Today’s stage will be yet another crucial one for those who are targeting the overall win in this race. It is a 26km team time trial with one time check half way through. It is far from a simple course, however, with constant undulations that will test some of the pure rouleurs. The biggest difficulty comes just after the start – an uncategorised hill about 1.8km long with an average of 7% and a maximum gradient of 11.5%.
Soler took the victory yesterday, ahead of his team leader Anton and they are thus the top 2 on GC. CSC will have to pull out something special, however, to defend against the much better TTT trains of the other top 6 riders overall – particularly Hollister, who are considered one of the biggest favourites for the stage win today.
First out on course today, however, is Proximus. They have no GC hopes and only one time trialist, Hacecky, so don’t expect a great time from them. They are also likely to struggle on the slight climbs, as yesterday showed.
And their time through the 13km time check is 22’48”. It doesn’t seem likely that this will be a particularly good time, but at least it gives us some sort of idea of how long this is going to take.
Our second team out of the start gate is Meiji. They have a couple of decent time trialists, such as the Japanese time trial champion Beppu. After Sano’s aggressive ride yesterday he sits in seventh place, and if Meiji can keep him well placed after today then they will likely be pleased.
And they go through the first check in 22’19”, much more respectable than Proximus’ time. Sano will have to hope that they can keep this pace up and keep him close to the other GC contenders.
Our third team on the road is Aker. They don’t have a great TTT line-up but they still should avoid losing too much time today. This is especially important after both of their climbers Agudelo and Vasquez lost large chunks of time yesterday. Whatever happens today they will have to ride aggressively in the really steep stuff to make time back.
And their time through the first check is good – 22’16”. That puts them 3” ahead of Meiji and on top of our leaderboard after only 3 teams.
Next up is Cerne, who are lead by the double Brazilian champion Nicacio. He has a couple of good support time trialists in this team, such as Oliveira and Viviani, but he will be providing most of the firepower. He currently sits in 11th after losing a bit of time yesterday, and he will be hoping to make some of that back, maybe even moving into the top 10.
And things are looking good already through the first check as they set a new benchmark time of 22’09”, which will be tough to beat!
Next up is WWE, who aren’t really cut out for this as a team. Their leader Kessiakoff is a good time trialist and Hoste isn’t too bad, but other than these two there isn’t a lot of firepower here. Kessiakoff sits in fifth place overall and will mostly likely be looking to limit his losses.
And they go through the first check in 22’31”, 22” down on Cerne’s best time and only better than Proximus so far.
Our sixth team out today is the team of the top two riders overall, CSC. As already said, they really lack a depth in time trialists, with Anton being the only capable one here. This was made even worse with the loss of Maksimov yesterday, who was outside the time limit. As such they are the only team with 6 riders here. Because of this most people are tipping Soler to lose his jersey today.
And through the first check, it seems that most people are right as they only manage a time of 22’47”, only 1” better than Proximus. If CSC do lose it today, they probably won’t be too disappointed because that means they don’t have to defend the jersey for too long.
Our third last team out are Emu Export. Some people have tipped them as a good chance for the win today. Though they lack some star power in their TTT line-up, Van Ooijen and Ziegler are both certainly capable. Both of them have been aggressive early in the race, so it will be interesting to see if they can do anything. Certainly their team leader Navarro, who sits tenth overall, will be hopping they can help him to gain some time.
Emu put in a time of 22’11”, just 2 seconds slower than Cerne, which is a great result and they will be hoping to set Navarro up well with this ride.
Our next team out is Focused Cycling, lead by young Frenchman Sicard who already has a commanding lead in the young rider jersey competition. Together with Morizot, they should be capable of a decent time, which will please Sicard, who sits fourth overall, only 20” behind Soler.
And a big surprise as Focused set the new best time through the first checkpoint with a scorching 21’44”, 25” better than Cerne’s previous best! Sicard could be riding in to yellow here.
The final team out on the road is Hollister. Between 3rd place overall Kiserlovski and TT specialist Dempster they have been attracting a lot of attention for today’s stage, and given that Kiserlovski is the best placed rider not from CSC, he might be able to put himself in the yellow jersey. He will have to do better than Focused Cycling’s time, however.
