Last day in Denmark for the riders, the most important one: it’s up to the 30 kms that the riders will find ahead of them to decide who is going to come out on top and who will eventually have to give up their current position.
Favourites for today are clearly Yatsevich, Stannard, Robert and Tennant. For the GC, it’s likely going to be more open, depending on how wide the gaps are.
Robert is the first favourite to start today, being 110th in the GC. He immediately sets a good time in the first checkpoint, 13'45" being almost a minute faster than the previous leader Rumsas.
Renäng starts a few minutes later and he's 17" behind the French one third through the race, while immediately after him Puerta Zapata takes the start as well and he's 33" slower than the partial leader.
Meanwhile, Robert has already reached the 2nd intermediate point and he's almost 2 minutes ahead of Rumsas, continuing his good time trial.
Stelly Robert crosses the finish line in 37'57" and he's obviously first after 30 kms, with an advantage of 2 minutes and a half on Rumsas.
At the first checkpoint, we can see Perry stopping the clock with a time 5" faster than Puerta Zapata, and thus momentarily holding the 3rd place, while Renäng, who reached the 2nd time check, is now 36" behind Robert.
Renäng finishes it off in 38'45" and currently sits in 2nd place. Before then, we've seen both Perry and Puerta Zapata reaching the 2nd check, in respectively 3rd and 4th position, with times that are far from the first 2 positions. De Luna, meanwhile, is 3rd after 10 kms, 4" behind Renäng.
Puerta Zapata can't do any better than 39'32", and has to settle for a solid 3rd place for now, but I doubt he'll keep it for long...
...specifically, he keeps it for 1'50", as Perry immediately improves his time by 10 seconds and takes his seat.
Sebright has been doing very well so far: after 10 kms his time his only 6 seconds worse than Robert.
Meanwhile, De Luna has reached the 2nd checkpoint that sees him in 3rd position, 47" off Robert's still unbeaten time...
...which actually gets beaten as soon as I say that, and no less than by his teammate Stannard, with 13'35", that puts him in the lead after 10 kilometers.
Hampton, before him, snuck in 7th position, right between his teammate Perry and Puerta Zapata.
De Luna stops the clock once and for all in exactly 39 minutes, which momentarily puts him in 3rd place after 30 kms.
Sebright, who meanwhile reached the 2nd intermediate point, further loses 8" from Robert, which leaves him in 2nd position for now.
Sebright finishes it off in 38'19", losing 4 more seconds from Robert, which doesn't change the fact that his was a great time trial.
Before this, both Stannard and Hampton got past the 2nd time check, which only confirmed what we had seen 10 kms before. Stannard strengthens his 1st place, improving his advantage on Robert by 2 seconds, whilst Hampton stays in a provisional 7th place, 1'17" behind the fellow Brit.
Flens also takes off and he looks like a serious threat. He's 3rd for now, but only 2" behind Robert and 11" off Stannard.
Hampton is also done for the race, and while he did get back 1 second for Perry in the last third of the race, that wasn't enough to improve his final 6th position.
Stannard literally crosses the line 20 seconds after him, and he finishes it off with 37'41", the best time so far! The Brit has put 5" more seconds on his teammate in the last 8 kms, and I'm sure this is going to be very hard to beat.
Meanwhile, Flens keeps going strong after the 2nd checkpoint where he is 3rd, 24" behind Stannard.
Flens stops the clock in 38'17": just 2 seconds quicker than Sebright, who he lost 3 seconds from in the last few kilometers, which means he can keep his 3rd place.
At the first checkpoint, we can see 3 new riders in the provisional top 10: Poels 10th with the same time as Hampton, Poels 8th, 2 seconds quicker than Perry, and Petrus in 7th 31" behind Stannard.
Poels is the first of those 3 to cross the line, doing so in 10th place, with the same time as Puerta Zapata: not a brilliant second part of the race for him who loses 6" from Hampton in the last kilometers.
Petrus and Pauwels in the meantime remain respectively 7th and 8th after the second time check, too, both more than 1 minute slower than Stannard so far.
Pauwels calls it a day in 39'20", for now in a 7th position where he might not remain for long depending on the next rider's time...
...and in fact the ITT Namibian Champion Petrus finishes it off 11 seconds quicker than him, claiming the 7th place. We're at a point where the top 10s in all 3 time checks are exactly the same positions wise, which rarely happens actually.
It actually takes quite long for something to change significantly in those standings, which happens thanks to Stoenchev, currently 10th after the first checkpoint, 38" off the lead.
The Bulgarian big man concludes his time trial in 10th place, with the same time as Perry, after a solid second part of his race.
Interesting performance by Joeaar after the first time check: he's 7th, 30" behind the current leader, and in general very close to lots of riders.
