We certainly expect some shake up of the GC today. Martinez or Brandt seem poised to take over the GC lead while Soler and Hardy want to limit their losses.
***
Tennant
Rolland
Boaro
**
Kuboki
AramendÃa
Bontenackels
*
Cruz
Sebright
Fejes
Rosas
Sebright is the first rider to start and is one of the stage contenders. He sets 10'26" at the first check.
Either Sebright is having an off day or Griffith is having a great day because the latter beats his intermediate time by 2".
Another Mobil champion and stage contender, American Cruz comes in 7" down. He's surprisingly slower than his teammate Mojica.
Time Check #1
1
Griffith
10'24
2
Sebright
2
3
Mojica
5
4
Cruz
7
5
De Vries
10
Sebright is first to finish with 25'18. But Griffith follows with a sterling ride, going 3" faster! He must have eaten the right breakfast. Teammates Mojica and Cruz slot in to 3rd/4th.
Finish
1
Griffith
25'14
2
Sebright
3
3
Mojica
11
4
Cruz
18
5
De Vries
25
6
Rosas
41
Goldstein slots in for 3rd at the finish, 4" behind Griffith. But look at that, teammate Bontenackles has set an intermediate time 10" quicker than current leader Griffith! Tennant with a terrible day out going 12" slower than Bontenackles.
Time Check #1
1
Bontenackles
10'14
2
Griffith
10
3
Tennant
12
4
Sebright
12
5
Goldstein
13
Bontenackles sprints down the home straight going a blistering 27" faster than Griffith.
Tennant with a mediocre provisional 3rd, 28" down. Jakin even comes a few split seconds faster than him.
Boaro goes through at the split just 2" slower and AramendÃa also close with 6". Boaro can't match Bontenackles at the finish though and comes in 6" slower. Aramendia crosses the finish 3rd, 14" down.
Finish
1
Bontenackles
24'26
2
Boaro
6
3
AramendÃa
14
4
Griffith
27
5
Jakin
28
Rolland sets an intermediate time just 5 seconds slower than Bontenackles. He finishes 3rd, just 12" behind! Atapuma with an expected poor day out relinquishes 1'35" to Rolland.
Another suprise performance sees Kasa come in with the 3rd best time - 7" down.
2 seconds seperate Martinez or Brandt (in the favour of Brandt) who are 20" ahead of Soler at the first time check.
Martinez finsihes 4" slower than Brandt and 50" slower than Bontenackles who can surely start celebrating! Brandt is looking good to take over the GC lead.
2nd on GC Hardy concedes over 2'50 to Bontenackles and about 2' to GC favourites Martinez and Brandt.
Soler finishes 1'37 behind the stage winner and about 50 seconds behind Brandt who is your new leader!
...No, he's not! Remember Kasa's suprise performance? Well, that was enough to net him the yellow jersey with 20 seconds on Brandt and 24" on Martinez!
