The traditional TTT will conclude the Tour of Vancouver and despite the overall winner likely to be Pluchkin eventually, there's still some close battles inside the GC's Top-10 and of course it's also a valuable stage-win to achieve today:
Team
GC
1
Pluchkin
Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff
20h17'59
2
Keizer
Indosat Ooredoo - ANZ
+ 1'16
3
Úran
Minions
+ 1'29
4
Shikai
Meiji - JR East
+ 3'41
5
Penasa
Kulczyk - DMTEX
+ 3'51
6
Meintjes
cycleYorkshire
+ 3'53
7
Roglic
Generali - EDF
+ 3'59
8
Duarte
Novatek-Panarmenian.net
+ 4'44
9
Velits
Xero Racing p/b Octagon
+ 4'58
10
Eastman
Azteca-NBCSN
+ 5'04
11
Monsalve
Ayubowan!
+ 5'13
Generali as the absolute top favorite for the stage, but also a possible danger for Roglic to be dropped by his teammates (like it happened already last year). A few more solid TTT lineups will try to upset the favorites: Kulczcyk with some solid depth, Popo4ever, Fablok and maybe the Minions as the most promising team behind Generali. Given Úran's 13 seconds deficit on Keizer, there may be a chance for him to attack the 2nd place in the GC (Indosaat's best five TTlers ain't too shabby neither, though)..
Let's begin with those teams, which do not have any (or only minor) GC contenders, but possibly fight for a notable result on the stage:
Team Reddit (with Manfredi maybe fighting for a Top-15 in the GC) starting early and they cross the line with the new best time: Manfredi, however, pays the price of being dropped and losing more than a minute on his teammates eventually!
Finish
1
Team Reddit
22'46
2
Kraftwerk Man Machine
+ 17
3
Euskaltel - Elior
+ 30
4
Iberia - Team Degenkolb
+ 34
5
Carrefour - ESPN
+ 38
6
Repsol - Netflix
+ 47
7
Netia - Vonin
+ 1'04
Nordstrom - BioWare next and with De la Cruz mainly fighting to defend his 12th place in the GC. The team does well and De la Cruz, too, as he leads his teammates across the finish:
+ 2" as new, clear 2nd on at finish!
Fablok - DMTEX has no real pressure and just wants to fight for the stage win or podium:
new best time, beating Team Reddit by 12 seconds! Quite a good time, it seems..
And now for the first GC's Top-10 contenders:
Team
GC
Split
Finish
8
Duarte
Novatek-Panarmenian.net
+ 4'44
9
Velits
Xero Racing p/b Octagon
+ 4'58
10
Eastman
Azteca-NBCSN
+ 5'04
11
Monsalve
Ayubowan!
+ 5'13
Ayubowan! (with Monsalve) ain't amongst the most promising teams, but of course there's always some hope for an upsetting result to maybe attack the Top-10 with Monsalve:
+ 20" on Fablok at the finish, which is enough for a 3rd place so far..
Azteca-NBCSN and Eastman need to defend 9 seconds on Monsalve and the team achieves this minimum goal:
+ 18" as new provisional 3rd and therefore Monsalve could not go past Eastman..
Xero Racing p/b Octagon and Velits (9th in the GC) have to defend 6 seconds on Eastman:
+ 19" on Fablok and so just one second slower than Azteca/Eastman!
Novatek-Panarmenian.net with the best position prior to the stage (of those riders fighting for the lower Top-10 places) and the team (as well as Duarte) easily defends the comfortable gap in this TTT:
+ 20" to finish just slightly slower than Azteca and Xero, on the same time with Ayubowan!
Team
GC
Split
Finish
8
Duarte
Novatek-Panarmenian.net
+ 4'44
+ 20
9
Velits
Xero Racing p/b Octagon
+ 4'58
+ 19
10
Eastman
Azteca-NBCSN
+ 5'04
+ 18
11
Monsalve
Ayubowan!
+ 5'13
+ 20
And now for the Top-5 riders:
Team
GC
Split
Finish
4
Shikai
Meiji - JR East
+ 3'41
5
Penasa
Kulczyk - DMTEX
+ 3'51
6
Meintjes
cycleYorkshire
+ 3'53
7
Roglic
Generali - EDF
+ 3'59
Generali - EDF as the big favorite for the stage and the team sets the new best time at the split, as to be expected - 11 seconds faster than Fablok halfway through the stage!
cycleYorkshire and Meintjes next on the road and the team does well, too: just 4 seconds off Generali's time at the split and so Meintjes (6 seconds ahead of Roglic in the GC) is still in contention to defend his GC position!
Team
GC
Split
Finish
4
Shikai
Meiji - JR East
+ 3'41
+ 30
5
Penasa
Kulczyk - DMTEX
+ 3'51
+ 12
6
Meintjes
cycleYorkshire
+ 3'53
+ 4
7
Roglic
Generali - EDF
+ 3'59
BT
Meiji/Shikai with the worst time at the split and definitely in danger to drop a few places today! Meintjes and Roglic may also go past Penasa, if the trend continues..
