We come to the deciding stage in Thuringen Rundfahrt. The 9.1km ITT will find the riders going uphill for most of it, it’s not clear whether the stage will suit the puncheurs or the TT’ers better, but if someone’s good at both, he should go well. Kai Reus, Linus Gerdemann and Lars Boom are the big favourites before the stage begins.
Ian Stannard, the British ITT Champion is the first big name to start off and he sets early benchmark with 16’26”
Chinese rider, Haijun Ma from Metinvest-Emirates is a great time-trialer, but not a great puncheur and that shows. He loses 5 seconds to Stannard and finishes with 16’31”
Next up is Rafael Reis. He’s not a special puncheur or a climber, but he’s clearly on a great day and he sets new best time, 5 seconds ahead of Ian Stannard.
16’21”
After the benchmark was set by Reis it remained until Jakob Fuglsang beat him by less than a second. He takes the lead with 16’21”
Another Adira rider, this time Jorge Adelbo Soto Pereira is on a great day and smashes Fuglsang best time by 5 seconds. 16’15”
The Colombian star, Nairo Quintana isn’t known for his time trialing ability, but good climbing skills help him to overcome any bad positioning on the bike setting best time, 2 seconds ahead of Soto Pereira. 16’13”
Michiel Elijzen is a talented ITT’er, but he’s climbing skills are not that great, portraying on his result at the end. 16’25” for the Dutchman, he’ll finish 21st at the end of today’s stage.
Ben Hermans is Sweedbank’s leader here and he delivers medium time of 16’30”. This time is just enough to put him 30th on the stage and at the end of the day 27th in GC.
Quintana’s best time has held well, until the young Spanish start, Ion Izaggire smashed a new time of 16’04”. 9 seconds clear of 2nd Quintana. He should go up in overall rankings at the end of the day.
The Russian, Artem Ovechkin is a very solid TT’er, but he can’t match Izzagire’s best time and finishes well off the pace, 18 seconds back to the leader, however with decent enough time to finish 17th at the end of the day. 16’23”
Vitaliy Popkov leads Metinvest-Emirates GC hopes and does a very good TT at the end. It’s not enough to beat Izzagire’s time, but he comes 2nd in 16’11”, 7 seconds back, but with good position to improve his GC standing.
Jaguar – Eritel leader, Andrew Tennant is a very solid rider against the clock and produces a solid time off 16’14” which at the end of the day is enough for Top 10.
Ignas Konovalovas leads Endura GC hopes here and delivers a time off 16’17”. Slightly disappointing for the Lithuanian, but will leave him in good position in GC.
The King of Mountain leader, Patrik Sinkewitz is not a renowned time trialer at all, however he does his best and finishes on a time of 16’13” which leads to him finishing 8th on the day. Pleasing ride by the German.
Kai Reus is the big favourite for today and he delivers so under the pressure by beating Izaggire’s best time by whole 9 seconds making him the leader for now. The clock finished first time today under 16 minutes, 15’57”.
Dietmar Mehr-Wenige is the National Champion on road, but is not great against the clock, this is his downfall today as he finishes at 16’42, this time helps him to finish at the end of the day on 13th on GC.
Carlos Betancourt, the white jersey wearer is another great puncheur, but lacking in ITT skills. However he finishes off with 16’35” which puts him 11th in GC at the end of the stage.
The Czech Jiri Hudecek is first Sram rider, while 3 other will follow shortly. Hudecek surprises a little with a very solid time off 16'06”. This is just 9 seconds off the best time, and with only 11 seconds separating them in GC, Jiri Hudecek is the virtual leader on the road.
But here comes the big favourite, the German powers through the course helped by the fanatic shouting of his fans and completely annihilates the competition with a time of 15'33! That’s 24 seconds faster compared to Reus! What a ride, will he end Rothaus dominance today?
Timothy Duggan is another Sram rider that placed very well today with 16’23” making sure he ends up on very respectable 7th on GC after the end of the stage.
The Belarusian, Vasili Kiryenka is both excellent puncheur and time trialer and his time shows that, however he can’t match Gerdemann destructive time. He finishes on 2nd, 22 seconds off the pace, 2 seconds ahead of Reus though. 15’55”
Lars Boom came here as the GC candidate for Rothaus and after dominating 5 days in a row he finds himself in best position available to win the race here. He produces a very solid time of 16'06”, but nowhere close to Gerdemann, + 33 seconds off the pace. That means Linus Gerdemann is 7 seconds ahead of Boom in the GC, only Geschke can stop him today, which sounds unlikely.
The leader produced 3 stage wins so far, a majestic performance, however he’s no ITT’er as you can clearly see. He finishes 5th last today, + 1'26 seconds back to the winner, Gerdemann and with this he looses his GC lead to his compatriot.
However the plenty of bonus seconds he gained throughout the week makes sure he finishes on 3rd in GC only 12 seconds back to Gerdemann. With a sprint finish likely tomorrow, can he win the GC on the last day ?
Linus Gerdemann
Vasili Kiryenka
Kai Reus
Jiri Hudecek
Ion Izagirre
Vitaliy Popkov
Nairo Quintana
Andrew Tennant
Timothy Duggan
Dries Devenyns
Ignas Konovalovas
