The traditional ITT concludes the Post Danmark Rundt: 29km, panflat. Crosswinds, but it will be the same conditions for every participant.
Steensen and Ignatiev as the big contenders for the GC win, Navardauskas, Cornu and Viennet in striking distance. Will Steensen upset the big favorite here?
Anyway, his time should be an indicator for all those 166 riders, who will follow on him today: 36'54" at the finish.
Quaade next, but + 0.59 at the finish Fraile then, also + 0.59 at the finish Li (see picture above) is better, but still + 0.33 as provisional 2nd
Ford definitely put up a good time, it seems.
Sterobo solid as 3rd so far, + 0.47 on Ford Dillier as the next promising TT horse then:
the stage-win must be his goal either, but he's already 15 seconds behind Ford at the second split and finishes the stage with + 0.26 as provisional 2nd! Not a bad effort for sure, but Ford's best time looks comfortable so far.
Van Winden as the next TT specialist with no more GC hopes: he's not as good as Dilier and eventually finishes with the same time as Wen Hao Li (+ 0.33 on Ford). Might be enough for a Top-10 on the stage, but nothing special for sure.
Atkins with a pretty good time, + 0.29 as new 3rd Kwok rather disastrous, + 1.23 at the finish Sergent with the same time as Li and Van Winden, + 0.33 Rolland (GC's 56th, + 4.44) looking great at the splits then. He's actually fighting for a GC result, even though a Top-25 might be the best to achieve with his current GC position:
He's 18 seconds behind at the second split and finishes the course with 3 seconds faster than Dilier eventually! The provisional 2nd with + 0.23 on Ford. That's quite an achievement with quite a lot of TT specialists already in the finish now.
Goncalves (GC's 46th, + 4.02) with an even better performance then. We have slightly less crosswinds right now, even though it's not that much of a difference really, but it may be the reason for the good times those last riders are delivering:
Goncalves only 9 seconds off Ford's time at the second split. He loses some ground on the final sector though, but finishes the stage as new 2nd with + 0.18 on a very strong Ford!
Paillot with his start now: 28th in the GC (+ 2.09) and he will aim for both the stage and the GC's Top-10. His split times ain't impressive however: 17th at the first (+ 0.21) and 11th so far at the second split (+ 0.34). Surely the stage-win is out of reach and even a Top-10 result might be questioned:
Yap. Definitely. He's + 0.54 at the finish. Might be still enough for a notable GC result, but he must have hoped for a better effort today.
Brändle (GC's 21st, + 1.11) as the first real threat for the GC's Top-5 maybe. The Austrian was one of best TT specialists in the hilly stage, even though he might have hoped to finish ahead of Viennet at least. Anyway, the chance for a great GC result is alive, as he's looking strong at the splits: + 0.16 at the first, + 0.24 at the second.
He suffers a bit on the final sector though and finishes + 0.41 at the finish. This ain't bad and might be enough for a Top-10 on the stage, but it ain't special either. Definitely no real pressure on guys like Ignatiev and Steensen in particular.
Abreu (GC's 19th, + 0.48) as another possible threat for a great GC result. He did very well in the hilly stage and given his solid TT skills, he surely will aim for the Top-5 in the GC now. Unfortunatelly for him, his split times are rather disappointing, as he's more than a minute down at the second split:
and yes, it's a rather disappointing finishing time either, as he goes + 1.46 on Ford eventually. This won't be enough for a Top-30 on the stage, but looking at all those less strong TT riders in the Top-15/10 in the GC, it might be still enough for a high GC result.
Viennet (GC's 18th, + 0.48) following soon after. The Frenchman definitely surprised in the hilly stage and he's similar strong today: 2nd at the first split (5 seconds) and 2nd at the second split (just 1 second off Ford!). The first rider to beat Ford here?
No! Ford had a stunning final sector and Viennet crosses the finish line with + 0.09 as new 2nd! A very strong performance nevertheless and the first rider to put some real pressure on the remaining TT specialists.
Like Cornu (GC's 16th, + 0.48), who had the same GC time as Viennet before the stage. His goal was to repeat his GC-victory from 2010. He did well enough in the key stage two days ago, even though Ignatiev and Steensen did better. There's still a chance for at least the GC podium, but Cornu does not look too special at the split times: + 0.16 at split #2!
Just like all others, he's losing even more time until the finish, where he crosses the line as 7th with + 0.30 on Ford!
Cornu's slower than Atkins, Dilier, Rolland and Goncalves, which may be too less for his goal to be a serious threat for Ignatiev today. No disaster either, he will surely move up the GC big time.
