It all comes down to this. 50.5 km against the clock to decide the Tour de France, from Gap to Sisteron. Damiano Cunego holds the Yellow jersey, as he has done for some time. His lead over Angel Madrazo is 1 minute and 55 seconds.
Way back in Corsica, we had a 28km time trial. Madrazo beat Cunego there by 1 minute and 5 seconds. If both produce similar rides, then this will be very close!
Likely to beat both of them today is 3rd overall Aleksandr Pluchkin - but surely he has too much time to make up at over 4 minutes to Cunego, and over 2 minutes to Madrazo.
It's tight for 4th though. Defending champion Simon Spilak leads the man he beat last year Thomas Dekker by just 9 seconds.
There's then going to be a good battle for positions 6 through to 12, separated by just 3 minutes and 40 seconds. With one time trial win already under his belt (albeit uphill), Andrei Amador will be hard to dislodge from 6th. But Rigoberto Uran was 4th in the Corsica time trial, and is one of three Colombians battling for a Top 10, along with Sergio Luis Henao Montoya and Mauricio Ardila.
Andrey Kashechkin is very much in the mix as he looks to finish his 6th ManGame Tour de France in a row - his average finishing position being 10th! Having made the podium last year, Jaroslav Popovych has work to do today to even make the Top 10 - while its even more of a challenge for Yuri Trofimov.
Spoiler
6
Andrei Amador
UBS - La Pierre
-
7
Rigoberto Úran
Vesuvio-Accumalux
+ 53
8
Sergio Luis Henao Montoya
Milka - Vittel
+ 54
9
Mauricio Ardila
Jack Wolfskin
+ 1'21
10
Andrei Kashechkin
Webeffect
+ 1'32
11
Jaroslav Popovych
Wiggle - San Pellegrino
+ 2'10
12
Yuri Trofimov
Sony Ericsson
+ 3'41
And of course there is the stage win battle. If it doesnt go to one of those already mentioned, then the two other stand out names are 6 time Tour de France stage winner Fabian Cancellara, and the 13th Overall Time Trial World Champion and dominant winner of the Corsica TT here, Taylor Phinney.
Lanterne rouge Aitor Galdos opened up the stage. And he did more work to secure last position, being passed by the next worst rider overall Mathieu Ladagnous.
Of the first 30 to go, the best time came from 100th overall Sebastian Ivars.
Julien El Fares joined Francis Mourey in being caught by Ivars
1
S. Ivars
1h13'24
2
M. Bouet
+ 33
3
LY. Bak
+ 51
4
B. Vaugrenard
+ 1'02
5
T. De Gendt
+ 1'17
6
J. Vastaranta
+ 1'25
7
M. Ladagnous
+ 1'31
8
S. Cummings
+ 1'43
9
K. Lalouette
+ 1'54
10
R. Vanderbiest
+ 2'29
At the first checkpoint at 17km, Bouet actually led Ivars by a second - but the Cafe de Colombia man really took control in the middle section of the course.
Milka's Kreuziger was unable to take the lead back from the team. But even if he had, it would not have lasted. On a charge today is Fabian Cancellara. He storms to a new best - a time that he hopes nobody else will be able to beat.
1
F. Cancellara
1h12'09
2
S. Ivars
+ 1'14
3
M. Bouet
+ 1'48
4
LY. Bak
+ 2'05
5
R. Kreuziger
+ 2'16
81st overall Serge Pauwels produced an impressive time to take 5th place away from Kreuziger - clearly exhibiting better signs of recovery than the Czech. He beats Christian Meier aswell, with the Canadian pushing Kreuziger down a further place.
Dmitri Grabovski and Gustavo Veloso both produced strong times to put them into the Top 5.
But faster than them was Ian Bibby, who just faded at the finish in a close battle with Ivars' 2nd place time.
Tschopp, Veloso, Hernandez Gutierrez and Pardilla can all be seen by Bibby
Yevgeni Nepomnyachsniy also put in an impressive time - outshining many, despite only having 73 TT. He sets the best time from the Milka team.
