The 20km timetrial on the menu today: Robert, Bookwalter, Mullen, Tennant, Grabovski, Ma and Hacecký as the top contenders, who are just here to win this stage today.
Eastman as the best timetrialist amongst the GC contenders, but he didn't perform well yesterday. Valls leading the GC, Suaza and Karnulin maybe as the most dangerous riders for him today.
Mihaylov as a local favorite, who might have a shot at a good result. At least, he's setting an early best time, beating Hacecký on his way:
30'24" to finish the course a second faster than Hacecký
Robert as the first big favorite and he's 9 seconds faster at the split. He improves his lead even further until the finish:
18 seconds faster than Mihaylov for the new best time!
His teammate Tennant is the next stage contender on the road and it will be a close one, as he's at the same time on the first split:
new best time at the finish though, 3 seconds faster than Robert!
Ma next and just like Tennant, he equalizes the split time from Robert! Will he improve even further on the second sector?
Yes, and how he does!
New best time and he's 21 seconds ahead of Tennant at the finish. Definitely an impressive second sector for the Chinese!
Mullen with the big goal to take the stage, even more since he disappointed in San Luis earlier this month. He's going very strong on the first sector, being 9 seconds faster than Ma at the split:
and 28 seconds faster than Ma at the finish! New best time. Surely the time to beat today. What a ride.
Grabovski only 10th at the split with 33 seconds lost on Mullen. He's doing slightly better on the second sector though, but it ain't enough for a podium today:
+ 50" at the finish to place himself behind Robert, Tennant, Ma and Mullen
Kireva + 1'03" Bookwalter + 1'05" - he might have expected more afterall
Mullen leading the provisional stage ranking and we now have "just" the GC contenders to come. Still some minor threats like Eastman in particular. Maybe Roe or Tvetcov as well?
Tvetcov (GC's 22nd) not only aiming for the stage, but of course to improve signfically in the GC today. He's looking very strong on the first sector, where he's 2nd at the split with just 8 seconds lost on Mullen:
+ 51" at the finish though, provisional 6th at the finish. Still a solid result given the competition so far, but he clearly lost on the second part.
Roe (GC's 20th) as one of those climbers, who could potentially be a threat in today's stage. At least, he should fancy his chances to improve in the GC today. He's strong, 6th at the split with 10 seconds lost on Mullen only:
+ 54" at the finish as provisional 7th, right behind Tvetcov. Solid enough.
Eastman (GC's 14th) next promising GC rider in this timetrial. Definitely a bad day yesterday, so he needs to improve from now on. 5th ath the split, 9" behind Mullen. A good first sector:
+ 39" at the finish as 3rd behind Mullen and Ma! He didn't lose as much as Tvetcov and Roe on this final sector and while he misses out on the stage-win clearly, a podium looks promising. And of course, he will likely improve in the GC as well.
Cataldo + 1'38"
Salinas (GC's 6th) as someone, who should at least defend his GC position today. One of the better TT riders amongst the climbers. He's 18th at the split, 39" off Mullen. Solid, not special:
+ 1'16" at the finish, improving slightly as 16th best rider today
Local favorite Panayotov (GC's 5th) did well yesterday. He ain't too shabby against the clock, but his split time ain't promising eihter - as 59th best rider with 1'03" already lost:
+ 1'58" at the finish as 51st on the day eventually
Karnulin (GC's 4th) would love to defend his Top-5 position today. His split time ain't good though, 56" behind Mullen:
+ 1'44" at the finish, to finish slightly worse than Cataldo and Campero
Suaza (GC's 3rd with + 0.20 on Valls) next then. The climber is solid in timetrials and on a good day, he can definitely be a threat for the GC leader. He's good at the split, as 16th best rider with 35" lost on Mullen:
+ 59" at the finish as 9th! Quite a good final sector, as he almost beats Roe, who had been more than twenty seconds faster in the first half of the parcours. This may actually be enough to put some serious pressure on Valls and amongst all GC contenders, he's just been beaten by Eastman (20secs faster), Tvetcov (8secs) and Roe (5secs).
Solis (GC's 2nd with + 0.16 on Valls) does not exactly know how to handle a TT bike and it's simply about limitting the losses as much as he can. He's already 1'34" down on Mullen at the split and we should expect him lose further time on the (longer) second sector:
+ 2'54" as 113th at the finish. Definitely one of the worst GC contenders today, he will drop several places in the GC today..
Valls may hope to drop no single place at all. Given his advantage on Eastman prior to the stage, he could definitely defend his race lead for another day. Let's not forget, that Suaza did quite well though.. Valls coming at the split as 27th best rider, losing 45" on Mullen and therefore 10 seconds on Suaza.
It could be tight decision today.. Valls does not perform like he maybe could have done, as he definitely loses time on Suaza:
+ 1'22" as 19th at the finish. That's 23 seconds lost on Suaza, who's been just 20secs off in the GC!
But first, credit where credit is due: Mullen takes the stage ahead of Ma and Eastman! A strong performance from Mullen, who will be happy to finally deliver. His start into months wasn't exactly convincing, to say at least.
And this is how the GC contenders did today, with the changes in the GC already shown:
Suaza moves up to 1st, just 3secs ahead of Valls and 7secs ahead of Eastman, who did well to bounce back from his disappointing showing in the opening stage.
Salinas 4th ahead of Campero, Cataldo and Karnulin, who all performed on a similar level today. Tvetcov moves up to 8th ahead of Kebede, Anacona and Bennett (who also did almost identical on today's TT).
Roe's 8th place on the stage makes him move up to 12th in the GC, a few seconds ahead of Ruijgh now.
Panayotov drops to 14th, Manfredi to 15th, while a strong Lemus Davila moves up to 16th. Solis (like it had to be expected) as the biggest loser of the top climbers, dropping from 2nd to 19th, now almost two minutes behind Suaza. Also Bardet lost big time, which doesn't come as surprise either.
Suaza with a narrow GC-lead, but the tour continues with another key stage: a mountain stage with two Cat1 climbs and another summit finish (even though it might be the "easiest" of all three mountain stages here). Still another day, that will likely see changes in the GC.