Quite some shabby TT riders inside the Top-15 and let's just sum up the GC's Top-10 riders for now. It will be clear, that they do not stand a chance to hold off guys like Cornu in the GC:
Jans (GC's 10th, + 0.12) finishes the stage + 4.25 as 139th Quevedo (9th) is better, but still far away with + 3.49 Yates (8th) better than Quevedo, + 3.17 as 86th eventually Watson (7th) fighting against Yates for the U25 win: + 3.17 as well! Moazemi (6th) the best of those guys: + 3.03 as 77th Modolo (4th) the worst of them: + 4.53 as 152nd
That's all significally worse than what the better TT guys were capable to deliver. They may hope for a minor Top-10 result, which would be fine enough for guys like them.
But now for the more promising GC podium contenders: Navardauskas (GC's 5th, + 0.12) as a possible threat for Ignatiev and Steensen? Well, he surely comes with some solid timetrial skills and would surely expect a Top-5 in the GC at least.
Today ain't his best day however and he's putting up some disastrous split times, actually: + 0.57 at the first and already + 1.45 at the second split!
Definitely not what he might have hoped for: + 2.24 at the finish to finish just outside the Top-50 on the stage. A horrible result for a rather promising rider. Disappointing stuff. Still a high GC result thanks to the great position he had prior to the stage.
And now for the battle for yellow! Ignatiev (GC's 3rd, + 0.12) as the big favorite. The veteran got some pressure from Viennet and he ain't fast at the first split either:
Split #1: + 0.19 as 14th!
Surely not what he came for. A better second split maybe?
Split #2: + 0.29 as 12th.. improving a bit, position wise. But significally slower than Ford, who's more and more looking like he actually rode to a stage-win here!
Steensen (GC's 2nd, + 0.04) now with his first two sectors. The local hero had an 8-seconds advantage on Ignatiev prior to the day and with Ignatiev not exactly shining so far, it looks like Steensen could actually have a shot at the GC victory today!
Split #1: + 0.27 as a disappointing 23rd!
Already 8 seconds lost on Ignatiev...
Split #2: + 0.44 as again 23rd at the split!
That's not how to put pressure on Ignatiev, who's not looking in best shape either. Even Viennet could become a threat for Steensen now. And for Ignatiev as well!
And here comes Ignatiev, approaching the finish:
+ 0.38 as 11th on the stage! That's 29 seconds slower than Viennet and just enough to finish ahead of him in the GC. Of course it's also enough for the virtual GC lead, as Lobato won't be anything near his time.
But it is enough to go past Steensen? The local favorite at least struggled so far..
..and he did so until the end:
+ 0.58 as 18th on the stage. Twenty seconds slower than Ignatiev, who will go past Steensen in the GC. It will be a great GC result for him anyway, but given Ignatiev's performance today, there could have been more for Steensen here.
Lobato del Valle one of the worst today: + 5.07 as 158th eventually. Of course, this was to be expected. He had his two days of fame, which was more than anyone had expected for him to achieve. Well done.
Ford took the stage then! A long long long lasting best time and no one was able to beat him. The Australian TT champion did, what he came for. No one really should have expected a high GC result with the hilly stage and possible crosswinds here. He improves from 167th to 164th in the final GC thanks to this victory, by the way.
He hadn't his best day and will be disappointed to miss out on further points towards the PCT rankings, but Ignatiev at least rode to the GC-win, that he was aiming for. The Russian was strong in the hilly stage, where he rode to a 5th place with his teammate Barbin taking the stage. A key result, as he gained time on a few TT guys, that did better than him today.
Like Viennet, who moved up to 2nd in the GC today! A strong performance and a superb GC result for him. The same goes for Steensen, who will make his Danish fans proud. His 3rd in the GC (12 seconds behind Ignatiev, 5 behind Viennet) is surely a great achievement, even though he might have expected a better performance today.
Cornu has to settle for a still solid 4th place, 28 seconds behind Ignatiev. It could have possible today, but he did not deliver big time. Brändle will be happy with his 5th in the final GC then.
Abreu a strong 6th on a disappointing day, same goes for Navardauskas as 7th (who surely must have expected more today though). Kuboki with a great GC result (45th on the stage), as he managed to hold off Paillot, who finishes 9th. A respectable result for the latter, but yeah, maybe slightly beneath his expectations.
Moazemi completes the Top-10 as the first puncheur then. Watson ahead of Yates, Van Asbroeck, Quevedo and Goncalves. Lobato del Vallo dropping to 24th, Rolland moving up to 25th eventually.
Kennaugh with the well deserved points-win after his stage-win and a 2nd place on the first two days (plus two days in yellow). Another succesful race for the sprinter. Mohs and Nelson with 2nd and 3rd in the classifictaion.
Politt with a nice KoM-victory ahead of Page and Domene/Rybalkin.
Watson with a narrow U25-win over Yates, as they finished on the same time eventually. Watson maybe as the deserved winner though, as he rode an aggressive hilly stage two days ago, finishing it off as an unlucky 4th eventually. The race must be considered a success for him though.
