31km pan flat ITT. For some riders surely a horror and while most top5 GC riders are rather equally and shouldn`t gain or lose to much against each other, some are surely hoping for the big coup today.
Amador must be named as one of the stage favourites and with a differential of 5 stats maybe able to gain the minute on Schleck for the GC lead? Cattaneo as best TT rider of all stage racers and Lecuisinier as one of the best surely hope for either stage win, stage podium and maybe passing 1-2 riders in the GC.
Abal, Dekker and maybe even Nibali are all decent against the clock as well and hence a high stage result is their goal. They won`t normally gain a lot on each other to make it a big GC change.
While most top15 riders that got no mention are in the low 70s, Alarcon is the one to lose time today. 5min already in the TTT by not being able to hang with the team. Today it`s individually but still the only with not at least 70. He isn`t even that bad, rather average but the direct rivals are better and his mountain performance wasn`t as dominant as in some past races, which is not an ideal combination in the podium or top5 fight.
Kittel as best TT ridr with Vlatos, Dillier being out of the race already. Though questionable if they can challenge slightly weaker TT riders but stronger climbers with more energy left.
Van Winden early on setting a new best and actually did beat Gonzalez Salas by 19s. Maybe yesterdays breakaway was not the best idea for later. Or simply more tired after all the mountains.
Sütterlin or Howson with similar times in between those two.
Kittel coming in and while being closest yet, he also can`t beat the time. 2s behind Van Winden!
Boaro next and he is more capable of climbing and he went into the lead at the first checkpoints and went fast until the end.
New best and actually 22s faster than Van Winden!
Oliveira next with even better allround skills. Early on he already had 13s advantage over Boaro with his countrymen Costa following 2s behind him and another second to Brown, which shows that a mix of climbing and time trialing alongside recovery is needed today.
In the finish it`s Boaro still in the lead though! Surely on a great day as his 3rd sector was stunning. 1s over Brown, who also had energy until the end.
Then 3s to Costa and Oliveira lost 10s towards the end. Still all ahead of Van Winden and Kittel.
Fraile some kind of favourite for today alongside Amador or Cattaneo. One of the best time trialists in the race and decent climbing skills, which sees him still in solid form.
And indeed the best time at all sections. 19s faster than Boaro! Winning time? Or will others pass him?
Bibby one of the possible challengers but his early times aren`t good. Just 10th early on 25s down already. It`s 30s in the end for him.
Also Dekker with a similar time not able to beat todays best. He comes into the finish 4s faster than Bibby, which is still slower than Fraile, Boaro, Brown, Costa in that order right now.
Cattaneo a bit slower early on but the last sector is important if you save energy until the end.
19s down after the first, 14s on the second and gaining!
He beats Boaro`s time but is still 9s down on Fraile! 2nd provisionally.
Abal a bit later coming in at 36s, which means losing only a few seconds on direct rivals. And he remains in front of Cattaneo GC wise but s.t. now between the 10th and 11th.
Machado had rather weak couple of most recent days. Today within expectations though. Losing a bit on previous mentions, which were all better time trialists though. 1'12 down on Fraile.
Hirt with very similar skills and actually s.t. as Machado. No changes.
Lecuisinier then with another good time. Though not as good as the very best but best of those 77 time trialists being 1s faster than Dekker and also better than Bibby or Abal.
Alarcon giving his best but losing almost 1min per sector. The final one was still his best, so the time stops at 2'23, which is not too bad even. s.t. as Bongiorno and "just" 1 min behind direct rivals.
GC wise though he drops behind Lecuisinier, Hirt and Machado!
Guldhammer at 1'36 which means he is sitting behind Alarcon and ahead of Abal/Cattaneo now.
Morton with a similar time trial as Machado and Hirt. Just losing 1s more and remains in a rather safe 4th spot. More than 2min to the front but also more than a minute to the later.
Dombrowski a bit weaker but still on a safe 3rd for now. +1'37 for him and now 3 mountain stages to come for a final attack? Not yet in his 2017 mountain form.
Amador coming through the 2nd time check and is sitting in 6th and +19s behind Fraile, so might not get his stage win!
But it is close to the GC lead. Schleck at +1'06 already at this point which is 47s gained of his 57s gap!
The last sector is all about saving energy until the end and riders such as Alarcon have shown it`s not necessarily needed to be a good time trialist to gain time here.
Amador clearly saved energy until the end. 8th at the first, 6th at the 2nd and then improving to 3rd in the finish. Just 14s behind Fraile and a few less to Cattaneo in 2nd! But was it enough?
Schleck at 68th and then 51st and still improving towards the finish. It`s in the end the 44th which means +1'17!
That`s 1'03 on Amador, which means 6s too much! We see a GC change here with Amador going into the following 3 mountain days as new leader. Just 6s though and so far this would still see Schleck top favourite but being in the leader jersey can free new energy at times. So keeping exciting after today.
A small overview about the GC top13 and their ITT result.
Amador, Lecuisinier, Cattaneo, Dekker and Abal with the best performances while some of the top riders really lost a bit today. But even Alarcon only 2'23 on the best. So no single pure mountain goat, that is losing 4-5 minutes in a TT.
Close GC fights still there between Amador and Schleck of course. Then rather safe 3-5 spots but nothing safe yet.
Hirt, Machado, Alarcon and also Guldhammer pretty close from 6-9.
Abal and Cattaneo then s.t. but also Henao just 10s behind them for the last top10 spot or maybe more?
Dekker right now in the best position for 13th being 1'12 ahead of Nibali and 2'30 ahead of Quintana with Bongiorno and Bibby following.
