And now we hit the mountain time trial – this is going to really sort out the top of the table. The course is 15.5km long. The first 2km are slightly downhill before we reach the foot of South Piney Bristle, the climb in Colorado. The climb to the first time check at the 8.2km mark averages about 7% with plenty of sections over 10% in gradient. The second half of the course is about 6% on average but there is a section 400m long with a gradient of over 15%. In addition the final ramp to the finish line hits 15%. It should be a tough day for sure and we can expect to see serious gaps.
Our first rider out is Juliano Polito. He crashed on the eighth stage and that cost him a lot of time. He will just be glad when today ends. His time through the first check is 20’51”.
And he finishes in 38’13”. Expect to see that time being utterly destroyed by the GC riders when they start to go off.
Our first real climber is Yonathon Monsalve. He has done a lot of work quite early in most of the previous stages. It looks like he might have done a little bit too much work as he comes through the first check in 20’24”, which is in fact 9” slower than his teammate Dempster, who holds the best intermediate time.
And he seems to get slower as the course wears on, only managing a time of 38’01”, meaning that he was only very slightly better than Polito.
While Monsalve was only a minor domestique, Julian Becerra is the sort of rider who most were expecting a bit more from, and his only highlight so far has been making the break on the tenth stage. Either way he sets off here looking to recover some dignity. He sets the new benchmark time through the first check and it is a good one – 19’57”.
And through the start/finish line his time is 37’17”, which beats Dempster’s best by 17” and makes him the provisional leader. Becerra is a bit unlucky that he is so far behind 22nd placed Hirschlein, because otherwise he would certainly be moving up on GC today.
The next impressive rider out on course is just two men behind Becerra, and that is Kevin Seeldraeyers. The Belgian crashed on stages 8 and 9 but has not looked injured. He clearly sees this as his chance to move into the top 20 overall as he sets a cracking time through the first check – a new best of 19’54”.
He was 3” ahead of Becerra at the intermediate checkpoint, but he extends that lead to a great 17” over the finish line, setting the new best time of 37 minutes flat.
And now we start our top 20 overall. First up is Ivan Seledkov, who may feel under pressure to defend himself from his teammate Seeldraeyers’ time. Through the first check things don’t look too good, however, as he can only manage 20’15”.
And things don’t improve as he can only manage 37’41” at the finish, meaning that he will struggle to hold on to his top 20 at the end of the day. He is only 7 seconds down on our next two starters, however.
Unfortunately for him the first of these is mountain goat Wilmer Vasquez. He crashed on stage 9 and hasn’t done much else this race. He will be hoping to make up for his disappointing race here, however. Indeed he shows his intention through the first check with a new best time of 19’44”.
And he holds his speed to the line with a new best of 36’52”. That means that he certainly holds on to his top 20 position and may even improve on 19th.
And our next rider up is Alex Kirsch. He is well out of his depth against this competition and is probably going to struggle in this test. Indeed, that proves to be an accurate assessment as he can only muster 20’23” through the first check.
And he can’t improve it much at the end of the course with a time of 37’55”, more than a minute outside the time of Vasquez. This means that Seledkov remains in the top 20, and Seeldraeyers leap frogs him into 19th.
Another young rider from Focused Cycling is up next in 17th place – Kenny Elissonde. He is only performing better than his teammate because he was in the group that Hollister managed to create on the flat stage 6, where he pulled a lot of time out on other riders. He is 1’02” ahead of Vasquez. Through the first check Elissonde manages 20’22”, just 1” faster than the time of Kirsch.
And unfortunately for him, Kirsch gets a time of 27’57”, which is 1’05” slower than Vasquez, who now moves into 17th overall. The lower GC places are really being shaken up.
Our next rider up is 16th overall Andre Vital. He has ridden a fairly quiet race and isn’t in any immediate danger of losing his GC position, but he is only 48” behind Txurruka, who is in 15th. He will be hoping to reduce that gap today. And through the first check he sets a very respectable time of 20’07”.
His time at the end of the course is one of the better ones today, with a strong effort of 37’31”.
Next up is Amets Txurruka, who, as said, will be hoping to defend his time against Vital. Other than crashing on stage 9 Txurruka hasn’t done a lot, but he has provided valuable support for his leader Kessiakoff in the mountains. His time through the first check is 20’04”, 3” faster than Vital.
And he finishes in a time of 37’26”, meaning that his gap over Vital is extended by 5”. Both riders will probably be pretty happy with the status quo.
In 14th place we have the winner of stage 4 and our leader for one day, Mauricio Soler. Many thought that he would be in a better GC position than this at this point but his crash on stage 9 hasn’t helped, and he has been doing an incredibly large amount of work for Anton, harming his own chances. He will be hoping to close the gap to the top riders so that he might set himself up for a finishing top 10 overall. And through the first check he breaks the 20 minute mark with 19’58”.
