A massive test against the clock is next in this year’s Criterium du Dauphine Libere, and just like in the opening prologue, Zabriskie Coppel Rogers
are favourites according to the bookmakers. All eyes will be on Coppel, can he take his 2nd stage win in only 4 days?
June isn’t a great month in France in terms of weather this year, it seems. It’s cloudy, and looking like rain can start to fall at any moment, and there’s also quite a strong wind, which could affect the results.
Navardauskas
is off early for Festina. After yesterday, where Contador lost valuable time, he will need to get good reports from Navardauskas about the course. There’s a hill early in it, but when the riders are at the top of the hill, it’s only descending and a long, flat run-in left. No doubts the rider with most in his tank will take this stage. At least Navardauskas can lighten things up a little in Festina, he posts a leading time of 74’05.
His time doesn’t last long though, as Champion
goes 27 seconds faster, giving him a time of 73’38.
And the man starting behind Champion, is German champion Lang
He improves Champion’s time by 14 seconds, meaning we’ve got a new leader, at 73’24.
Van Winden
hopes to save something from this tour for his team Jack Wolfskin. But it isn’t meant to be, and he comes home in provisional 4th, 53 seconds behind Lang.
Mottin
is next of the good time trialists, but he doesn’t even manage to be the best French crossing the line so far. He’s 10 seconds behind Champion, 24 seconds behind Lang, into a provisional 3rd.
Kittel
shows he has intentions of winning the national championship in time trialing, as he beats Lang’s time, and post a new best time, of 73’07, which is 16 seconds better than Lang. Also, the rain has started to fall now, question is whether that will influence the late starters or not.
Uran
must be inspired by his team mate Kittel’s performance, but it’s hard to tell, as yesterday’s stage must have taken quite a lot of energy and motivation from him. When Uran starts his time trial, the conditions are far worse than the early starters experienced. The wind indicator now says 48, while it at the beginning of the stage said 30. And the rain is continuing to fall down. Anyway, the climb looks to suit Uran perfect, and he posts a new best time. 72’30 is 37 seconds better than Kittel.
4 minutes behind Uran follows Zabriskie
He's one of the biggest favourite today, and should post a time that tell us more about the conditions out there. And indeed, he shows his class, taking more than a minute on Uran. He’s the first rider below 72 minutes, 71’21 is the new time to beat.
Plaza
is also an early starter today, after having failed yesterday’s splits. Just like Uran, you can’t blame him if he’s not up for it today. Nevertheless, it looks like he gives it his best, and he crosses the line in a provisional 2nd, 1’01 behind Zabriskie.
Fiedler
is just like his fellow countrymen Lang and Kittel, a pure time trialist. And he crosses the line as the best German rider, so far, in a provisional 4 th, 1’41 down on Zabriskie. You can also see that the rain has stopped, does that mean better conditions for the big guns?
Coppel
starts just behind Taaramäe, and he catches him with 6 kilometers left. He’s storming to the line, and puts in a superb performance. We’ve got a new leader, Coppel leads with 70’43. Rogers and the others will really need to do something special to beat that.
Taaramäe
has been mentioned, and he's one of them who needs to take back some of the time they've lost so far. Starting the stage almost 4 minutes behind Spilak, he really needs a great ride here. He’s helped by Coppel on the last kilometers, and he gets a provisional 6th at the finish, 2’07 behind Coppel.
Contador
sits 28th overall before today’s stage. No doubts he hopes to improve his position going into the coming mountainstages. He crosses the line 2 seconds behind Taaramäe, in a provisional 7th.
Rogers
looks eager to do well today, after his somewhat disappointing prologue. And he goes fast, very fast. On the finishing line, he catches his 6 (!) minutes man and team mate, Machado, posting a new best time. 70’05 is rock solid, and 38 seconds faster than Coppel. That looks like a stage winning performance. How high can he climb in the overall ranking?
Amador
hopes a good time trial will bring him well inside the top 5 ahead of the mountains, and he does decent, coming home in a provisional 11th, 3’14 behind Rogers.
Phinney
is the next rider to cross the line. He flew straight past Kashechkin with more than 15 kilometers left, and he’s thundering home. Enough for the stage win? No, but it’s enough for a provisional 2nd place, 29 seconds slower than Rogers. Anyway, a great stage from Phinney, question is if it’s enough to grab the yellow jersey from Spilak.
Kashechkin
isn’t having a great day today, just like on the opening prologue. But he limits his losses well, he crosses the line in a provisional 16th, 3’35 off Rogers’ time.
Dekker
looks like he performs well under pressure. His manager has stated several times in media that he’s the difference between relegation and surviving in the ProTour. Today looks like an exception though, as he’s 10 seconds slower than Uran, giving him a provisional 7th, 2’35 behind Rogers.
Boasson Hagen
has had a good Dauphine so far, the first two stages were in particular great. Yesterday he sprinted for dear life to keep 2nd place overall. Today, he will drop several placings with his time of 74’18, it gives him a provisional 27th.
Bakelants
has also had a great Dauphine so far, but he’s missing a stage win. He won’t get it today, that’s for sure. He’ crosses the line 4’51 behind Rogers, in a provisional 46th.
Spilak
is last man standing on the road today, and he really has to give it everything to defend the jersey. But a provisional 7 th, 2’34 behind Rogers is nowhere enough. He will have to hand the yellow jersey over to Phinney. He still has a great overall position going into the mountains, and it will be interesting to see if he can show the form that gave him last year’s victory there.
