more time trialists who already lost some time as also a big favourite.
Christensen
Wiggins
Cancellara
So far it`s not the race for Cancellara. He has two time trials and the cobbled stage to get back into the overall fight. Today he starts pretty well settingthe new best time being 8s faster than Lang. The other two are around Johansson`s time.
And now coming to the race favourites:
Gusev already lost some time but is capable to gain on the remaining terrain and needs to be watched. With his time today he should be better than most of the favourites.
+29 to Cancellara
Boonen probably had hoped for a easier pace on the first but still has a good chance at beating the others in the cobbled stage. Today it`s all about avoiding big time loss and with +43 he is doing quite good.
Devolder is the 2nd Spyker hope and so far he did not lose any time on the main group. Just 2s behind his team mate and +31 to Cancellara seems fine for him.
Ballan surely is not the best time trialist but a solid puncheur and great cobbler. +55s today, he should try to improve in the 30km ITT.
Posthuma is one of the big outsider favourites. He just needs to hang on the others on every terrain as good as he did on the first stage and he might be a very good bet. As 5th so far he is doing a good job today just +11.
Kiryenka surely not the best cobbler, actually one of the weakest and so probably no chance of a good overall. But with +32 he should be still a top10 before tomorrows stage.
Summerhill`s biggest lack are the time trials where he might be the weakest of all allrounders here. So we might see him attacking tomorrow again. +1'24 is quite a lot to be honest on 10km.
Russian champion Ignatiev with a very good ride today. Same time as Cancellara and the judges put him as first. Congrats to Tinkoff as they might have reached their minimum goal here to win a stage as none of the remaining should beat him now.
Gilbert has his biggest strength in the hills what he has shown in the first. Tomorrow and in the timetrials he must give everything to keep a chance at the hilly stages. +37 for him today.
Last but not least Pozzato. The allrounder is a decent time trialist, not more. So the 30km time trial might be his biggest problem on his way to win this race. +40 for him and so keeping the lead by 5s to Gilbert and 25s on the new third and stage winner Ignatiev.