And at the end of the course his time is a very strong 37’13”. This could be enough to gain some time on the weaker climbers ahead of him.
In 13th place is one such climber, Damian Martinez. He has been one of the biggest overperformers this race, working for Kiserlovski in the mountains and also setting up Serebriakov for the sprinters and also being in the break on stage 4. He will want to limit his losses today. Through the first check it looks like he might struggle to do that as he struggles through in 20’10”.
At the end of the course he improves somewhat with a time of 37’29”, limiting his loss to Soler to only 16”, which is move than acceptable. His unexpected good run continues.
In 12th place is Sicard’s biggest helper, Brice Feillu. He will be hoping to cut his gap to Sano, who is in 11th, and also set himself up for a top 10 overall. And through the first check he sets a blistering pace, managing 19’48”, the second best so far after Vasquez.
But this pace can’t be kept up forever and he can only manage 37 minutes flat over the finish line, which is the same as Seeldraeyers a fair time ago. He clearly just went out too hard. Still, it will be a tough ask for Sano to do much better.
Junya Sano lost a lot of time yesterday after he got dropped before the final climb. He will be looking to make that back today, and perhaps overtake Morizot to put himself inside the top 10. He also has to worry about Feillu behind him, who set a good time of 37’00”. Through the first check, however, Sano shows his magnificent form with the new best time of 19’37”!
And over the line, Sano is our new leader with a time of 36’35”, shaving a whole 17” off the time of Vasquez. Things are looking up for the Japanese team! With only 10 riders remaining here is the top 5 on our leaderboard:
Name
1st
Finish
Sano
19’37”
36’35”
Vasquez
19’44”
36’52”
Seeldraeyers
19’54”
37’00”
Feillu
19’48”
37’00”
Soler
19’58”
37’13”
The first rider in the top 10 to head off is Florian Morizot. He has been a quiet helper for Sicard through the last week and a half and will be happy with his present place in the standings. He may have a tough time holding off San though, despite being a very strong time trialist. Through the first check things are looking very good however. Better than that, he sets a new best of 19’27”.
And this high pace continues on to the finish, where Morizot manages an incredible 36’13”, extending his lead over Sano. In fact, Agudelo is only 41” ahead of Morizot on GC so may have to watch out.
Speaking of which, Jairo Agudelo is the next man out of the start house. He lost a fair bit of time in the hilly fourth stage, but has slowly been working it back in the previous two stages and will hope to continue that trend today. And through the first check, we once again have a new best time. He sets a new best of 19’22”.
His time at the end continues this strong form, with a new best of 36’09”. He was almost 2 minutes behind Nicacio, but he might start to dream of challenging for an 8th place overall now.
The double Portuguese champion Pedro Nicacio showed his strength in the team time trial, where he pretty much rode it as an individual time trial anyway. He came a very close second place on stage 10 and recovered well throughout the day yesterday to finish in 8th place. This is the sort of test that should suit him. Through the first check he looks okay with a time of 19’32”, 10” off the new best time.
His final time is enough for provisional third place, with 36’22”. He might be slightly disappointed with that result given his strength in the TT. He might be saving himself somewhat for the flat TT on the penultimate stage.
Now it is time for 7th place Daniel Navarro. The Spaniard has almost 3’30” over Nicacio in the overall, and is almost 2 minutes behind 6th place Anton, and as such Navarro hasn’t got a lot to win or lose today. He already took a stage win on stage 10 and fought well for 7th place yesterday, and today will likely just be about setting a decent time that doesn’t lose too much time to everyone else. And through the first check his result reflects this with a time of 19’30”.
He has a fairly slow second half and can only manage 36’27”, but at this point he hasn’t got a lot to worry about, so he can be content with that.
And now we enter the top six riders. These are the men who will be fighting it out for the podium places over the coming week and so everything that happens is crucial. The new top 5 as they begin looks like this:
Name
1st
Finish
Agudelo
19’22”
36’09”
Morizot
19’27”
36’13”
Nicacio
19’32”
36’22”
Navarro
19’30”
36’27”
Sano
19’37”
36’35”
First out of the gate is Igor Anton, sitting sixth overall and considered one of the biggest threats to take today’s stage. Anton has been slowly bleeding time to the others but his performance yesterday with a blistering attack on the final climb shows that he is one of the top two climbers here. He starts the day 4’11” down and will be looking to close that gap.
And through the first time check he sets a new best time of 19’14”, easily the best so far today. He will be tough to beat from here.