1
F. Cancellara
1h12'09
2
S. Ivars
+ 1'14
3
I. Bibby
+ 1'17
4
D. Grabovski
+ 1'27
5
Y. Nepomnyachsniy
+ 1'37
6
M. Bouet
+ 1'48
7
G. Veloso
+ 1'48
8
LY. Bak
+ 2'05
9
S. Pauwels
+ 2'12
10
C. Meier
+ 2'15
The next time of note looked set to be Andriy Grivko as he edged into 2nd place at the first check. But a poor middle section let him down - despite having teammate Klemme to close in on.
Check 1
Check 2
1
F. Cancellara
25'33
1
F. Cancellara
57'10
2
A. Grivko
+ 34
2
I. Bibby
+ 59
3
I. Bibby
+ 35
3
S. Ivars
+ 1'00
4
M. Bouet
+ 37
4
D. Grabovski
+ 1'10
5
D. Grabovski
+ 37
5
Y. Nepomnyachsniy
+ 1'13
6
S. Ivars
+ 38
6
G. Veloso
+ 1'26
7
Y. Nepomnyachsniy
+ 41
7
M. Bouet
+ 1'28
8
B. Vaugrenard
+ 47
8
A. Grivko
+ 1'29
Grivko couldnt even keep up with Klemme over the closing stages, having to settle for a provisional 8th at the finish, ahead of the next finisher - yesterday's stage winner Sylvain Chavanel, who took 10th.
More interesting times are coming through at the first checkpoint now:
1
F. Cancellara
25'33
2
M. Keizer
+ 20
3
V. Karpets
+ 20
4
R. Taaramäe
+ 22
5
M. Fothen
+ 33
6
A. Grivko
+ 34
7
T. Kritskiy
+ 34
8
I. Bibby
+ 35
And the battle is set to commence. Angel Madrazo takes to the start ramp. Damiano Cunego is waiting.
Cunego knows he won't see Madrazo again until the finish - and first, he will need to produce a very good ride.
Taylor Phinney is flying, 18 seconds quicker than Cancellara at the first check. John Gadret is in sight for him, while Yuri Trofimov equals Cancellara's check time.
Time to cut to the finish line once again though - Timofey Kritskiy arrives in 2nd place, 1'06 behind Cancellara. Top 30 in GC is secure for him, despite a few crashes, and Im sure he will be finishing higher in future years.
At the first checkpoint, it is looking good for Andrei Amador to secure 6th overall. He has gone through in 2nd place, 13 seconds behind Taylor Phinney.
1
T. Phinney
25'14
2
A. Amador
+ 13
3
F. Cancellara
+ 18
4
Y. Trofimov
+ 18
5
R. Úran
+ 22
6
J. Popovych
+ 29
7
A. Kashechkin
+ 36
30
SL. Henao Montoya
+ 1'15
33
M. Ardila
+ 1'18
Andrey Kashechkin has also already done enough to move up 2 places to 8th overall.
And it's also looking good for Thomas Dekker. A great start puts him only 6 seconds slower than Phinney.
Simon Spilak is through the first check at 22 seconds, so already Dekker is up to 4th overall. Aleksandr Pluchkin has meanwhile clocked a time 13 seconds behind Phinney.
And through come Madrazo and Cunego.
D. Cunego
vs
A. Madrazo
25'34
24'28
+ 1'49
Madrazo is faster, but only by 6 seconds. So far so good for Cunego.
At the finish now is Martijn Keizer, and he will be regretting his slower start. After being 20 seconds behind Cancellara at the first check, he has only lost 1 seconds for the final 33km. He takes 2nd.
Peter Velits comes through for 8th place, and here is the Top 10 as it stands, with the final 20 riders left to finish.
