Stage 5 - Rialp > Tremp 43km against the clock, all on your own. Yap, it's a key stage for any GC contenders today. And there's one clear favorite: Martijn Keizer. With 40 seconds of disadvantage on GC-leader Denifl, Keizer simply has to move up to 1st place today. Amongst those riders inside the current Top-10, only Nepomnyachsniy (+ 0.47 on Denifl) may become a minor threat, if he's on a great daily form. For Denifl, Choi or Velits, it's all about keeping the gap somehow doable for tomorrow's final mountain stage to Montserat.
Sepulveda has doing great so far and being 6th in the GC (+ 0.48), he will surely fancy his chances to even improve in today's timetrial. Úran (+ 2.16) needs to gain back time and he surely has the skills to benefit from a challenge against the clock. The pressure is there, though.
Let's first look at those riders, who ain't a factor for the GC anymore. Obviously, some pure TT specialists, who have some early starts - as well as other guys, who disappointed so far (like Brändle, of course).
Mottin is the best of the very early starters, setting the best time for a few minutes: 57'59" to beat guys like Olman or Grabovski easily..
Golovash as another TT specialist with an early start and while Mottin had the better split times, Golovash sets the new best time at the finish:
57'56" to finish the course 3 seconds faster than Mottin!
Postlberger with a good ride, too - though not beating Golovash or Mottin:
+ 8 seconds as provisional 3rd at the finish..
Mullen then and he's deadly fast the splits! After disappointing in the prologue, today's performance is definitely a pleasant surprise:
new best time, finishing the course 32 seconds faster than Golovash!
Brändle lost big minutes so far and today's timetrial may be the only way to save his race from being a disaster. He's extraordinary good at the splits and yet he will crush Mullen's time eventually:
56'28" for the new best time, 56 seconds better than Mullen! A class of his own so far!
Haga already rode a strong prologue and despite not performing too well in the mountains, he's again very strong in the timetrial:
+ 53" as provisional 2nd at the finish! Beating Mullen by 3 seconds..
Shikai lost all GC ambitiouns on a terrible stage two days ago. He looks well recovered though:
+ 1'21" as provisional 4th behind Mullen - a solid ride for sure
Tennant rode to a good time as well - unfortunately outside the TV cameras (sorry for that) - placing himself as new provisional 4th at the finish. Brändle though certainly put up a huge time here and there's not too many possible stage contenders to come now. Keizer, obviously. But that's surely a time, that won't be easy to beat.
Novak (GC's 18th) as one of those remaining GC contenders, who definitely wants to benefit from the timetrial kilometres today. He does, however, struggle at the split times, where's around 40th places all the time! That's rather disappointing and his time at the finish ain't too encouraging either:
+ 2'40" and it will be just enough for a 49th place eventually!
Úran (GC's 16th) is doing significally better at the split times, even though it might not be as good as he had hoped for. 11th at the second split, 16th at the third split:
+ 1'48" on Brändle at the finish - no, this is probably too less to make a huge jump in the GC!
Valls is the first Top-10 in the GC today. He's similar fast as Novak, slightly better, to be precisive! Which is good news for Valls, since he's rated the worse TT specialist afterall:
That's all good news for Valls as well, since he easily defends his Top-10 in the GC - and may even improve a bit..
..as Meintjes (GC's 9th) is much slower at the splits:
+ 3'20" and so almost losing one minute on Valls today!
Eastman (GC's 8th) with a solid race so far and he surely must aim to gain some time on other GC contenders today. He does, however, struggle at the split times and he's not better than Valls:
+ 2'35" at the finish - slightly better than Novak, but even worse than Valls!
Kiserlovski (GC's 7th) probably won't know, that Eastman couldn't put pressure on him, but he does not need to know. His split times are quite solid, while not too special:
+ 2'27" at the finish, which will make for a 43rd place eventually
Sepulveda (GC's 6th) as another good TT rider, who can benefit from today's stage. Opposing to Eastman/Novak, he actually puts up some good split times (as 10th at the second and 11th at the third split):
+ 1'37" at the finish as provisional 8th! That's a good performance actually!
Velits (GC's 5th) with some pressure then and while he's not much weaker in TTs, we've seen a few disappointing performances already. The veteran though continues to ride a somewhat quiet race here - nothing too special, but nothing too worrying neither. 24th at the third split:
+ 1'58" at the finish and therefore losing about 20 seconds on Sepulveda - something, he should gain back tomorrow?
Nepomnyachsniy (GC's 4th) coming next and his goal must be to move up to the podium after today's stage. He certainly knows this place very well and is one of the best TT riders amongst the GC contenders. His split times though are underwhelming! 44th at the second, 37th at the third with almost two minutes lost already:
+ 2'14" as 29th at the finish.. probably too less for his liking and a missed opportunity for sure!
Choi (GC's 3rd) won't care about stronger TT guys failing to benefit and after a good performance in the hilly stage two days ago, he continues to impress today! 7th at the second split, 7th at the third split:
+ 1'23" as 6th at the finish! Quite a strong ride and he's easily defending his podium spot that way!
Keizer (GC's 2nd) next then and he's the big favorite for the stage and should also be capable of gaining those 40 seconds on Denifl today. Brändle however had a huge ride earlier on and Keizer has to settle for a 2nd place at the second split (19 seconds lost) and 2nd place at the third split (21 seconds):
+ 21" at the finish, too! That's a still good 2nd place and he gains valuable time on all of his competitors for the GC..
Denifl as the last rider on the course. He ain't too bad in timetrials, but just like some other riders before, he's not performing too well today. The GC leader is already more than two minutes behind Keizer at the third split:
+ 2'59" as 61st on the stage! That's actually the worst performance of all Top-10 riders bar Meintjes and he will likely drop a few places that way:
Keizer moving up to 1st in the GC, just like he had to do. With one (challenging) stage to come, it's now his race to lose. With more than one minute on a strong Choi as 2nd in the GC, there's quite an advantage for Keizer, but of course there's still some work to be done. He also went for key points in the points classification.
Sepulveda's good performance makes him move up to 3rd in the GC! He may struggle against the big climbers tomorrow, but since he did so well so far, there's definitely a chance for him to achieve a big GC result eventually. Velits and Denifl though are not too far behind and the two premium climbers definitely need to show something tomorrow. The same goes for Úran, who could not really benefit from today's timetrial - at least not the way, he might have hoped for: still, he's moving up to 12th and there's a chance to attack the Top-10 at least.
