Will we see the decision today? With tomorrows stage being not that hard it might be. The 30km TT doesn`t look too hard. On the other side some very tough hills on the route like the Cauberg up to the finish.
So the time trialists with solid puncheur qualities could be favoured on this course.
Ford
Lang
Johansson
3 great time trialists but pretty poor puncheurs. So the experts don`t see these being able to fight for the stage win.
Ford is still doing decent as also Lang within the same time while the Swede is already 20s back.
But how fast will guys like Ignatiev, Cancellara or Posthuma be?
Wiggins
Christensen
Steensen
De Gendt
These four are all better puncheurs in especially last two. But it is Christensen setting the new best time. Steensen makes it a 1-2 for B&O at the moment as Wiggins is exactly 1s slower while De Gendt is losing more time and is even behind Ford today.
Kiryenka
Ignatiev
The Tinkoff duo is expected to perform strong today. Ignatiev won the first shorter and flat time trial. Will he win also this one? He surely has the qualities to do so.
Kiryenka moves himself between Wiggins and Lang with a solid performance.
Ignatiev unsurprisingly goes to the top at the moment beating the former time by 1'08. Great result and it just shows his strength.
Posthuma was always doing good but lost a bit time in the end. Enough time to have no top5 chances but with a strong ride he can at least enter the top10 today. This should be his goal although it will be very tough.
He is fastest at the intermediate by 5s ahead of Ignatiev. But he is losing some time on the last climb on the Cauberg. Quite a lot of time actually. In the end he is 23s slower than the Russian. Only 2nd for him.
Cancellara was the pre race favourite but already on the first stage he lost all chances and on his terrain on the cobbles he wasn`t able to gain time on the others. So even this time trial might only a fight for the top5 or even the podium.
And Spartacus is fast. Very fast and it`s enough to take at least the 2nd time trial. 7s faster than Ignatiev and this should be enough to win the stage. But hoch much will he improve?
Gilbert won the first stage but lost time on the cobbles. So a top10 is his maximum here. Losing 1'40 today had to be expected today but this should be enough.
Gusev is the first of the two well placed Spyker riders. He might have been expected as the stronger of them but I don`t think theit GM is disappointed by their performance here.
5s faster than Gilbert .
Devolder is 3rd at the moment but he should be able to overtake Florencio. And also Pozzato is possible. He would need a perfect day for that. His time is pretty good. In the finish he is only 38s behind Cancellara and only the 4th rider to have less than 1min on him.
Florencio is no danger for Pozzato. He is already far better placed than expected and the only real surprise in the top10. He might lose some spots but even a top5 GC would be fantastic. He loses almost 3min on the Swiss but still 5th in the overall.
The last starter is Pozzato. Like several other riders before him he uses the extra "energy" by the leader jersey and is riding an excellent time trial. Of course he is informed about the other riders so he knows about Devolder`s great ride.
But he is highly motivated to win this race and he only loses 35s on Devolder. Enough to keep the lead. Fantastic 6th for him today.
