The concluding mountain timetrial is ready to start and 10kms of pure climbing should make for a tough and also crucial stage!
Arroyo looked dominant in the opener and he's certainly the top-favorite today.. Moreno (+ 0.22) and Menchov (+ 0.26) will be his most dangerous and maybe only competitors, as the fourth-placed escapee Adamou is already 46 seconds behind and not amongst the best climbers here.
We'll start the report of this ITT with an overview of what happened earlier in the day. We'll then have a look at the most promising climbers, who lost time in the opener, but may battle for stage-honours and/or the Top-10/15. So, the first half of the peloton already crossed the line, here's the provisional stage-ranking:
Francisco Colorado finished as best in his team as 20th, losing 2'10" on Arroyo. The team had some bad luck with it's captain Bustamante (crossed the line as provisional 4th in meantime) crashing, so Colorado needs to deliver:
1st with 29'46", beating Di Gregorio by eight seconds! A good performance.
We already enter the Top-20 and Yasmani Martinez is one of the next strong climbers, who lost too many time (17th, + 1.54) in the opening road race. Martinez can both climb and timetrial, so he's rated as one of the more promising riders today:
1st with 29'42"! A close one, beating Colorado by four seconds only.
Julián Rodas (15th, + 1.54) may - just like Martinez - hope for getting a chance to make the GC's Top-10 (+ 1.33), so his new BT could become valuable for both him and his team:
1st with 29'41", beating the former stage-leader Martinez by a small margin!
Before we have a closer look at the Top-10-riders, here's the provisional stage classification with only ten riders remaining:
Daniel Eduardo Silva (GC's 10th, + 1.33) will certainly aim for defending his Top-10-placement or even improve. And he puts up a great new BT:
29'36" and the assurance that he will at least make the Top-10 in this race!
Adrien Niyonshuti (9th, + 1.33) has some pressure, now that Silva set the new BT just a few metres ahead of him! And the African struggles to ride as strong as Silva did:
+ 27" on Silva as provisional 6th! So he may even drop out of the Top-10..
John Kronborg Ebsen (8th, + 1.20) was one of yesterday's good finishing domestiques. Will he manage to defend this good position? We don't know yet, but he does quite well, riding a similar time like Niyonshuti:
+ 28" as 7th so far!
Mike Nieve (7th, + 1.20) will aim for more than just defending his position. He's only 18" behind a possible Top-5-finish and so needs to put some pressure on the following riders:
+ 18" on Silva as provisional 5th! That's not exactly what he might have hoped for.. Still enough to hold off the riders behind him.
Zakayo Ndbri (6th, + 1.10) will have the same goal as Nieve - entering the Top-5 with a strong ITT! And he does climb quite well today, even though he misses the new BT by four seconds:
+ 4" as new 2nd!
Gustav Larsson (5th, + 1.02) did well in the opening stage, surviving the stage amongst the best climbers here. He's a well-known timetrial-specialist as well, but of course this won't matter too much in a TT like today's.. And so it ain't surprising that he struggles to finish amongst the best today:
+ 36" as provisional 17th! Looks like he may drop a GC-position or two..
Yesterday's escapee and surprising high finishing Vassilis Adamou (4th, + 0.46) faces some tough competition in this battle for a Top-5/10, his only goal is limit the losses! He can't compete with the better climbers today, but thanks to his great performance in the opener, he may at least secure a Top-10-placement:
+ 1'06" as 33rd.. the KoM-shirt he's wearing today will certainly be gone though!
Next in line is one of the top-favorites and it's time to focus on the battle for the overall win! Denis Menchov (3rd, + 0.26) will at least try and go for GC's 2nd (+ 0.22). The Russian veteran may know that he would need a extraordinary performance to catch race-leader Arroyo though:
+ 6" as 4th! That ain't the needed dominance, unless still leading Silva will win this TT eventually..
Daniel Moreno (2nd, + 0.22) doesn't know about Menchov's problems, as we don't have an intermediate split here.. but it's definitely a great chance for him to secure his 2nd:
new BT: 29'23"! He beats Silva by 13 seconds and puts pressure on Arroyo..
David Arroyo proved his strength in yesterday's stage and only very few people would expect him to lose 22" on Moreno today..
And he even comes close to catchin up to Moreno! Arroyo keeps dominating here in Lesotho and crushes the opponents by 22" today! So no 22 seconds for Moreno, but for Arroyo. Second stage-win!
What a dominant win for Arroyo: two stage-wins and he cleans up the jerseys (yellow, green, polka dot) as well!
His manager would have hoped for him to deliver like that from the beginning of the season on (if only he would take care)..
So let's have look at those, who do care: Moreno and Menchov complete the podium. No chance against Arroyo, but also no problems to secure their very good GC-positions.
Ndbri jumps onto 4th, ahead of one today's strongest: Silva completes the Top-5 thanks to a great ITT!
Nieve (7th) adds valuable points for Barcelona and Larsson (7th)/Ebsen (8th) did well, too.
Adamou lost some positions, but his 9th place should be more than expected. He finishes ahead of MTN's duo Rodas/Niyonshuti. No bigger points for Boeing (Colorado, 14th), Magna (Naibo, 19th) or HTC (Serry, 33rd), with the latter suffering from Morton's bad luck in the opener.
