55km individual time trial today. This surely will change the GC a lot as the stronger GC riders against the clock have a huge opportunity here to gain minutes on those, who prefer having climbing only.
We have three favourites for this stage and one of them could become the first French stage winner in this Tour with Coppel. But with Fiedler and Phinney the opponents are strong.
Also behind those three there are several riders, that might jump on the stage podium on a good day.
Speaking about GC riders we have mentioned Phinney. Other good time trialists are Keizer Tenorio Taaramäe Pluchkin Dekker Kritskiy Amador Úran
with more riders a bit weaker with Spilak Madrazo Intxausti Fothen Sicard Schleck
Others like Henao Montoya Kohl Marquez Monsalve
must expect a time loss here.
Kittel as first top rider on the road for this stage. The German could take a podium or even the win here and so it`s no surprise at all that he takes the best section times everywhere as also the lead in the finish. That said, Mottin is only 22s down while Viennet as 3rd is 1'09 behind.
Sergent is also an excellent time trialist. His time though is awful being almost 2min down at the 3rd section and also in the end not even being a top10 time today.
Similar counts for Bernaudeau.
Also Cornu seems to struggle. The Belgium is a similar time trialist as Kittel but is far from his time. The wind might have gone a bit up but it`s still almost no wind at all. So conditions alone can` t really be the reason. 1'36 down far from a top10 time being 7th already with several top riders to come.
Van Winden proves that wind is no excuse today as his time is better again with a stronger wind now. He can`t beat Kittel though being 51s down, which means also Mottin in 2nd had a very good ride here.
Now Coppel. Can the French take the win here? He might have hoped to be in yellow after this stage but the flat stages saw him dropping 11min in the wind. So this is not possible. He is 8s and 18s down at the first sections but then takes the best time at the 3rd. Coming to the finish it`s close but with a good end for him taking the lead by 9s.
Schädlich next as this stage is the one suiting him the most this Tour. Quite consistent he takes the 5th at the first sections and 4th at the 3rd and last section. So he is going 3s faster than Van Winden but slower than the podium riders Coppel, Kittel and the huge surprise Mottin.
Fiedler on the road. The German was having the yellow jersey for one day after the TTT win. And he surely is one of the big favourites here. The wind became stronger now at 26km/h in comparison to 9km/h for the first riders and 9-18km/h for most others becoming stronger with every starter.
He is riding faster with every section being 3rd, 2nd and 1st. The last section though was Coppel`s best and so the French keeps the lead 7s over Fiedler in 2nd and 9s to Kittel in 3rd.
Bouygues must have checked this route a lot as not only Mottin but also Martin is overperforming today. As 5th at the moment he is slower than his teammate but ahead of Schädlich, Van Winden or Posthuma as next.
So we have 2 French and 4 Germans in the top6 at the moment.
Zabriskie once was a real TT beast and actually he still is with 35 years. And his experience really shows up today as he takes the best times in all sections, but as said, the last section was Coppel`s best and the American is indeed losing 6s on him in this final section but it`s still enough. Zabriskie takes the lead a bit surprisingly by 20s! It must be said though that the wind conditions were a bit less again similar to the middle riders.
With Úran we slowly come towards the GC riders. The Colombian is an excellent stage racer but today he is losing some time it seems. Almost 2min after 2 sections.
Keizer is going much faster and with 5km to go he is almost catching Uran, who started just before. And still the Dutch is also 57s behind Zabriskie after 3 sections.
In the end Uran is coming in 3m ahead Keizer seeing Uran in 33rd 2'43 down while Keizer comes in 5th with 48s.
Phinney is the last 83 TT rider and he just reached the first section.
Couldn`t be any closer as he is 3rd but same time as Zabriskie and Kittel.
But back to the riders coming to the finish line. Fothen is coming in but the German is not having the best day. 39th with 2'54 behind. That said the amount on top time trialists makes it hard even for pretty decent riders.
Tenorio is by far the better time trialist of the strong Santander duo. Still his time could be better being only 16th in the end with a bit over 2min to Zabriskie.
Pluchkin and Sicard both have reached the first split and both will lose some time today even though they are somewhere between Tenorio and Fothen.
Phinney tough comes to the 2nd section still being 3rd but this time with a 12s gap to Zabriskie, who might surprise everyone here.
Madrazo next and actually his time is pretty well being only 40s behind his teammate and same time as Uran. Losing 2'43 in the end is acceptable in such a long TT I guess.
Schleck also is coming in and the Vesuvio rider was expected to lose a lot today but 4'40 in the end might be a bit more than hoped. He surely will need a good mountain ride.
Henao Montoya as weaker time trialist being 18s faster than him says enough I think and also Kohl was 4s faster than Schleck. All 3 though lose a lot today.
Taaramäe should have joined Martin and Mottin when watching the route closely as the Estonian is far from his expected time. As 33rd he is just a few seconds ahead of Madrazo/Uran, which is surely a disappointment.
Also Dekker can`t join the best today. Eventually the wind direction has changed a bit but neither is the wind strong nor did the change was really relevant I think. Losing ~40s every section sees him in 28th and 2'28 down in the end.
Spilak is catching Kolesnikov and still his time is far from good. Always having section times in the 50s also sees him in 53rd in the end 3'09 down losing quite a lot for a GC rider. But the mountains should suit him far more and in the end he lost less than 60s to most GC riders.
Same goes for Amador, who is just a little bit stronger but actually slower than Madrazo, Taaramae etc.
As 44th he is losing 2'55 to Zabriskie.
Phinney comes in while passing Kritskiy, which shows the strong ride the US American was having here.
In the end though it was not enough. 13s were missing to Zabriskie but still the 2nd will give him a huge gap to the other GC riders and also the leader jersey obviously.
Kritskiy being ~2min behind Phinney losing a bit today but also gaining on several opponents.
Pluchkin is a similar strong time trialist as Kritskiy and this is also shown in the result. One position ahead and 4s faster, which results in a decent ride for him.
The gaps though between most GC riders are really small as most are in between 2-3 min behind Zabriskie.
Sicard was wearing the jersey for the last time as he comes in almost 4min down dropping him to 6th in the GC.
Stage winner is Zabriskie with eventually one of his last big results. Phinney takes over the GC with Pluchkin in 2nd already 1'50 behind!
Keizer as 3rd being 2'05 back.
Also Kritskiy, Dekker, Sicard, Amador, Tenorio, Taaramae and Spilak have found their way to the top10 showing the dominance of GC riders in the top positions.
Stage winner Zabriskie as 11th then being 3'27 behind Phinney ahead of Madrazo.
The worst GC riders at the moment are Intxausti with +5'02, Schleck +5'32, Henao Montoys +5'52 and Kohl/Monsalve with +7'42/44.
So some riders really need to gain a lot of time in the mountains, which in especially counts for Schleck obviously.