Kasa after him also claims a position in the top 10 for now, as he is 9th 34" seconds behind Stannard, while before him Offredo had gotten past the first intermediate point with the same time as Hampton and Poels.
Offredo has been consistent throughout the stage and finishes it off in 12th for now, only 6" off the top 10.
Joeaar in the meantime has been riding well and improves his position from 7th to 6th in the second checkpoint, now being 57" behind Stannard. Kasa on the other hand stays in 9th for the moment, when both are close to crossing the line.
Joeaar can't keep the advantage he had on De Luna following the second checkpoint, and he loses it all and more in the last kilometers, finishing in 7th, 2 seconds behind the Mexican.
Kasa is next on the finish line: the Serbian really couldn't do much more than 9th at this point and he at least achieves it for now, with a time of 39'13".
Yatsevich is off, and he's doing well so far: today's favourite for both the stage and the GC unseats Stannard from the leader's position after 10 kms, but does so for a mere second. We'll see whether someone does better than him.
Before him, only 2 of the riders in the GC's top 15 could put themselves in the first time check's top 25: Handley, currently 21st, and Iturria, 24th.
Only 9 more riders need to start after the Russian: next after him is Christian, one of the other favourites for the GC. For now, he doesn't look like a threat for Yatsevich, being 6th, 18 seconds behind.
Right after him, it's Tennant setting a good time after the 10 kms mark: he's currently 4th, 11" slower than the leader. As it is, since all 3 the last mentioned riders share the same time in the GC, it would obviously be Yatsevich taking a GC win.
Montaguti on the other hand has an 8 seconds advantage on all 3, which he wastes immediately as he's currently in 19th, 40" behind Yatsevich after 10 km.
Someone that can't be ruled out for the overall podium fight just yet, however, certainly is Reijnen: the American has been pretty good in the first 10 kms, with a 9th place so far, just 29" behind Yatsevich.
While that might sound not particularly interesting, it actually has to be considered he has a 25" GC advantage on the 3 time trialists we mentioned before, and he's still in front of both Tennant and Christian GC-wise.
Yatsevich hits the 2nd time checkpoint with a great time: he's still in front but he has cemented his lead, now holding a 6 seconds advantage on Stannard.
Tennant and Christian quickly follow him, respectively 4th and 7th after the second checkpoint, with gaps of 23 and 37 seconds. They both look strong for top 5s in the GC, if not even more!
The Austrian champion Zoidl is looking like a serious threat for Yatsevich. Before this morning, the Russian had 55 seconds to make up for, which really isn't a lot in 30 kms. However, Zoidl is trying his best to limit the losses: after 10 kms he's just 19 seconds behind the first place, which means he can only count on not more than 35 seconds he can still lose, if he wants to take the GC.
Gunman had a 39" advantage on Yatsevich, and being 46" behind after the first time check, he probably has to give up his win hopes but can still hope to retain a top 5 position.
Yatsevich can now sit back and wait for the others' times after a tremendous effort: the Russian takes a lead he'll probably keep, with an advantage of 10 seconds on Stannard. He needed a perfect time trial, and he achieved it.
Christian can call it a race as well. With his 38'22", he currently sits in 6th place, and can only hope that Tennant has a worse time than that if he wants to hope in a podium...
...which, however, doesn't happen at all, as the fellow Brit stops the clock 18 seconds before him - which still is 33" worse than Yatsevich. We'll have to wait for the last 7 riders to have a final say on this.
For now, we do know that Reijnen is 10th after the first checkpoint, 1'04" behind Yatsevich, which would mean that he wouldn't keep a position on neither of the 3 time trialists, and the same goes for both Montaguti and Gunman who however probably didn't have any top 5 hopes left anyway, after the first time check.
Zoidl loses more time than he should have strived to: technically, he still is virtually 1st in the GC, but with 10 kms to go he can only lose 9 more seconds from Yatsevich, otherwise he'll have to settle for a 2nd or 3rd place, depending on how much he's behind Tennant at the end of the race.
Kinney, the leader of the race up until today, is not doing any well: only 31st after the first time check, almost 2 minuts behind. He can still be good for a top 10 but it will be hard for him to do any better than that.
Reijnen closes in 10th for now. He's 1'30" behind Yatsevich, which means he can't even keep Christian behind him in the GC.
Montaguti, before him, had closed 1'56" behind, which clearly is not good enough either, not even good enough to overtake Gunman, currently 25th, 2'17" behind.
Zoidl's, in the end, is actually a pretty good effort: he finishes it off in 8th place for the day, and 2nd for the race, as he's only 1'05" behind the Russian today, enough to keep both Tennant and Christian behind him overall.
Kinney is 30th for the day, 2'31" behind Yatsevich...
...who is now 100% sure to have won the Post Danmark Rundt, ahead of Zoidl, Tennant, Christian and Reijnen. Congratulations!
