Penultimate stage and it's time for a challenging 28km timetrial around Annecy: a flat rated parcours, featuring a hillclimb in the second half. We will surely see some gaps today.
As always the question, wether pure TT-specialists like Jungels, Haugard and Zmorka or GC-contenders like Lecuisinier will take this stage.. and of course, we have this thrilling Top-4 (all within 28 seconds in the GC), as well as a close battle from 7th to 10th!
Haugard is the first of the best TT-specialists to enter the parcours today. He sets the provisional best time, as expected. But for how long will it last?
He beats some other strong chronomen like Zmorka (+ 0.14) and Atkins (+ 0.13), so definitely put up a good time here.. but apparently not good enough for the stage-win!
Reis, who had a very disappointing and invisible race so far, surprisingly crushes Haugaurd's time by quite a margin:
New best time, beating Haugard by 25 seconds!
Prologue-winner Jungels as next in line to attack this new leader:
+ 25" as well, beating Haugard by less than a second as provisional 2nd on the stage!
No one else came even close to Reis' time, he may be well in the mix for the stage-win that way!
Shikai though looks even strong, if not stronger! The GC-favorite, who crashed out of any GC-hopes already on third day, obviously has recovered quite well from his injuries:
new best time, beating Reis by 19" for a clear lead! After his "signs of life" yesterday, this is definitely another..
And here's the provisional stage-rankings with just the GC's Top-10 to come now: Shikai with an impressive performance, as well as Reis. Both beating those chronomen by more than 40 seconds.
Haig and De Bie doing quite well, too.. looking at the riders still to come, Shikai definitely has a nice chance to take this stage!
Vasyliv (10th in the GC) is next in line. He's aiming to move up a spot or two here, as the battle from 7th to 10th is quite close:
Rk
Rider
GC
Split #1
Split #2
Finish
Leader
Shikai
7
Meintjes
+ 5'45
+ 0'31
8
Barguil
+ 6'14
+ 0'35
9
Koch
+ 6'31
+ 0'55
10
Vasyliv
+ 6'41
+ 0'27
And it's likely to be close at the finish, too. While Vasyliv is likely to go past Koch today, there's still a way to go if he wants to attack Barguil as well..
Koch just wants to limit the losses as good as possible. His Top-10 spot though ain't in danger, at least for today.. but he will definitely drop to 10th, as we look at the second split now:
Rk
Rider
GC
Split #1
Split #2
Finish
Leader
Shikai
Shikai
7
Meintjes
+ 5'45
+ 0'31
+ 0'53
8
Barguil
+ 6'14
+ 0'35
+ 1'01
9
Koch
+ 6'31
+ 0'55
+ 1'25
10
Vasyliv
+ 6'41
+ 0'27
+ 0'46
Barguil in danger to lose his 8th to Vasyliv, while Meintjes looks quite safe to defend his 7th today..
Vasyliv finished the stage off with + 1'14 on Shikai..
Barguil fought til the end and comes in with + 1'32 eventually..
Meintjes solid with + 1'22, so indeed not in danger to lose a spot today:
Rk
Rider
GC
Split #1
Split #2
Finish
Leader
Shikai
Shikai
Shikai
7
Meintjes
+ 5'45
+ 0'31
+ 0'53
+ 1'22
8
Barguil
+ 6'14
+ 0'35
+ 1'01
+ 1'32
9
Koch
+ 6'31
+ 0'55
+ 1'25
+ 1'48
10
Vasyliv
+ 6'41
+ 0'27
+ 0'46
+ 1'14
A close one for Barguil, but he did just enough to hold off Vasyliv, who will at least move one up to 9th today. Koch losing some ground prior to tomorrow's final stage, but it's still all open between those four!
Arndt (6th in GC) ain't exactly enjoying timetrials and so it's definitely just about surviving this day without an injury. There's no way he will put any pressure on Morton, who ain't too far ahead in the GC:
+ 2'36 on still leading Shikai!
Morton lost quite some time yesterday and will have to focus on tomorrow's stage up the Mont Ventoux.. he's looking quite solid today and looks set to finish this stage in the Top-10:
+ 53" to finish in between De Bie and Atkins..
