The first of three time trials should bring us the first bigger selection when you ignore the split on the 2nd stage.
As it is a team time trial the gaps shouldn`t be as big as on the individual time trials, but still it will be a good sign of the team strength before the mountains.
We don`t have a clear favourite here as no team is absolutely spicked with time trialists but Oz Pro Cycling is always a good bet when coming to time trials even though their best in Ford, Rogers or Olman are not here.
Bintang is the first on road after a disastrous 2nd stage with all riders on the wrong side of the split including their GC rider Krasnoperov of course.
And the section times don`t look too well which means that he has to be aggressive in the mountains to gain the time back. His problem could be the hilly stages. A terrain he really doesn`t like.
Meiji is next with GC rider Stetina. The US American is the fan`s biggest hope for a top result. But just like Krasnoperov he is a pure climber and even weaker against the clock. Also the team is not showing a very good performance but at least they gain a bit on Bintang as they finish 9s ahead.
Team CSC as next and also Anton was on the wrong side of the split. And as the team is definitely one of the weakest in time trialing with their best time trialists not here it`s no surprise that they finish as provisional last and 13s down to Bintang. Bad start to this race for Anton.
Amex without a real GC rider has no real ambitions here while the ITT`s are more aimed with Gretsch.
But they take the provisional lead and we get bigger gaps now as they beat Meiji by 23s.
Alstom - RBC is losing their 6th and 7th men with ~5km to go just like all the other teams. This might seperate the average teams and the better teams today.
Another decent performance as they finish in between Amex and Meiji as 2nd.
Boeing as next team and despite not having very strong time trialists neither, they have a very nice ride.
What a time in the end! The obvious lead being 39s ahead of Amex!
And already 1'24 ahead of CSC, which shows, that some GC contenders will lose quite a lot time today.
Volkswagen is already down to 5 riders with more than 8km to go as Zurita and Zabel lost contact early. Not the best situation for Ratiy but then again he, Haugard and Brändle show a great ride as they were 1st at the first section and 2nd on the next. But down to 5 riders they can`t go full speed in the last sector. But thanks to a great fight by Castaneda and Sieberg, who kept contact until the end they take the lead. 21s faster than Boeing and almost 2min on Anton. More than one minute on Gadret or Krasnoperov. So a nice ride by them.
Sauber next and as we already see the next team closely behind it`s obviously a weak time. Still better than Bintang, CSC, Meiji or Alstom. 1'02 behind Volkswagen though.
The team behind is ANC and one reason for the fast pace is the high speed in the first two sectors as they take the 1st place after 2 sectors at the moment. But with 11km to go they are already down to 5 riders.
Still they keep up a good pace they beat Volkswagen by quite a lot. 17s faster and the provisional lead.
Hollister with defending champion Kiserlovski and race leader Serebriakov comes next. And they do decent. 2s down to Volkswagen in 3rd place right now but gaining more time on some other favourites.
Team WWE was one of the lucky teams with their GC riders on the good side of the split. And also today they show a strong performance as 3rd at the intermediates and provisional 2nd in the finish behind ANC but 6s to Volkswagen and 8s to Hollister. So not losing any time to the GC riders so far.
airBaltic is fully focussed on the sprints and they show it impressively today. 3rd last just ahead of Bintang.
Sram next and they also struggle with losing 2 riders early. Still the rest is doing a good job which moves them within the same time as Volkswagen.
Adira next and their time is not too bad. Same time as Hollister even though their strongest climber Cabreira is losing two more seconds as he was only the 6th men in the finish.
Prio Porto with Nicacio on the road. The Brazilian as one of the best time trialists of the GC riders. Decent team performance today as they finish somewhere in the middle today. Losing ~15s on Kiserlovski or Ratiy but gaining more than a minute on Stetina, Krasnoperov or Anton.
Repsol next and with 12km to go they are down to 5. But the fast pace at least delivered them the 1st position at the 2nd section.
That`s a surprise. They also take the lead in the finish without having the strongest time trialist. Great position for Kashechkin now who gains 17s on WWE and more than 20s on the others.
Great team work as well as the 6th and 7th rider always fought back to help out.
Mobil with Vrecer next. Average ride from them as well. 40s down. Vrecer still with good chances for a top10.
Cisco next and almost the same for them. 47s for them and also somewhere in the middle.
Oz with some ambitions today. Peraud has a horrible season and will need to gain a lot of time as he is not the strongest climber. Today is a good start. They can`t take the lead by the surprising Repsol team but they are just 2s down as 2nd.
Lukoil as final team. Can they beat Repsol to take the win?
No! They are 54s down somewhere in the middle.
So Repsol takes it which is a great success for them. The big winner of course is Kashechkin today as he is in a super position now for the GC as best placed GC rider in 3rd.
Serebriakov keeps the lead ahead of Greipel though due to the bonus seconds they have earned so far.
Also the Oz, WWE, Volkswagen, Prio and Hollister leaders with decent TTT`s here while the biggest losers are Anton, Krasnoperov, Stetina and Gadret, who need to gain lots of time in the mountains now.
