The two mountain stages did very little to separate the riders. But those
that did gained some time are feeling confident heading into the MTT. Castano holds onto yellow after his brilliant attack on stage 1,
but will the time he gained there be enough to hold off the likes of Dekker, Alarcon, and Taaramae.
26.6kms of uphill time trialing is upon us!
We start rolling the cameras on the first rider that is 1'58" behind Castano, Loosli. He's 54th overall so 53 riders are yet to come. Here is top 5 from the guys who were out on the course earlier in the day:
Name
Check #1
Check #2
Finish
1
Possoni
36"
20"
1h04'33"
2
Landa
46"
34"
6"
3
Salas
37"
26"
11"
4
Aru
44"
27"
13"
5
Pantano Gomez
43"
37"
19"
The first climber on the course is Vasquez. Not a good time trialist but he loves the mountains. He sits the new time to beat at the first checkpoint, 19'48".
A few riders later that time is beat by Ochoa Quintero but only by 3 seconds.
The first check is beat again by Gadret, and then destroyed by Krasnoperov with a time of 19'13". So the cameras will follow Alarcon's teammate up the climb.
Krasnoperov brings us to the dirt roads at the top of the climb and is your new leader. Behind almost all the riders are out on the course except for the top 10 still waited by the start house. Here are the current splits at the time checks:
Ratiy is the next rider of interest on the road as he has beat Kraspoerov at both check points.
And does the same at the finish becoming your new leader with a time of 1h01'25". And it's the same time as Krasnoperov! But he is given the lead. Surely he is probably thinking that he should have beat Krasnoperov by a large margin considering he is one of the best mountain time trialists in the field. So it looks like the time trialing aspect is thrown out the window for today's stage. Good news for some, bad for others.
A quiet tour for Marquez but he is making some noise now as he is 3rd best at the second check by just 6 seconds. While further down the road we have a new best time at the first check point by Ratiy's teammate Keizer.
Taaramae is at the first check and comes in 2nd behind Keizer by 3 seconds. So maybe being a good time trialist is having an effect... We are getting mixed signals here.
As Castano takes off here are the leaders at the check points again:
Keizer is taking on the spotlight now while Castano's teammate Gomez Marchante is just 5 seconds off Keizer's lead through the first check.
Action all over the course now! Alarcon is now the fastest by the 1st check beating Keizer by 6 seconds. While at the finish Marquez slots himself into third 9 seconds behind Ratiy and Krasnoperov.
Two more changes at the top of the leader boards as Dekker beats Alarcon by 17 seconds at the first check! And Kreizer is the new leader at the second check beating Ratiy by 36 seconds! Things are heating up with amazing times for the last group of riders.
Castano has reached the first checkpoint. So let's evaluate:
Top 10 at the check points:
Top 10 GC after 1st check point:
Name
Time
1
Castano
Leader
2
Cataldo
35"
3
Dekker
39"
4
Anton
58"
5
Alarcon
1'04"
6
Efimkin
1'19"
7
Keizer
1'23"
8
Taaramae
1'27"
9
Gomez Marchante
1'29"
10
Pozzovivo
1'35"
The gap is already falling quickly for Castano while Soler and Lloyd have already lost their top 10's. The mountain is just to big and they are in need of miracle to salvage a top 20 now after their performances on stage 1 gave them a small head start over the favourites.
Alarcon sets the new best time at the 2nd check, but again is beat by...
Dekker a few riders later.
Efimkin and Cataldo are really struggling the second half of the climb and are in danger of losing their top 10's.
Castano is under the second check point. The fastest time through here for the day goes to Dekker.
Along with the fast time, Dekker is also now the virtual leader as Castano comes in 2'12" behind the time set by Dekker.
So your up to date GC top 10 is:
Name
Time
1
Dekker
Leader
2
Alarcon
27"
3
Castano
34"
4
Anton
1'13"
5
Cataldo
s.t.
6
Gomez Marchante
1'18"
7
Keizer
1'19"
8
Taaramae
1'24"
9
Pozzovivo
1'40"
10
Popovych
1'56"
Efimkin has slipped out of the top 10 allowing Popovych to sneak in. Cataldo continues to fall down the leader board as Castano and Anton are trying to hold their ground. Just the finish line is left.
Dekker is unstoppable today as he beats Alarcon once again at the finish, and unless Castano has saved his best for last, Dekker will win the tour by winning 2 of the 3 stages.
Anton with a solid ride finish 2'13" behind Dekker. But he falls down one more spot to Taaramae who didn't have tour he had hoped for but could still get 6th if Cataldo drops a few more places.
Cataldo knew it was going to be tough to keep his 2nd place overall but he fought for it and only goes down to 8th place. Which does moves Taarmae in 6th overall passing Anton and Cataldo in GC on the last section on the climb.
Then comes Castano. Many thought it would be a close race to keep yellow but Dekker was head and shoulders above everyone else today. But if you would have told Castano he would finish 3rd 4 days ago he wouldn't have believed you. Getting beat by just Dekker and Alarcon is a heck of an achievement for Castano.
Keizer and Gomez Marchante move into the top 5 of the GC by getting top 5's here in the MTT. Taaramae gets 6th overall and surely thought he could have done better at the start of the tour. Anton goes from 4th to 7th on the final day but is still a great result for the 2nd tier lead of CSC. Vespa get 8th and 9th with Cataldo and Pozzovivo. While Popovych takes 10th over Ratiy by just 2 seconds.
The points and mountain competitions are also won by Dekker and the best young rider goes to 2nd overall Alarcon along with the best team for Bintang.
