One of the longest chrono's of the year takes place today as the testers who have protected themselves the best on the first three stages will be hunting stage glory. It could also be a close run thing on the classification with the likes of decent TTers Vitauskas Kaupas
and Ed Clancy
just 28 seconds behind plucky race leader Joris Wagemans
It is Clancy's teammate Shaun Higgerson
who is named as the favourite for todays stage along with Aleksandr Bespalov
the latter rider acutely aware that he is could be close to leading the overall individual standings with a good performance here.
The 25 year old Frenchman sets a time of 22.33 which is a massive 18 seconds faster than the previous best at that point set by young Colombian tester Wilson Rincón
When riders like Thom Van Dulmen
and the previously mentioned Bespolov cannot even break 22.40, the Tyskie team can start to get excited. Their eyes are fixed to the screen as Shaun Higgerson thunders home:
The clock says 22.33, everyone eagerly looks at the scoreboard...
Pos
Name
Team
1st Check
Time
1
Rossetto
Tyskie
11.00
22.33
2
Higgerson
Dyson
10.59
22.33
3
Van Dulman
Adecco
11.03
22.40
4
Bespolov
Gazprom
11.03
22.41
5
Kusters
Het Nieuwsblad
11.03
22.41
The powerful squad Dyson though have a young ace in the hole who has set a sizziling fastest first check of 10.58, it's young Norwegian Ken Sebastian Vassdål
Indeed Vassdal sets a new best just of 22.32, celebrations are muted however as a young Belgian has set a phenominal first check of 10.54 and is holding his form brilliantly.
The Delhaize man is Tim Mertens
who sets a wonderful time of 22.23.
It completely knocks the stuffing out of everybody including CDiv2 individual leader who does still profess himself happy. Dieter Cappelle
sets a time of 22.40.
Coming up to the riders who made the first stage break both Kaupas
and Clancy
set excellent first check times of 11.04 and 10.59 respectively. Delhaize's race leader Wagemans concedes 11 of his 28 second lead by this point as he sets 11.10.
By the finish Kaupas fades to set 22.49, but Clancy holds his form better and sets a time of 22.37 good enough for 5th on the day (though the third best Dyson!). It means Wagemans has to come home in a time of 23.05, just 42 seconds slower than his teammate Mertens and inside the top 40 of the day.
Wagemans does fantastically to finish in a time of 23.02 to hold off Clancy by just 3 seconds.
