And now up for the ITT, which will be held in the heart of San Luis featuring 19km against the clock. Definitely another crucial day for those, who aim for the GC.
Some pure TT-specialists already lost too many minutes to join the GC-contention, but of course it's now up to them to challenge for at least the stage honours today. Also the GC is likely to be mixed today, so it's a lot of interesting stuff to come.
The first rider at the start today is already one of those TT-specialists who may hope for a nice result today:
Griffith (GC's 120th, + 21.11)
Finish: 25'33" - this first BT may already be a time to beat here.
Cruz
Finish: 25'22" - new BT! It didn't take too long to see a new promising BT!
Oba
Finish: + 7" as new 2nd! Not a bad effort, but Cruz remains too strong so far.
Ovakaua
Finish: + 24" and no chance to compete with the three best yet.
And now for someone, who definitely had hoped to be still in the mix for the GC at this point - but who got dropped already on first day and who then might have saved his energy for breakaways or today's ITT:
Joeaar (GC's 97th, + 11.00)
Finish: + 6" as new 2nd! A strong effort, but again a few seconds too slow to attack Cruz.
Donald
Finish: + 11" on Cruz! And already off the podium behind Joeaar and Oba.
Next in line, someone who could have been one of the top-favorites for the GC-win, if he hadn't crashed on second day. The US boy lost further minutes in yesterday's hilly stage, so he either is injured or focusses on stage-hunting like today:
Haga (GC's 83rd, + 8.22)
Finish: + 10" as new 4th! A good try, so we may rule out that he's injured. Anyway, no podium today.
So here a first look at the provisional Top-10 in the stage. There's already a huge gap behind Oyakaua as 7th, but of course we already saw several TT-specialists there.
We will now focus on those, who may fight for decent GC-positions (and of course the stage-win) with a great performance today.
The Brazilian TT-champion is next in line. He had a rather quiet race so far, but his most important days are yet to come. Actually, now:
Nicacio (GC's 23rd, + 2.15)
Finish: + 17" as new 6th! Maybe a bit less than he had hoped for, given his TT-skills. But he's well in the mix of those TT-specialists so far.
Rosskopf (GC's 20th, + 2.15)
Finish: + 2" as new 2nd! A huge result for Rosskopf, who was so disappointing in yesterday's first hilly stage!
Kasa (GC's 18th, + 2.15)
Finish: + 12" on still leading Cruz! Again a nice effort, which may help him GC-wise.
Paulinho (GC's 15th, + 2.15)
Finish: + 31"! A good result for the allrounder, who may focus on tomorrow's mountain-stage for further improvements.
De Greef (GC's 14th, + 2.15)
Finish: + 31"! Same goes for De Greef, who finish with the same time actually.
Next on the road is the best climber in the peloton, who definitely has to limit his losses today. He did quite okay yesterday, even though his teammate Fumic did even better as 2nd.
Schwab (GC's 13th, + 2.07)
Finish: + 1'26" for 71st place eventually! He will just wait for today's Top-10 riders to see what this time is all about.
Ibanez (GC's 11th, + 1.43)
Finish: + 11" as new 8th! Nutresa with another possible GC-threat, it seems! A very nice result amongst the very best TTlers here!
So with now only the GC's Top-10 to come, we have another look at the provisional stage-result. Not many TT-guns to come, so Cruz definitely in nice position to celebrate a stage-win soonish.
Most promising GC-contenders to make a huge jump today are Ibanez, Kasa and Nicacio. And of course Rosskopf, who came quite close to Cruz.
Several riders, who did so well yesterday, will just fight to limit the losses to stay in reach for the Top-10 they actually hold. First of those is:
McConvey (GC's 10th, + 1.43)
Finish: + 1'06" for 33rd eventually! Better than Schwab, but also a minute behind the likes of Ibanez or Nicacio.
Rudaskov (9th, + 1.43)
Finish: + 1'08" for 35th today. So in the same situation as McConvey, might lose some spots today.
Now one of the best climbers and someone, who already did quite well yesterday and who ain't too bad in TTs as well:
Rodas (8th, + 1.43)
Finish: + 41" as 21st! So 20 seconds faster than the previous two, which may help him to defend his GC's Top-10 today.
Kulhavy (7th, + 1.43)
Finish: + 1'26" as 72nd. Same time as Schwab, so likely to drop a few spots in GC.
Godoy (6th, + 1.30)
Finish: + 1'08" as 36th. Like McConvey and Rudaskov, he finish a minute behind Ibanez and teammte Nicacio.
Next up, a Spanish climber, who may actually be something like the top-favorite now (well, unsurprisingly). Finishing amongst the best favorites yesterday, adding nice skills in TTs plus being one of the best climbers, this is his chance to take:
Castano (5th, + 1.30)
Finish: + 39" as 20th! Just two seconds faster than Rodas, so might have hoped for more. Still likely to improve in GC today.
And one Nutresa's next promising GC-contender, who showed an impressive finish in yesterday's stage, where he managed to shake off all other top-favorites.
Beltran (4th, + 0.47)
Finish: + 1.10 as 41st. So again one of those Top-10-riders, who will lose about a minute on some other GC-contenders. But still enough to defend his position, most likely.
Safarzadeh (3rd, + 0.39)
Finish: + 1.33 as 80th! He was expected to lose some more seconds than Beltran, but may still hope to stay in Top-10.
Maloja's second GC-contender after yesterday's strong performance. The German ain't exactly better in TTs than Schwab, but thanks to his great position in GC, this may be his great chance to take over the captain's role for his team - maybe..
Fumic (2nd, + 0.17)
Finish: + 1.45 as 96th! He struggled today, but will stay comfortably ahead of Schwab. An interesting situation for the team.
Same goes for Nutresa, of course. With two riders delivering yesterday and Ibanez delivering today, the team may have three serious contenders now. How will the GC-leader do today? He's by far the weakest TTler of all riders we've focussed on today..
Valencia (GC-leader)
Finish: + 1.57 as 105th! Worst time of all contenders, but this ain't surprising. He had a nice advantage on all serious GC-contenders though..
Nutresa retains the leader-shirt... but the new GC-leader is... Ibanez! Thanks to a very strong effort today, he takes over the orange kit from Beltran, who did enough to stay on podium though! Just 3" behind and the same goes for another Nutresa-rider, as Valencia completes the 1-2-3 podium with the same time as Beltran! Huge provisional GC-result for the team.
Fumic 8" down to drop on 4th, while Castano jumps onto 5th with now only 15" on the GC-lead. Another big winner is Rosskopf as new 7th and riders like Kasa or Nicacio, who round up the Top-10 with less than 40 seconds on Ibanez.
Schwab will enter tomorrow's mountain-stage as 25th (+ 1.39) and is therefore one and a half minute behind teammate Fumic. Just one of several interesting questions, as also other teams have more than one option for the GC now.
