Here is the key day of this short tour – the 10km time trial. It is almost entirely flat with the only difficulty being a 500 metre climb near the start with an average of just over 5% and a maximum of 8%. The wind should once again be a factor, however, with high winds expected but with the number of twists and turns here it should affect most riders equally unless there is a sudden change in speed.
So this is the big day for those left in contention for the GC. Let’s have a look at the riders who can win it from here:
1
Allan Davis
Hollister
14h16'43
2
Ivan Seledkov
Emu Export
+ 19
3
Huub Duyn
Team Trilux - Falke
+ 24
4
Vasili Kiryenka
T.CS Bank - OJSC
s.t.
5
Matthias Kessler
Team Trilux - Falke
s.t.
6
Roberto Traficante
Vespa - Aprilia - De Rosa
s.t.
7
Kristjan Koren
California Giant Berry Farms-Specialized
s.t.
8
Kim Kirchen
Jayco - Red Bull
s.t.
9
Ignas Konovalovas
Cyclevox
s.t.
10
Jack Bobridge
Oz Cycling Project
s.t.
11
Brian Vandborg
UniCredit
s.t.
12
Yukihiro Doi
Meiji - Fuji
s.t.
But before we determine who wins this race we have to plough through the early riders. Fortunately there are a lot of top time trialists before the top 20 and as such things should be interesting. Our first rider off is not one of them, as Reguigui heads out of the start house and on to the course.
And we have our first benchmark – 14 minutes flat. That is unlikely to be a particularly good time and indeed Nechita just beats him moments later with the same time.
And right near the start we are already treated to one of the big favourites as Bonnet heads off. He crashed yesterday so he may not be on top form, but we will see how he does.
He sets the new best time, of course, and it is a strong-looking 13’25”. It remains to be seen how this will hold up.
The next note-worthy time trialist is Cozza, who sets the second best time of 13’36”. In fact, if he is that close to Bonnet things might be looking a bit dicey for the Frenchman. It seems that the injury might have affected him after all.
After him come the Emu duo of Ziegler and Van Ooijen. No one expects much from them but they have some decent times of 13’47” and 13’45” respectively.
Now we get another rider setting a strong time as Khatuntsev comes through second fastest with a time of 13’34”, only 9” slower than Bonnet. That time is looking shakier and shakier.
And low-and-behold just a short time later Ovechkin comes through in 13’22”, the new best time! The wind may have affected this slightly, but either way this time trial is looking more and more open as the riders start to roll through. We can expect some great times later on.
Pokerstars have had a rather disappointing race and the victory today would go a long way to fixing that. The first of their TT duo is Clement. He was an outsider for today’s race and clearly that was well earned as he sets the new best of 13’21”, just 1” faster than the previous best!
As we start to approach the top end of the GC we get another big favourite for today - Tennant. He has let his team down slightly on GC, and he has also been doing a lot of work to set up sprint trains, so let’s see if that will affect him at all.
And it seems that it hasn’t as he sets the new best – a solid-looking 13’14”. That is probably going to be a tough time to beat and there certainly aren’t many riders left to come who will be able to top it.
One man willing to give it a go, however, is Van Goolen, the second of Pokerstars’ hopes for today.
But all that he can manage is 13’27”, slower than Clement and not enough to compete at the top of the table. So with that we slip into the top 17 riders – those who are within 2 minutes of the lead on GC. Let’s have a look at the top 5 before we start here:
Tennant
13’14”
Clement
13’21”
Ovechkin
13’22”
Bonnet
13’25”
Van Goolen
13’27”
First up we have three riders who are close to each other fighting over 15th place – Mercado, Ford and Velits. The tiny Spaniard Mercado is the first of these off, 1’49” down on GC in 17th overall but only 7” down on Velits. He will need to put in a good time here, though he may struggle against these two.
And Mercado sets the benchmark for the other two – 13’49”. That is a fairly good ride for him.
Ford is up next. He is second in the young rider classification and is fairly likely to remain there, which is a strong result for him. A top 15 here on home soil would cap off a fantastic season which included yet another ProTour stage race win. He starts the day only 4” behind Velits.
And his time easily beats Mercado – it is 13’31”, which is inside the ten best so far today. So Velits needs to beat 13’35” to hold on to the top 15.
And now it is time for Velits, who has unexpectedly become the team leader here after Hermans failed to perform. H starts the day 1’42” down on GC, 31” behind 14th place, which means that he only has to think about defending his current spot.
He needs to beat 13’35” to hold on to 15th and... 13’33” is his time! That is incredibly close but he holds on by just 2 seconds.
