Last year's hilly World Time Trial course saw David Zabriskie
dethroned by Taylor Phinney . It should be mentioned that Robert Gesink was third that day and showed in his stomping victory in the final day Time Trial at the Tour of the Basque country that this sort of test is his cup of tea.
We go up a fairly lengthy climb which has sections over 10% before going on a long descent to the finish, it is a course that combines technical skills with some climbing ability.
It is a key day in the GC shake up following yesterdays stunning apathy from so many GC favourites one of the stories of the day will be how much time can current GC leaders 'Don't call me Vladimir' Aleksandr Efimkin
, 'minimum wage man' Jonas Ljungblad
and 'I could be winning in Japan' Dietmar Mehr-Wenige
will lose on this course.
With the riders going off in reverse GC order it is of course those pure chrono men that are out of the traps early.
Michael Ford
slogs his way up the hill to set our first marker.
It takes the Australian 34.23 to complete the course and this is good enough to keep the lead for some time. The only rider that cuts inside of this before we get down to what can be described as pre race GC men is Jacob Fiedler
He improves the benchmark to 34.09.
We have yet to see really how the balance between TT ability and hill climbing ability is important today. However as we get into the group of riders that we in the latter part of the split yesterday it is hard to miss a key bookmark into the balance question. It is the garish kit of Webeffect... Sergio Ghisalberti
The 33 year old Italian had a good Milan San Remo this year and sets a new fastest split on the climb of 16.35, seven second faster than Fiedler. But cannot hold it to the finish only setting 34.18.
Bernhard Kohl
is almost as fast as the Italian up the climb.
But the Austrian is able to descent slightly quicker, but setting 34.16 is only good enough for provisional second still seven seconds behind Fiedler.
Name
1st split
Final
1
Fiedler
16.42
34.09
2
Kohl
16.36
34.16
3
Ghiselberti
16.35
34.18
Hang on, another Austrian champion the real Austrian TT champion is out on course. The pressure is on Thomas Rohregger
to prove his jersey credentials.
He is unable to match Kohl or Ghiselberti up the climb but shows that testing technique to descend towards the finish and is only marginally slower than Fiedler. He sets 34.09 also...
Name
1st split
Final
1
Fiedler
16.42
34.09
2
Rohregger
16.37
34.09
3
Kohl
16.36
34.16
It feels like mixture of a course that has something for hill climbers and time trial men alike, big name climber Alberto Contador
is next.
The Spanish rider is the first to break the 34 minute barrier, not much cause for celebration yet the Festina team know there is lots of stars to come. Hoping to one day be up there amongst them is Slovakian Peter Velits
His time trialling needs some work still as he is back amongst the now also rans Fiedler, Rohregger et al setting 34,10. Festina meanwhile put another guy high up in the provisional GC in young Dutchman Tim Dees
Name
1st split
Final
1
Contador
16.20
33.45
2
Dees
16.29
33.54
3
Fiedler
16.42
34.09
4
Rohregger
16.37
34.09
5
Velits
16.33
34.10
Still plenty of big names from that disappointment group to come as 'mega-bucks' Rein Taaramäe
'Tour 2011 champ' Simon Spilak
Colombian dangerman Rigoberto Úran
look to alter things on GC somewhat. All three like Contador and Dees manage to crack 34 minutes, Taaramae setting 33.55, Spilak 33.42 and Uran a very good looking 33.30. We have to remember that Rigo was also highly placed in that World TT course.
Name
1st split
Final
1
Uran
16.13
33.30
2
Spilak
16.17
33.42
3
Contador
16.20
33.45
4
Dees
16.29
33.54
5
Taaramae
16.27
33.55
So what about the guy who beat Uran to Bronze Robert Gesink
He smashes it! Romping up to the first split in 16.03 and finishing in a massive new best of 33.12.
What can the big name technical duo of Michael Rogers
and David Zabriskie
do?
It is not quite the kind of course that suits them as both do pretty good climbs of 16.19, but neither can make up enough on Gesink on the downhill. Rogers clocks 33.19 and Zabriskie can only clock 33.23.
Name
1st split
Final
1
Gesink
16.03
33.12
2
Rogers
16.19
33.19
3
Zabriskie
16.19
33.23
4
Uran
16.13
33.30
5
Kiezer
16.20
33.41
In amongst those names appearing at the bottom of the scoreboard is Martijn Keizer
This is the kind of race he could possibly have been successful in with a lack of a big mountain top finish, but missing that split yesterday has hit the young Dutchmans hopes.
Getting onto the GC race it has put a couple of guys who prerace were probably at best top 10 hopes into real podium ambitions now. The first of these to go out is David Arroyo
He and Walter Pedraza
know that today they have to limit their losses to the better time triallist that finished with them and behind them yesterday. Pedraza does a marginally better job clocking 34.28, with Arroyo 34.31 leaving them with a minute plus of the two and half they gained on those riders yesterday.
Timofey Kritskiy
is wearing the young riders jersey.
Though is behind 21 year old Phinney, this is a real breakout tour for the Russian and he sets a competitive time of 34.02. This proves slightly faster than his more experienced countryman Vladimir Karpets
Who disappoints slightly being unable to break 34 minutes either.
Thomas Dekker
does a good ride though. His season looks like it starts today!
Dekker sets a time of 33.27, faster than Uran but behind Gesink, Rogers and Zabriskie.
Name
1st split
Final
1
Gesink
16.03
33.12
2
Rogers
16.19
33.19
3
Zabriskie
16.19
33.23
4
Dekker
16.13
33.27
5
Uran
16.13
33.30
Yesterdays stage winner Andrei Amador
could well be targetting a podium place also now and re-enforces this with a solid ride.
33.46 for the Costa Rican setting a similar time to that of Contador earlier.
The strong race favourite now though is Taylor Phinney
This is his day to sparkle,
But even with this prediction he stuns everyone with a formidable ride, nipping up the climb in 15.51 and setting a ridiculous time of 32.37 some FIFTY seconds faster than Thomas Dekker and THIRTY-FIVE seconds quicker than Gesink.
Name
1st split
Final
1
Phinney
15.51
32.37
2
Gesink
16.03
33.12
3
Rogers
16.19
33.19
4
Zabriskie
16.19
33.23
5
Dekker
16.13
33.27
The final three riders have no hope of taking the stage but are fighting to keep as high as possible on GC. For Dietmar Mehr-Wenige
and Jonas Ljungblad
it is not their natural terrain. Both manage to cling on to top 10 GC places today.
GC leader Aleksandr Efimkin
though is a bit better against the clock.
He clocks a time of 34.43, losing just over two minutes to Phinney, but a respectably small amount of time to just about everyone else. Efimkin leads by 1.06 to Phinney and 2.15 to Dekker.