They haven’t managed it, but they do set the second best time of 21’57”, 13” down on our leaders today. They will hope to ride really well across the final half of the course. Here are the standings through the intermediate time check:
Focused
21’44”
Hollister
21’57”
Cerne
22’09”
Emu
22’11”
Aker
22’16”
Meiji
22’19”
WWE
22’31”
CSC
22’47”
Proximus
22’48”
And now on to the finish to watch Proximus cross the line. Uugunbayar and Claes are both barely holding on, and they drop just before the line.
Their time is 43’56”, indicating that the favourites should be aiming for a time somewhere around the 42’30” mark.
Our next team through is Meiji. They were hoping to perhaps put some time into the other teams and keep Sano in the top 10. They have dropped their sprinter and stage 1 winner Manan but carry on regardless.
And their time is a respectable-looking 43’03”, which will surely be good enough to keep Sano in the top 10 and thus in contact for a strong GC position.
Behind Meiji on the road is Aker. They had a 3” lead over Meiji at the first check. They have also dropped their sprinter, Jørgensen and yesterday’s breakaway rider Le Bon is struggling at the back of this group.
They finish with the exact same gap over Meiji, 3 seconds. Thus they are our new best time with 43 minutes flat.
Our fourth team here are the team that were third best through the first check, Cerne. Both Insausti and Antunes have been dropped, but more importantly Nicacio has gets on the front on his own and he rides the final 5km solo, not accepting help from his teammates. They are clearly blown and just holding on to him.
And what a time it is! 42’29” is easily the best so far, and all the credit for that goes to Nicacio. It remains to be seen how the other teams, particularly Hollister and Focused, reply to that.
A far less impressive time through the first check was set by WWE. They have dropped Polito and Becerra is struggling, but Kessiakoff pushes on.
And their time is 43’30”, which means that they rode quite a slow second half compared to a lot of the other teams here. This is a real shame for Kessiakoff and means he is likely to have quite a gap to the leader to make up after today, whoever it may be.
Speaking of leaders, the current yellow jersey’s team is out on course, CSC. Remember that they are one man down. With Blanco barely holding on, they have likely had to stay together just to ensure that five riders finish together.
And their time is 43’31”, meaning that they reduced their gap to WWE by 15” in this final section. This was pretty much the best result that they could have hoped for under the circumstances.
Next through is the team who were fourth best at the first check, Emu Export. They have dropped De Fauw and carry on without him, but their lack of time trialists seems to be really showing because they don’t look too fast here.
And they manage a time of 42’58”, which is the second best so far, but is still 29” off the time of Cerne.
The next team, Focused Cycling, were the best ones through the first check and are looking to ride Sicard into the yellow jersey, and will need to put in a good time. They lead Cerne by 25” through the first check, so this should be a magnificent time. Elissonde was dropped and Skujins is struggling to hold on at the back of the group.
The clock stops and the crowd releases a breath. Their time is 42’29”, just 1 second better than Cerne. Clearly they went out fast and suffered in the second half, but they still lead.
The final team out will be hoping to challenge their time. Hollister leader Kiserlovski started the day 8” ahead of Sicard, so all they need to do is avoid losing 8” on the French team in order to seize yellow. They were only 13” slower than Focused at the first check and as we have seen their second half was rather unspectacular. So can the Croatian rider take the lead here?
Their time is 42’33”, just 5” slower than Focused managed! This puts Kiserlovski in the race lead by a mere 3 seconds! This is shaping up to be a thrilling first week with our third race leader in three days!
But the day goes to Focused, which is a result that not many pundits would have predicted before today.
And here are the final times in a convenient table format.
Focused
21’44”
42’28”
Cerne
22’09”
42’29”
Hollister
21’57”
42’33”
Emu
22’11”
42’58”
Aker
22’16”
43’00”
Meiji
22’19”
43’03”
WWE
22’31”
43’30”
CSC
22’47”
43’31”
Proximus
22’48”
43’56”
Looking at the jerseys, it is the general classification that has become the most interesting with Kiserlovski taking the leader ahead of Sicard and then his teammate Szmyd. Sicard is of course in white, and I will not be pointing that out every day from now on given he already has more than six and a half minutes on anyone not in his team. Hollister maintain their lead in the team category and there were no sprint or mountain points on offer today, so Serebriakov and Karagobek keep their respective jerseys. Hollister thus lead in three of the five categories.
