TTT in the Tour de France to end the first week. Only 13km, hence time gaps might not be as big though in especially the fight for the Maillot Jaune is thrilling. I-Gen the favourite today and Coppel is surely in range to get the jersey back while RBC with actual leader Phinney are a bit lower rated. Though it`s Phinney and a TTT with Phinney always is good.
Then other big GC favourites such as Schleck, Kritskiy, Sicard all have solid support while the main struggle can be seen at Bouygues for Taaramae. With Martin no longer in the race one rider less and one of the best TTists this is a big loss.
Early on Aker is leading the the half time split. Jayco is following with 17s but already lost Olman hence their time is not expected to get really better and indeed they even drop back behind Pokerstars and Grieg in the finish.
Aker then beats them all again by 6s and also eBuddy +8 and Valio +22 can`t go faster. Though it shows so far that 6 teams are in a 22s range and this is about the expected time gain you can make.
Makes the battle for seconds and the GC lead even more exciting.
But now onto the live pictures.
Gazelle was 1s faster than Aker at half time. Being led by their two TT National Champs Koren and Kangert, they reach the finish with 6 riders and the new best time!
13s faster than Aker and a big mark!
Just behind them Metinvest and Ignatiev is leading them a lot. Though their time isn`t that good. 25s at the split and another 4s in the finish.
Bpost then going pretty solid. 3rd and +3 at the split and 4th in the finish. Though the loss became bigger on the flat half. 19s in the end but still okay for Wellens.
Pendleton`s leader Dombrowski might not be the best time trialist. Therefore the TT is more than solid. +13s at half time and improving until the finish being +12 to Gazelle, which is the provisional 2nd position.
Tinkoff`s chrono machines are flying past the Flamme Rouge and still 8 riders! Pace not that high or all being able to follow the high speed train?
Maybe a bit of both!
They come in as first but just s.t. as Gazelle. So let`s see how the other top teams are going to show.
Orange also with 8 riders left late in the race. Though the later already look exhausted and it`s not going as smooth.
Still 3rd in the finish +12 only. Though faster teams are coming already! Not Aegon though who come in as 5th and 3s slower than Orange.
Movistar`s Abal not with his best race so far. Surely needs a better second half of the race. Today would be a good end of week 1 and being 3rd in the finish +12 is decent.
No surprise Phinney is doing the most work for RBC! Though he can`t go full speed as otherwise he won`T finish with 5 riders.
5th and +5 at halftime, where Gazelle still is in the lead on the "hillier" part. Though RBC balanced their effort nicely and go fast until the end. 2s faster even than Tinkoff and we have a new leader.
Vesuvio going around the last corner and 6 riders left. Schleck one of them though which is most important. They did well on hte first part being 5th there. They lose a bit towards the end but still 7th and +15. so Schleck is avoiding a big loss here.
And actually also Bouygues perform a lot better than many might have thought. With 7 riders only they still finish with 6 riders together and just +23s! So losing only a couple seconds on all others.
Team I-Gen as last and they were showing their strength at halftime where they did beat the best time by 1s. Only team to do this since early starters Gazelle! Though later lost it on the 2nd part then.
I-Gen though is on another level and they are just only now losing 2 of their 8 TT beasts with a bit more than 1km to go.
And indeed they keep the pace until the end. New best time. Winning todays TTT. But just 2s ahead of RBC and hence Phinney keeps the lead. Might be arguable, which would have been better seeing the leader`s team needs to work a lot.
All the top GC riders though within 1min still. So everything wide open.