1
F. Cancellara
1h12'09
2
M. Keizer
+ 21
3
T. Kritskiy
+ 1'06
4
S. Ivars
+ 1'14
5
I. Bibby
+ 1'17
6
D. Grabovski
+ 1'27
7
Y. Nepomnyachsniy
+ 1'37
8
P. Velits
+ 1'41
9
M. Bouet
+ 1'48
10
G. Veloso
+ 1'48
Robin van der Hugenhaben was only 35 seconds slower than Velits, so keeps ahead of him - but the Dutchman's main target was Dario Cataldo in 20th overall. But while on paper Cataldo is a worse time trialist, that's not how it turned out. Cataldo went 2 seconds quicker than van der Hugenhaben, and 20th overall is his.
Next to finish is Markus Fothen. Not his greatest time trial, taking 3rd 56 seconds down.
Taylor Phinney has gone fastest at the 2nd check - 59 seconds up on Cancellara. Yuri Trofimov a comfortable 2nd place now, at 35 seconds.
Florentino Marquez finishes 2 and a half minutes down, and will lose 18th overall to Fothen. And next will be Dan Martin - being chased home by Rein Taaramae.
Martin is 2'08 down - while Taaramae goes 3rd, beating Fothen, recording a time 27 seconds slower than teammate Cancellara. That's soon down to 4th though, as Vladimir Karpets beats him by 1 second.
Taylor Phinney is at the finish now, and it is of course a new leading time. He beats Cancellara by 1'16.
The battle for the lower end of the Top 10 has now reached the 2nd checkpoint, and Rigoberto Uran is consolidating 7th overall with a strong ride - now going faster than Cancellara.
Henao has not only been caught by Uran on the road, but both he and Ardila have now fallen below Popovych in GC - with Ardila now outside of the Top 10.
1
T. Phinney
56'10
2
A. Amador
+ 30
3
Y. Trofimov
+ 35
4
R. Úran
+ 53
5
F. Cancellara
+ 59
6
J. Popovych
+ 1'03
7
A. Kashechkin
+ 1'20
26
SL. Henao Montoya
+ 2'46
32
M. Ardila
+ 2'51
John Gadret finishes 27th, 3'44 down on Phinney - and will drop below Karpets to 15th overall.
Thomas Dekker takes 2nd at the 2nd check, 15 seconds behind Phinney, while Trofimov has taken 2nd at the finish, 47 seconds down.
Yaroslav Popovych can't quite beat Cancellara today, going 1'19 behind Phinney - 3 seconds off the Swiss. He needed to gain 38 seconds on Kashechkin today to move ahead of him in GC, but as the Kazakh finishes, we can see that the gap is only 23 seconds.
In what looks like the battle for 3rd on the stage, Pluchkin is 1 second off Amador at the 2nd checkpoint. Madrazo equals Pluchkin's time there, but how will Cunego compare?
D. Cunego
vs
A. Madrazo
56'47
56'41
+ 1'49
Cunego is continuing to pull off an incredible time trial ride. He is surely on his way to securing Tour de France victory.
Mauricio Ardila finishes in a time 3'34 slower than Phinney. It's a good ride by his standards - same time as teammate Vaugrenard - but not enough to save a Top 10 position, and he actually falls below Trofimov aswell!
It's 3rd place at the finish for fellow Colombian Rigoberto Uran, 1'06 down. And Henao goes 23rd at 3'26 - clinging on to his Top 10 position by hardly anything. He ends the day only 8 seconds ahead of Trofimov.
Andrei Amador goes 2nd - 39 seconds behind Phinney.
But with probably his best performance of the race, Thomas Dekker beats that. Only 20 seconds slower than Phinney!
It has certainly made sure of 4th overall for Dekker, with Simon Spilak finishing 1'01 behind Phinney.
Aleksandr Pluchkin confirms his position as 3rd overall, but cannot quite get 3rd on the stage - finishing just 1 second off the time of Amador.
And once again, Angel Madrazo matches Pluchkin's time.
But in the end, Madrazo's time didnt really matter. Damiano Cunego has produced a fantastic time trial to take 7th place at 52 seconds. In Corsica he lost over 2 minutes to Phinney over 28km. Today over 50km, not even a minute!
