Mountain time trial and with 36km in length, it`s an incredible long one making non climbers suffer for quite some time.
The first 10 kilometers still rather flat but then a steady climb should favour the big climbers. Could be interesting to see if a proper stage racer has an advantage over the pure climbers but in the end uphill skills clearly should be most important.
GC wise Schelling has opened a rather comfortable gap to Barguil and both of them already quite a bit ahead of the others. Hence pressure is on for several riders, in especially Kiserlovski at 5'30, Pinot 5'51 or Berhane at 8'10.
Early on Tony Martin did lead ahead of Ivars at the first section but at teh top it`s the other way and actually almost 2min difference. Hence having a decent TT surely helps for the first part but then the strong climbers will likely take the stage.
Riders that combine both the best are Ratiy, Krasnoperov, Kiserlovski or Warbasse, while the GC 1-2 Schelling and Barguil follow next and being very similar to each other.
Also Fraile might be worth a mention with his skills.
Let`s start with the GC`s 37th, Ratiy. 10th early on only behind mainly pure TT riders. Then 1st at the next though and now close to the Flamme Rouge he has almost passed Samwel and likely takes the lead for the moment.
1h'03'50'' in the end for him, which shows the long suffer for many riders today.
Ivars is 56s behind with Hirschlein at 1'11 a bit later. Samwel actually as pure climber 3'30 behind and probably not having motivated himself that much.
Krasnoperov next as 21st. 25th-3rd-2nd his progress over the day. 43s behind Ratiy though but still a very solid performance and shows that being able to climb and TT is handy.
In the background you can see Niyonshuti, who lost more than 2min on him and hence got passed.
Warbasse next but he already lost 41s at the 2nd check.
In the finish couple more seconds were added as he is at 72s in the end. Surely had hoped for more as several strong riders are yet to come and he surely was not expecting to also land behind Ivars.
Hence still the two Ukrainians in front. Good day for them.
Meanwhile the strongest GC riders slowly reach the 2nd time check and hence starting with that point for now.
13th in the GC Pomoshnikov doing okay. Though 1min already behind and 8th for him. Definitely needs to do better on the last part.
Same with Pozzovivo. Last years champion 7s slower, which at least would mean, he is staying in front of the earlier.
Atapuma though with a bad performance. 1'50 already and hence already lost the 11th spot to Pozzovivo.
Coming to the top10. De Marchi at 1'27 there and hence also likely to lose the spot to his country man.
Campero doing better. The Bolivian 4th at this point and 38s slower than Ratiy with Krasnoperov and Ivars as well faster.
But he is stronger than Warbasse, which is a surprise.
Fraile next and so far impressing. 1st on the "flat" and remaining 1st on the first uphill section. That said, just one second ahead of Ratiy, while it were 23s on the first part. Surely not climbing as fast.
Berhane next up and while losing 52s at the start, he already gained a lot back and now being 3rd and +23s only. Looking decent for him if he can continue to climb that fast.
Garby so far having a decent race. Today a very consistent time trial, so not gaining as much as the others on the climb and still being 50s back here only gaining 5s since the flat.
Quite similar for Pinot. Just a bit faster than Garby but clearly not gaining enough. +43 still.
Kiserlovski doing better. From 31s to 9s, which means he should beat Fraile in the finish but he is still 8s behind Ratiy, who might have a shot of a stage win here.
Race officialy clearly need to check this situation later on. Two Ticos riders and one going surprisingly slow and might have helped his team mate...
Chamorro having a very slow stage here and already being 2'15 behind. Coincidence that the better placed Barguil started just behind and might have gotten some support here for a while?
At least he is going strong! Very strong, which is a surprise as he is 24s faster than Fraile! 25s to Ratiy and 34s to Kiserlovski with Berhane following at 48s!
This obviously highers the pressure on GC leader Schelling as well. The Swiss might be underperforming a bit here actually. 8th with 1'01 which is half of his advantage and hence Barguil is an even bigger threat in the stages to come.
Moving towards the finish line. Ratiy-Krasnoperov-Ivars-Warbasse still the order and it doesn`t change when Pozzovivo is finishing as he is provisional 11th at 1'48.
Pomoshnikov couple seconds ahead of him but not enough to attack the Italian.
Though Atapuma is losing massive and about 1min to those two while De Marchi is in between.
GC wise this means Pozzovivo climbs two spots into the top10 with De Marchi and Atapuma following withing seconds and Pomoshnikov not so far behind neither.
Then next up Campero, who had a good TT today. Just losing 1s on that final part and hence being new 4th 1'05 down.
Fraile was faster than Ratiy and the others at half time and only was beaten by Barguil there.
Though the climb itself played against his favour and this is shown here as he lost more time and is ending 30s behind Ratiy. Ahead of Krasnoperov though and hence still a very good ride by the Spaniard.
And also Berhane was doing okay. Going faster than Fraile as well on the climb and hence passing him, but remains behind Ratiy by 26s. Hence his climb was not as good, even though his main loss came from the first part where he already had this gap to Ratiy. Since then both with a very similar strong climb.
Garby as well with a provisional top10 today as he comes in as 9th and 1'24 behind Ratiy.
GC wise this means he is losing a spot to Berhane as both swap positions. Behind them still Fraile and Campero with some bigger gap.
Pinot remained similar but with a bit stronger final bit. 6th and +57s in the end and hence defending the gap to Berhane quite well and only losing a bit.
Kiserlovski in but same. Also not able to beat Ratiy, who really had a great day here it seems. But with 18s he comes the closest so far and hence moves ahead of Berhane and Fraile.
Barguil coming in and the time stops at 1h03'15. That`s 35s faster than Ratiy and hence almost secured todays stage win! Huge performance by the French!
Though officials clearly sceptical as Chamorro was only slow the first two sections, then almost was able to keep contact with Barguil...In the end 28th for later and 3'13 down.
Last but not least Schelling. 2'20 before the stage of which 1'01 were lost last check. Seeing how strong the French was, even a GC change is not impossible.
But the UBS rider with a very consistent ride and while 8th and a loss of about 1min to Berhane would sound okay, it`s 1'32 to Barguil, who basically is a very similar strong rider for todays stage.
GC is wide open again between those two as the gap goes under the 1min mark again and with many mountaing stages left, even other riders could challenge them again.
Right now momentum on Ticos side though as Barguil looks strongest and also is having the best support here by far.
Actually he also takes over the KoM jersey with his win today. Nice bonus clearly.
Also the U25 ranking is closer after today. Hadi is only 22s behind Sakalou and seeing the amount of early work, the Ticos rider is doing, it`s likely to see a change soon. That said also Hadi might be used for both Berhane and Afewerki on many stages.
Quintana at 2'35, though also for Ticos. In the end this could offer Manfredi in 4th position a nice chance to pass them all. Though already 4'35 behind.
