A 52.9km TT for the specialists today. Mullen and Cataford are the big favourites, but more of interest is the GC fight - can Vasyliv drag his way back into contention, and how will Herklotz and Kudus compare?
Korsaeth was the first of the day’s favourites to set a time - coming through in 1’17’46 to set a benchmark for the rest to aim at.
Rekita would be the next to move into the lead with an impressive time of 1’17’29, beating Korsaeth at every checkpoint.
Further down the course and Van Niekerk is up on the Pole by 23 seconds at Checkpoint 3! He’d lose a little in the final section, but become the new leader in a time of 1’17’07.
Not that it’d count for much, as Mullen would be up by 16 seconds at Checkpoint 1, then 17 seconds at Checkpoint 2. He made that 25 seconds by the third checkpoint, and would take the lead in a time of 1’16’24 - a 42 second lead!
Lammertink was one of those who would have hoped to contend today, but he wasn’t at his best - +16, then +21 and +30. He’d reach the finish in a provisional third, but 50 seconds behind Mullen.
Enger is on course now, and is surprisingly strong at the first checkpoint, slotting into 2nd place (+14). He’d fall off dramatically as the stage went on though, ending up 46 seconds behind at the finish in a provisional 4th.
We have a shock though, as Wurtz takes the lead at the first intermediate by 1 second! He’d be up by 6 seconds at the second intermediate as well, then 10 seconds at the third. His finishing time would 1’16’06, a new provisional lead.
The GC top 10 were now on course, lead by Heymes - who would settle in 20 seconds down on Wurtz at first, finishing 2’05 down on Cataford who would pass him in the finishing straight.
Next up was Cataford, who would set an amazing time at the first checkpoint - 19 seconds up on Wurtz. He’d grow that advantage to 40 seconds at the second checkpoint, and then 1’03 at the third. His finishing time of 1’14’50 (Wurtz +1’15) would surely be hard to beat.
What’s really of interest here is the GC battle. At Checkpoint 1 Vasyliv is +27, Kudus +37, and Herklotz a disappointing +53.
Checkpoint 2 times are now in for the GC riders. Vasyliv is +43, Kudus +1’01 and Herklotz +1’29 - so no change of lead yet, but Herklotz under serious pressure.
While we waited for Carthy to finish, we also got to see the Checkpoint 3 times. Vasyliv +1’00, Kudus +1’26 and Herklotz +2’06 - so narrowly hanging onto his lead for now!
Carthy would end up losing 4’23 on the day, finishing in a provisional 39th. However, he managed to avoid dropping behind Cataford so will start tomorrow in 8th place.
Mohoric would narrowly miss out on catching the Brit, finishing 2’45 down in provisional 10th and remaining in 7th place overall.
Next up was Potocki - provisional 13th in +2’54 for him, and he will remain in 6th place overall.
Kung comes through next, just in front of Potocki in a time of +2’50 - maintaining his hold on 5th, but not really threatening Ndayisenga.
Speaking of Ndayisenga, he’d be caught by Vasyliv at the line. +3’07 for Ndayisenga, while Vasyliv moves into a provisional second place at +1’13. He now waits to see how much of his 3 minutes to Kudus and 3’45 to Herklotz he’s gained back.
Kudus is emptying every ounce of his strength here as he pushes for the line. He ends up in a provisional 5th in 1’45, so nothing to really worry about losing only 30 seconds to Vasyliv. Now we wait for Herklotz…
Herklotz needs to finish with 2’30 of Cataford to stay in the lead, and it’ll be tight - he was 2’06 down at the last check. For comparison, Vasyliv lost 13 seconds in the final section and Kudus lost 19 seconds. Herklotz needs to lose no more than 24 seconds, can he do it? No! He ends up in a time of 2’37 and 11th on the day, so Kudus takes the GC lead by 6 seconds.
PCM crashed after the podiums, so the results are incomplete as a result - my apologies!
