Here we are all the way in Swaziland for the opening stage of the inaugural Tour of Swaziland. The riders face a relatively short 10km Time Trial, which is mostly flat but does have some undulations.
The favorites for the day are: Ian Stannard Andrew Tennant and Ivan Kovalev
While Przemyslaw Niemiec Gustavo Veloso and Luca Ascani
are considered to have an outside chance.
Starting us off today will be Vincent Jérôme of the combined D2 team. He won his selection for the race by taking 2nd overall in the D2 Tour of Moroc, but he should not be expected to repeat that result today.
And the first time of the day is 17’18” as Jérôme crosses the line.
It doesn’t last long though as after only 3 more riders, Andrew Tennant, one of the favorites to win today, clocks in at 16’35”. This should be the time to beat for a while, and it may even be enough to win the day.
Meanwhile, Tennant’s team mate Ian Stannard is out on the course. The time-trial ace duo of Rapha Condor have been roughly equal throughout the season, although Stannard does have a "tennant-cy" to narrowly beat his compatriot. With that said, he is the top favorite on the day.
Next to the finish line is Saul Raisin. The man from Emu Export has been predicted to put in a decent ride today, and he does just that, with a time of 16’44”, only 9 seconds off.
Back at the starting gate we have another one of the pre-race favorites just now taking off. Gustavo Veloso of Jayco – Red Bull should put in a good ride.
As Veloso begins, Ian Stannard is just crossing the line. The clock reads 16’35”, the same as his team mate, but the time keepers will place him in 2nd.
After a short lull, we now have Veloso coming to the finish line. He finishes with a time of 16’37” to take 3rd, merely 2 seconds behind the leaders. A very good ride, and his manager can’t be disappointed.
Now on course we have the young Aussie Luke Durbridge, and the Italian prospect Mattia Cattaneo. Both are hot talents for the future, and decent enough time-trialists in the present. It will be interesting to see which one comes out on top.
Also on the road is favorite of the day Ivan Kovalev of Team CSC – Orbea.
We look at the clock here as Durbridge approaches the finish. He will set a time of 16’50”, which is good enough for a provisional 6th.
And shortly after Durbridge comes Cattaneo. Will he top the other young star? 16’48”, yeah he will by 2 seconds.
Not too long after, Ivan Kovalev comes blasting through the finish line. He won’t be taking the win today, however, as his time registers as 16’36”. Just 1 second off the pace, but good enough for a provisional 3rd.
We also have Daniel Moreno of Jayco – Red Bull finishing. While he is here to work for John Gadret, he will surely be able to score some points of his own. But will he be able to compete with these top time-trialists today? …Moreno? Moreyes! 16’46”, just behind Saul Raisin.
As Moreno finishes, the team leaders are beginning to line up at the start house. Here is the first of them, Pirelli man Andres Saldarriaga. Not really a noted time trialist, he will look to limit his losses.
Back to the finish line, we have Lucasz Bodnar. The D2 Polish time trialist from Team Finnair – Nordea recently won the Tour of Moroc to guarantee his spot on the D2 combined team. Yes, he won that race, "bodnart" today, as he slots in at 10th, with a time of 16’48” (same as Cattaneo).
Next to finish is Jonas Bjelkmark. He’ll be Theo Eltink’s main man later on, but since he is a good time-trialist, he should be able to put up a good result today. He stops the clock at 16’51”, respectable, but not quite in the top-10.
Shortly after is Vespa’s Luca Ascani. He was predicted to be competitive for the win today, and he does put up a good ride, completing the course in 16’41”. This puts him in 5th, behind Kovalev, and 6 seconds slower than Tennant.
With most of the team leaders currently on the road, the top-10 looks like this:
Andrew Tennant 16’35”
Ian Stannard + 0”
Ivan Kovalev + 1”
Gustavo Veloso + 2”
Luca Acani + 6”
Saul Raisin + 9”
Daniel Moreno + 10”
Eduard Vorganov + 11”
King Lok Cheung + 12”
Mattia Cattaneo + 12”
And back at the start line we have Mikayil Krasnoperov of Emu Export taking off, while we can see Przemyslaw Niemiec lining up at the start gate behind him. Both are respectable time-trialists and are expected to put in good rides today.
Meanwhile, on course we have Theo Eltink of Saab, Zakayo Ndbri of Rapha Condor, Shaun Lewis of Oz, and Matteo Carrara of Vespa. These four are all climbing specialists that will probably not be doing anything spectacular today, but trying to limit their losses to one another.
Here we have John Gadret of Jayco – Red Bull preparing to start, as one of the last riders of the day. He’ll be keeping an eye on Alarcon, and trying to put as much time into him as he can, if he can.
And after Gadret takes off, here we have him. The man himself, Jose Alarcon. Being the top favorite for the race overall, he will be the last rider on the road, but he is not as great against the clock as he is in the mountains and will likely not factor into the race today.
Here is the first of the team leaders to cross the line. It is Andres Saldarriaga of Pirelli, with a time of 16’56”, 21 seconds off the lead. Not bad considering he is not a specialist here, and it seems like a time under 17’00” should be acceptable.
After Saldarriaga is Shaun Lewis, the leader of the Oz team. He comes home with a time of 17’06”, 31 seconds back.
Zakayo Ndbri follows shortly after with a time of 17’05”, just 1 second faster than Lewis, and 30 seconds off the pace.
Here is Theo Eltink, the leader of Saab – Scania. He stops the clock at 16’53”, a respectable time for him, and his team manager should be content.
Matteo Carrara comes home with a time of 17’08”. He wasn’t expecting to win today, and I think he should be happy enough to only lose a few seconds to his competition.
Francisco Colorado of CSC is next to the finish line. He puts up a time of 16’51”, which is not bad at all. He is 16 seconds back.
And the heavy-hitters are beginning to come in now. Here is Mikayil Krasnoperov. A decent time-trialist, he stops the clock at 16’41”, which is a very good time that will put him inside the top 10.
We heard reports that Przemyslaw Niemiec was flying through the course, but without an intermediate check it couldn’t be said for certain just how well he was doing. Apparently though, the Polish TT champ is having the ride of his life, and he finishes with the new best time: 16’29”, a whole 6 seconds faster than Andrew Tennant! With only a couple more riders left on the course who aren’t noted time-trialists, this should be good enough to win it.
Here is John Gadret, coming up the final hill before the finishing stretch. We can assume that he won’t be beating Niemiec, but how much time will he lose? And what will be the difference to him and Alarcon?
Here’s the star of Aker Solutions at the base of the same final hill. We can see the 1 kilometer to go banner in the distance.
And John Gadret crosses the finish line. His time reads 16’43”, 14 seconds behind Niemiec and a provisional 8th on the day. A very respectable ride from him, his team manager should be pleased.
Not long after comes the final rider on the course, Jose Alarcon. His time is 16’54”. He has lost 25 seconds to Niemiec, and 11 to Gadret. Can he make it up in the mountains? We’ll see.
So Przemyslaw Niemiec takes an impressive win on the day. While ordinarily one would have expected Andrew Tennant or Ian Stannard, the more noted time-trialists, to win today, we may deduce that the few hills must have played a deciding role. Or was it just a “sub-stannard” performance from the Rapha boys?
The other race today was for the GC. While Niemiec takes the early lead by a good margin, there is an interesting fight going on behind him. Gadret and Krasnoperov are separated by only 2 seconds, with Alarcon a further ~10 seconds behind them. Colorado, Salguiero, and Eltink are winning the fight for the best of the rest with around 15 seconds to the likes of Ndbri, Lewis, and Carrara, while still being in close contention with Jose Alarcon.