Our next duel is between two riders who aren’t known for their ability against the clock. Salerno sits in 14th, 1’11” down, and Bono, who has ignited this race with constant attacks, is in 13th place, 1 minute down. Salerno goes out first.
And his time is 13’52”, which means that he will easily avoid being caught by Velits. It also means that Bono just has to come in with a time under 14’03”. He sets off with his goal in mind.
And the clock reads 13’59” – yet another close call! Bono barely holds on to 13th.
Now we hit the real racing – the top 12 riders, all of whom are within pouncing distance of winning this. First up we have Doi, who has ridden a very anonymous race, but this has kept him in contention. He is probably one of the weaker TT riders in this position, but will aim for a top ten nonetheless.
And his time is 14’07”, which is one of the worse times today and certainly not where he wants to be given the calibre of riders still to come.
One of the riders who has been overlooked by many when talking about today is Vandborg. The Danish TT champion is definitely good against the clock, so this should be a much more interesting time.
Indeed it is as he comes through in 13’31”, which whilst outside the top 5 is still one of the better times posted today and will almost certainly be enough for a top ten.
The Australians have had plenty to cheer about in this race so far and their big hope for today’s stage and also for GC is the best young rider Bobridge, who has had a great season and would love to cap that off with at least a podium finish here.
And his time is 13’27”, just outside the top 5 but the best of the GC contenders so far. It remains to be seen how that will hold up.
A man with quite a lot of pressure on his shoulders is Konovalovas, whose team have been putting in a huge amount of work in the previous number of stages. He has been keeping his powder dry most of the time apart from one attack in the queen stage. Let’s see how he does...
And his time is 13’29” which is a good time but will probably disappoint the Lithuanian somewhat given the TT strength still to come.
One team which has not lived up to its usual self is Red Bull, whose Kirchen is their team leader here. He isn’t the best TT rider of the bunch but his experience and the pressure to perform may combine here.
And somehow the stars align and Kirchen puts in a time of 13’27”, just a fraction of a second outside Bobridge but better than Konovalovas!
And now we come to the man widely tipped to win not just the stage but the overall – Koren. Probably the best time trialist of this group, if not the whole race, he could walk away with this one today. He does have the 24” gap to make up to Davis, however, and that should not be forgotten on this course with tightly-packed times.
His time isn’t the new best – but 13’17” is good enough for 2nd and sets a really strong challenge to everyone else! Tennant will be feeling pretty good right about now in the hotseat. Not many other riders are likely to challenge for the win.
One of the more surprising names in this group of riders is Traficante. He isn’t a bad time trialist and can hold on in the hills, but this is probably beyond what most people would expect of him. A top 10 here would be a huge result to put on his palmares.
His time of 13’29” seems very strong and indeed he just beats out Konovalovas and provisional fourth overall.
A man who will probably come away from this disappointed is Kessler, who couldn’t get away on the hilly stage and as such lost his chance to really pull out a time gap. As much as he probably doesn’t want to, he really has to dig deep today not just for a shot at the top ten overall, but also because his team are tied for first in the team competition with California Giant.
His time of 13’39” is the second worst of this group of riders thus far and so he may in fact not make the top ten.
Next up, the fourth last rider to go, is the double Belarusian champion Kiryenka. He came into this as one of the favourites and with a strong time trial here he can prove that. His team have been riding well all day and he will hope that he has learned something from them.
And what a result! 13’21” puts him provisional fourth on the stage and in a great position for a top GC place. There are only three riders to go.
The first of these three is one of the biggest surprises of this race, Duyn, who has managed to hold on to all the right groups and this has put him in a great spot to take an unexpected GC result. His time trialing leaves something to be desired, but surely he can push himself on this occasion.
He clocks a time of 13’46”, which only beats Doi from this group of 12 so far. Then again, a top 12 result before the race would still have been unexpected.
The second last rider to go is Seledkov. He is actually only 19” down, meaning that he has a 4 second buffer over everyone else. This could come in handy, though with some of the times set at this point he may struggle to hold on to the top 5 or so.
And it isn’t just the top 5 that is in danger – he comes through in 14’06”, putting almost certainly outside of the top 10 and guaranteeing Duyn at least tenth place.
And our final rider, of course, is Davis. To hold on to his lead he needs a time of 13’41” but more realistically 13’50” will keep him in the top 5. He sets off...
... and his time is only 14’09”, which puts him in 9th, 28” back. He will have the chance tomorrow to make up another 20” in time bonuses, but the overall victory seems almost certainly out of reach.
And with that the time trial is completed! Koren takes the lead in this race with Kiryenka and Kirchen making up the podium. Tennant takes another victory for Rapha. Finally, California Giant stake their claim to the best team competition.