But now for the Top-4 in the GC and the two most important questions today: will Lecuisinier win this stage? And will he gain those 28 seconds he's down on Lutsenko?
Rk
Rider
GC
Split #1
Split #2
Finish
Leader
Shikai
Shikai
Shikai
1
Lutsenko
-
2
Kirsch
+ 1
3
Olivier
+ 6
4
Lecusinier
+ 28
Lecuisinier is definitely the top-favorite for the stage at least. And as the first of those four to hit the road, he can put some good pressure:
Rk
Rider
GC
Split #1
Split #2
Finish
Leader
Shikai
Shikai
Shikai
1
Lutsenko
-
+ 0'23
2
Kirsch
+ 1
+ 0'19
3
Olivier
+ 6
+ 0'30
4
Lecusinier
+ 28
+ 0'05
The Frenchman indeed the fastest of those four and also in the mix for the stage, finishing in the same range as Shikai and Reis! Olivier though already dropping to 4th in the virtual rankings, while it's Kirsch, who would slip into yellow at this point!
Olivier more and more struggling now, as he lost quite some time on the more challenging sector today: he crosses the second split with already a minute down on Shikai..
Kirsch crosses this split with a 33-seconds-disadvantage on Shikai, so much stronger than Olivier now.. going strong towards yellow?
Lutsenko still has something to hold against this:
Rk
Rider
GC
Split #1
Split #2
Finish
Leader
Shikai
Shikai
Shikai
1
Lutsenko
-
+ 0'23
+ 0'36
2
Kirsch
+ 1
+ 0'19
+ 0'33
3
Olivier
+ 6
+ 0'30
+ 1'02
4
Lecusinier
+ 28
+ 0'05
+ 0'06
It's a thrilling battle, as expected: Kirsch just 3 seconds faster than Lutsenko, which would be enough to go past him in the GC though! Lecuisinier keeps going strong and at this point, him and Kirsch would enter the final stage with exactly the same time in the GC! Still a way to go today, so the Frenchman will indeed fight for both the stage and yellow now..
..and there he comes to the finish.. the stage-win will go to either him or a "comebacking" Shikai:
+ 0'16 for Lecuisinier as new 2nd! So he lost additional 10 seconds on the final sector, which is great news for Shikai, of course!
And here comes Kirsch.. will he hold on to this 27-seconds-advantage on Lecuisinier, which he had prior to the stage?
He won't!
+ 0'57 on Shikai and therefor more than 40 seconds down on Lecuisinier eventually..
Will this be his last day in yellow for Lutsenko? He approaches the finish and is likely to go for a similar time as Kirsch had:
+ 1'03 and yes, he will lose his GC-lead today:
Rk
Rider
GC
Split #1
Split #2
Finish
Leader
Shikai
Shikai
Shikai
1
Lutsenko
-
+ 0'23
+ 0'36
+ 1'03
2
Kirsch
+ 1
+ 0'19
+ 0'33
+ 0'57
3
Olivier
+ 6
+ 0'30
+ 1'02
+ 1'31
4
Lecusinier
+ 28
+ 0'05
+ 0'06
+ 0'16
Let's first honour the man, who has the biggest smile on his face today: Shikai takes out this 9th stage, a great performance and maybe the hoping, that he will also be a factor tomorrow! It was sad news to see him crashing out of the GC-contention on third day, so it's great to see him finally recover from his injuries and grabbing a stage at least.
And now for the new man in yellow: Lecuisinier did, what he was expected to do. A strong showing to take yellow by now 14 seconds on Kirsch and 19 seconds on Lutsenko! The latter may suffer on tomorrow's climb up the Ventoux, but given Olivier's losses today (+ 0.53 in the GC now), there may be minor hopes to keep the podium.
Morton still needs a huge day tomorrow, while Arndt might have just secured himself this 6th place... there's still quite a gap between GC's 10th Koch and 11th Formolo, so we may expect those Top-10 to stay the same in the final GC then..
Final Results Stage 9/
(PCM crashed right after the stage, so I had no chance to take screens from the new man in yellow.. no exports, too. Thanks to roturn for recreating the most important stage-results and GC-standings!)
