Decision time here in Portugal as our menu of the day exhibits a 32,9 km TT around Leiria, and the last chance for the GC men to change their fate. Above all we have the 1’’ difference between race leader Cataldo and 2nd place Úran to be resolved, but there are many more disputes to be decided, so here we go.
Ford was our first yellow jersey wearer, but by now he is one of the last riders in the GC. His time though should be one to be considered with him being one of the top TTists here. Leiria is placed in a windy region as well so if Aeolus helps this could be his 2nd stage victory.
He predictably takes 1st place with a time of 45’06, being 1’23 faster than the previous leader Liu. Let’s see who will challenge this.
His time isn’t beaten until his team mate Rogers takes to the course. The Australian champion takes 28’’ from the previous leading intermediate time, but by the finish this gap has been stretched to an astounding 50 seconds. This surely must be a tough time to beat!
As it happened in the first stage we have yet another Oz rider interfering with the results. It is Koren who has managed now to beat his 2 mates adding a 35’’ difference to take the new best time at the finish with 43’39.
By this moment the last 20 riders have started to take off. First of which is Bjelkmark, 20th in the GC. The difference between him and 12th place is circa one minute, so this should be interesting. The swede takes 3rd in the intermediate checkpoint and performs well with a time of 44’41 losing 1’02 to the current leader
no picture, sorry
Karpets hasn’t had the race he wished but today he can partially correct that. He wastes just one second longer than Bjelkmark at the 1st checkpoint. At the finish his time is pretty much consistent as he loses another 2nd to the Swedish rider, clocking 44’43. This could be enough to elevate his GC position.
Next in line is another swede: Larsson. He was of tremendous value yesterday, keeping his leader within touch of a GC top10 and with that he got to a nice GC placement as well. He’s losing 33 seconds to Koren in the intermediate banner, but finishes with a time of 44’53 to take current 7th.
After him we have Talabardon which hasn’t really had his place under the spotlight but has assisted well yesterday which has led him to this nice place in overall classification. He isn’t properly known for his TT abilities and is suffering to keep with the pace, losing 1’49 already mid-stage and will lose more than 4 min with his time of 47’17. Dropping out of the top20 isn’t unlikely for the French.
Time for De la Fuente, a valuable man in CSC’s climbing armada. As his predecessor he isn’t one to enjoy TTs, and as such he loses 1’25 at the checkpoint and will take almost 3 min more than the current leader. The clock says 46’30.
We have another lieutenant in Morton. The youngster isn’t particularly fond of TT but it’s not like he hasn’t any talent. Things don’t go very well for him though as he loses 1’15 at the intermediate thingy and finishes with 46’16.
We jump to Barredo now Amex’s leader here. The Spaniard his past his prime time but he still has managed to perform very reasonably here in Portugal. Despite not being a natural TTist he’s only losing 1’01 mid-stage and will take 45’43 to take a very respectable provisional 11th place
Man-Game tradition tells us that when it comes to TT reports Oz Cycling gets a lot of air time. O’Brien though isn’t their typical rider though, being their bet for the GC. He doesn’t have his team’s natural talent for TTs as you can tell by the 1’05 deficit he’s developed already. He’ll eventually finish 8’’ slower than Barredo.
Ibarguren has featured a couple of breakaway attempts during the race, mainly in benefit of his leader, but has fought to reach this 12th place in GC. With a loss of 1’44 at the checkpoint though, he is unlikely to retain that position. His final time will be of 47’06.
This has reshuffled our GC board, which now looks like this:
12
Jonas Bjelkmark
+ 9'59
13
Vladimir Karpets
+ 10'00
14
Gustav Larsson
+ 10'09
15
Mark O'Brien
+ 10'32
16
Carlos Barredo
+ 10'42
17
Lachlan Morton
+ 11'20
18
Antton Ibarguren
+ 11'32
19
David De la Fuente
+ 11'36
20
Yannick Talabardon
+ 12'27
We move our attention to another dispute now: the fight for the last top10 position: Betancourt (11th) vs Hoggerland (10th)
Since the dutch rider is already a better TTist than the Colombian it’s unlikely that this will change. Betancourt who has conquered the right to wear the white jersey, can’t indeed come close to eliminate the 10’’ gap which separated him from Hoogerland by clocking 47’12. The dutch though takes the same time as Morton with 46’16
only Hoogerland could be caught on camera
10
Johnny Hoogerland
+ 8'49
11
Carlos Betancourt
+ 9'55
We keep rising in the classification table to find another duel for a dispute within the top10. This time it’s Kangert (9th) vs Infantino (8th)
The Estonian only needs to obtain a time 16’’ faster than the colombian’s, which he already does by the checkpoint. In fact Kangert has already taken almost one minute out of the equation, which will certainly be too much to make up for to Infantino. Indeed the Estonian is 3rd best at the end with 44’21 against 46’05, which his more than enough for him to overtake his opponent.
Further ahead we have a three-horse battle for places 5, 6 and 7 with Nieve (7th) vs Arredondo (6th) vs Cobo (5th)
None is a great TT and all will aim to limit their losses. Cobo has 16’’ on Arredondo which has 1’’ on Nieve. Their checkpoint times are respectively 46’’, 1’46, 1’05 slower than the leader’s. This really hurts Arredondo’s chances as he will finish 46’13. Nieve goes with 45’54 while Cobo times 45’16.
Bibby has been all over the place here in Portugal, fighting both for a high GC position and fiercely interfering with many stage finales. He starts this TT 4th in GC but only 2’’ away from the last podium spot. He’s known for his TT abilities and will want to press Popovych for his place. The Ukrainian isn’t a bad TTist himself though and will surely defend this 3rd place will all his guts.
Bibby blows past the checkpoint 9’’ faster than the previous best time! The brit will finish this TT on his predecessor’s heels to claim the new best time of 43’25, 14’’ seconds faster than Koren
Popovych does a brave job to lose only 37’’ mid-stage and a total of 1’12 at the end, but that isn’t nearly enough of what he needed. His put a good show here though and his manager will be proud of him I’m sure.
And finally we reach the point of the stage where we have both our 2 first GC rider on the road. Úran is the absolute favourite to take the yellow jersey with a mere second separating him from glory yesterday. He loses only 16’’ in the intermediate banner slots in third to clock 43’55, 30’’ slower than Bibby. Will this be enough to give him green light to wear yellow tomorrow?
Cataldo is the only one who can answer that. The Italian has been impressively consistent during these 2 weeks and only gave some terrain to his Colombian rival in the last kms of yesterday’s colossal climb. That has massively reduced his chances to take the triumph, since he’s nowhere near Úran’s TT talent. He gives his best today but his efforts can go further than 45’39. Terrible news for the Italian, who not only loses the GC lead, but drops below Popovych to be left without a podium spot!! An agonizing day in Magna’s bus, but they’ve enjoyed plenty of success so far in this event, we hope they can find consolation in that.