Kulczyk - DMTEX finishes the stage with quite a good time eventually:
+ 5 seconds off Fablok as the new provisional 2nd, but Penasa is dropped on the final kilometre! He loses additional 11 seconds on this teammates!
Meiji - JR East and Shikai (best rider of his team today) finish the stage as well then:
+ 31" on Fablok and so Shikai loses 15 seconds on Penasa!
Generali now approaching the finish and it happens again: Roglic is dropped! Though not too far away from the finish, so he actually might have limit the losses eventually:
new best time for Generali, 9 seconds faster than Fablok.. Roglic loses 37 seconds on his teammates!
cycleYorkshire with Meintjes safely inside the group then:
+ 9 seconds as provisional 2nd at the finish!
That's good news for Meintjes, who goes past Shikai and Penasa that way! Roglic once again could not benefit from his team (possibly) winning the stage:
Team
GC
Split
Finish
4
Shikai
Meiji - JR East
+ 3'41
+ 30
+ 31
5
Penasa
Kulczyk - DMTEX
+ 3'51
+ 12
+ 16
6
Meintjes
cycleYorkshire
+ 3'53
+ 4
+ 9
7
Roglic
Generali - EDF
+ 3'59
BT
+ 37
And now for the Top-3 in the GC:
Team
GC
Split
Finish
1
Pluchkin
Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff
20h17'59
2
Keizer
Indosat Ooredoo - ANZ
+ 1'16
3
Úran
Minions
+ 1'29
Minions and Úran need to gain 13 seconds on Indosaat and Keizer. It's a tough challenge, but the TTT lineup from Minions should be considered stronger afterall. They are solid at the split, but 10 seconds behind Generali..
Indosat Oooredoo - ANZ is slightly slower though and it may become a narrow decision between Keizer and Úran: 14 seconds behind Generali, that's already 4 seconds lost on Minions:
Team
GC
Split
Finish
1
Pluchkin
Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff
20h17'59
+ 13
2
Keizer
Indosat Ooredoo - ANZ
+ 1'16
+ 14
3
Úran
Minions
+ 1'29
+ 10
Minions and Úran miss out on the stage win by 9 seconds, as they improve on the second sector to finish the stage as 2nd!
Indosat and Keizer under pressure and they need to keep the gap to Minions under 13 seconds. They approach the finish with not capable to pull the final turn:
+ 21" on Generali... that's 12 seconds lost on Minions!
Team Popo4Ever and Pluchkin finish the stage as a solid 6th and no real pressure afterall:
Team
GC
Split
Finish
1
Pluchkin
Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff
20h17'59
+ 13
+ 18
2
Keizer
Indosat Ooredoo - ANZ
+ 1'16
+ 14
+ 21
3
Úran
Minions
+ 1'29
+ 10
+ 9
Generali - EDF with the expected stage win, with Minions and cycleYorkshire completing the podium. Unfortunately for Generali, they once again could not help Roglic to improve in the GC and they may re-consider their lineup for such a stage race.
Pluchkin has nothing to reconsider, since he did everything right eventually. Úran looked like a real threat after the first of two summit finishes, but the big favorite delivered in the final mountain stage to take the overall victory, that he came for. Two stage-wins, as well as the points, mountain and general classification: winning in Vancouver makes always for a nice points haul (if you combine the GC with stage wins). Well done.
Keizer securing a 2nd place in a tight decision on this final TTT and he will be happy to finish just behind a superior climber like Pluchkin here. Additional points come through Top-5s in both points and mountain (runner-up) classification.
A kinda unlucky 3rd place for Úran, who misses out on Keizer by just one second. Still a much better performance than what he showed last season and with a stage-win bagged in, he certainly enjoyed the trip to Vancouver this year. Of course yesterday's losses still hurt, but a podium makes for a nice redemption.
Meintjes as one of today's biggest winners, going up from 6th to 4th in the final GC. After a disappointing performance in the first mountain road race, he bounced back in style - finishing 2nd in yesterday's stage and gaining further seconds in the TTT..
Penasa struggled on the final two days, but thanks to his great performance on the first summit finish up Cypress, he ends up completing the Top-5 in the GC. With Valls adding a rather quiet 13th place, it's been a great result for Kulczyk.
Shikai 6th ahead of Roglic, Duarte, Velits and Eastman. While Velits came back strong from a disastrous first mountain stage, Eastman may be disappointed (once again) to not be in the mix for a Top-5 result. It's no disaster to finish behind those guys ahead of him, but it's no special result neither. The same goes for Monsalve, who rather disappointed as 11th in the GC.. De la Cruz, Valls, Nazaret and Tvetcov complete the Top-15 ahead of Carthy, who at least adds some depth scoring for Ayubowan! - just like Martinez for Minions, finishing a strong 17th ahead of Brenes, Manfredi and Nepomnyachsniy.
Carthy adding further points through winning the U25 competition..
Minions bring home the team's classifcation..
That's it from Vancouver. We enjoyed another interesting race, with Úran beating Pluchkin on a mountain stage, Pluchkin fighting back in style, Kraftwerk Machine winning three flat stages with Haller and Kreder and some thrill inside the GC's Top-10. See you next year!