5th place at the start of this day is Frederick Kessiakoff, who has been quietly performing well this whole Tour. He has been sticking with all of the right wheels and yesterday finally showed his strength by getting away on the descent and winning the stage, leading to accusations that he was wheelsucking. Whatever the truth of it, there will be absolutely no hiding today. He starts today 3’51” down on Kiserlovski’s lead.
Kessiakoff goes equal second best with a time of 19’22”. He will have to be careful that he doesn’t lose much more ground to Anton, or else his position on GC might become compromised.
The best young rider in this race, Romain Sicard, currently sits 4th overall and also has the title of best rider who isn’t from Hollister. Sicard is not just a good climber, but he is also a strong time trialist. This seems like the perfect chance for him to move onto the podium because it is much easier to take time here than try to derail the Hollister train in the mountains. He starts today 3’20” behind our race leader.
And he manages to match the time of Kessiakoff of 19’22”, which will probably be roughly where the Frenchman wants to be. He will be hoping that our next rider cannot perform well today.
And that next rider is Sylwester Szmyd. He is 3’04” down on his race leader and teammate Kiserlovski. He mostly got there thanks to constantly being on the front of the race and thus making the important breaks. He did only manage 9th place yesterday, losing more than 2’30” on everyone else, however, so he might be struggling. He will be hoping to keep the podium full of Hollister riders.
But through the check it is a rather poor time of 19’52” that he can muster. This is the slowest that anyone in the top 12 has gone so far.
Our next Hollister rider is Richard Ochoa Quintero, who has been pushing a fierce pace on almost every mountain so far this race. He has so far only lost time on the fourth stage, where he missed the crucial front selection. It seems like he represents Hollister’s best chance of keeping two men on the podium and so there is a pressure to perform today.
And while he doesn’t immediately seem to be pulling out anything special, he still seems to be doing better than Szmyd. His time is 19’30”, 8” off the pace of Sicard and Kessiakoff.
And finally our race leader starts.
Robert Kiserlovski took the leader’s jersey on stage 5 and has not looked like relinquishing it since then. He was 2nd yesterday and 3rd on stage 4 and he would dearly like a stage win to legitimise his current status as race leader.
And what a time it is through the first check! 19’01”, 13” better than Anton managed! That is a huge result for him and could well be a deciding factor in securing the race lead today.
And the top six favourites, the big guns of the Tour, all approach the summit of this mountain. First up it is Anton, who has our now second-best time at the intermediate check.
And unsurprisingly, he sets our new best time at the top, easily beating Agudelo’s previous best. His time is 35’56”, so the other riders know the benchmark that they need to beat. Remember that the top 3 on the stage do get time bonuses here, so Anton’s gap to everyone else could in fact be larger.
Kessiakoff is our next rider through. He had the same time as Agudelo through the intermediate check, having already lost 8” to Anton.
And Kessiakoff slips into our provisional 3rd best time, just behind Agudelo, with a time of 36’10”. That may not be enough to hold on to 5th place at the end of the day.
Sicard is the next rider to approach the line. He had the same time as Kessiakoff at the intermediate.
He does slightly better in the second half, however, and sets a time of 36’06”, putting him in provisional second place.
Szmyd now approaches the line. He was well behind at the first check and will just be trying to hold onto the top 5 at this point.
But that is not going to happen as he can only manage 37’14”. Clearly almost two weeks of domestique duty is starting to hurt. He will be slipping down to sixth place tonight.
Ochoa Quintero is the other big domestique to the race leader, but his time was much better, being only 8” behind the time of Sicard and Kessiakoff.
His time is 36’30”, which means that he will lose some time, but not enough to jeopardise his second place overall just yet. The gap will close considerably, however.
And now it is time for our race leader Robert Kiserlovski. He was 13” faster than Anton at the check. Has he held that pace?
35’34”
He certainly has. He wins the stage by a whopping 22” over Igor Anton and then Romain Sicard.
Here are the top ten:
Name
1st
Finish
Kiserlovski
19’01”
35’34”
Anton
19’14”
35’56”
Sicard
19’22”
36’06”
Agudelo
19’22”
36’09”
Kessiakoff
19’22”
36’10”
Morizot
19’27”
36’13”
Nicacio
19’32”
36’22”
Navarro
19’30”
36’27”
Ochoa
19’30”
36’30”
Sano
19’37”
36’35”
Let’s look at the GC battle now. Kiserlovski extends his lead over Ochoa Quintero and the rest. Sicard moves onto the lowest step of the podium and is only 1’19” behind Ochoa Quintero. Anton jumps up to fourth and Kessiakoff holds on to fifth thanks to a poor performance from Szmyd, who moves into sixth. Our race leader also moves up to second in the mountain jersey, with Anton in third there behind him. Antunes remains in it, however.
