The first week of the Tour de France comes to its' conclusion today with one last twist before we reach France - a 25km team time trial in and around Haßfurt in Bavaria. After three exciting days in the Czech hills, Germany will have its own chance to shape the pre-mountains playing field with a course favouring the powerful, with a few 90 degrees (or more) turns as well
In our Tour de France preview, we ranked Bennelong, Porto-Prio and T-Mobile as our favourites for this event, and so Haig, Intxausti and Taaramae respectively would be the GC riders with the most advantage. Although the Portuguese team has seen all three GC men lose time, Intxausti still maybe has something to play for GC-wise, and we can expect a motivated performance from his team even if only to reclaim a little dignity.
Schelling, Dekker and Sicard will also hope to limit losses to the big guns and find a small advantage on their rivals. Meanwhile Spilak and Lecuisinier may have the most to lose. Yellow jersey Gesink will hope for somewhere in the middle, and to keep his jersey going into tomorrow.
Porto-Prio, last in the teams' classification after an awful first week, will look to turn their fortunes around by winning this TTT. They'll set the benchmark, and set a pretty rapid time at the intermediate time check in Knetzgau of 20'16.
Next on course are Grieg-Eftel, and with no GC rider it's natural they're lagging behind in the teams' classification. They do have Nesset here for some minor GC scoring (well, ostensibly to achieve their win goal) as well as Boeckmans in the sprints and Ringheim to stage hunt among other decent breakaway riders. They are well off the pace at the midway check, 48 seconds down on Porto.
Hugo Boss in service of Tom Jelte-Slagter are up next. The Dutchman has been a pleasant surprise this week and is 8th on GC after utilising his skills on shorter climbs on stage 4 and 5, finishing in the first GC group in both. He'll hope his team can keep him there by the end of today, but they're not the strongest (I mean, they're Spanish!) and are 46 seconds behind their Iberian rivals Porto, and two seconds ahead of Grieg.
Tinkoff are next and not a team I think we've mentioned too much at all this week, but that's because they're all waiting for the mountains. Kolesnikov is their top rider who could aim for the GC top 20, but really they're here to hunt for some stage wins in the Alps and Pyrenees. They come in with a decent time at the first check of 20'38, 22 seconds behind Porto's time.
Nibali is leading the line for Desigual as he has and will throughout this Tour de Frace. The Shark of Messina has had a quietly solid first week, and sits three minutes down on Gesink at the start of today, with a good few minutes to some of his rivals for the likely fight for 6-10th. He should stay that way as he team posts a solid time at the chrono, 27 seconds down.
Meanwhile Porto just came across the line here in Haßfurt with a very very good time of 31'05.
But they may be unseated soon, as stage favourites Bennelong-Mitchelton clip them by 4 seconds at the midway checkpoint! Most of the Aussies are here mostly for this event, but also with a few domestiques for their leader Haig, who has had a very average first week, 6 minutes down at the moment and always in the main group behind the Big Three and whoever rode their coattails that day. He’ll be aiming to continue his form from the Criterium du Dauphine, where he took a marvellous stage win as well as finishing in the top 10 overall.
A team without much to shout about so far is Puma, who came into this week with two GC contenders, but will leave it with one: Nerz has shipped over 18 minutes so far and so it's up to Bongiorno to carry the hopes of this team. Though they do have, in riders such as Dunne, Bevin and Hadi (and quite possibly Nerz himself if he refunds his mojo to chase stages), plenty of support for him as well as great breakaway riders. Most of their resources for Grand Tours obviously followed Herklotz to Spain back in May. They post a very surprising time of 20'20, just 9 seconds behind Bennelong at our intermediate check in Knetzgau!
Meanwhile at the finish:
1
Porto-Prio
31'05
2
Grieg-Eftel
+ 54
3
Hugo Boss
+ 1'14
This may be the first time this phrase has been uttered, but you may need to wait for the mountains to see Evonik shine in this tour. Let me say it again: There are pigs soaring across the sk-
But yes, with very good KoM chasers and stage hunters in Egger (a former Vuelta KoM winner), Sakalou and Sergis, Evonik look like a team who will go on the offensive in the second and third weeks. Meanwhile Mansilla has been a pleasant surprise with top 10s in both sprint stages so far and even a top 5 yesterday. However one thing Evonik cannot do no matter how hard they try is a half-decent team time trial. They aren't too bad today (by their standards) though, and are within a minute of Bennelong at the intermediate check.
Team UBS, here for Schelling, are a disappointing 24 seconds behind the pace at the check. The Swiss have brought a solid support squad, as well as Reichenbach and Reinhardt for stage hunting, both of whom already have top 10s to their name but perhaps would have wanted more from the first week.
Currently the third-best of the French hopes in this year's Tour, Warren Barguil hasn't had the start he'd have hoped for to his top 5 campaign, and it won't turn around here as his Moser team are 46 seconds down at the check.
Meanwhile up ahead, Bennelong-Mitchelton take the hot seat (or in this case, maybe a hot couch) by slicing 10 seconds off the time of Porto-Prio at the finish!
Not far off them is Puma, who are third again, 19 seconds down.
Volvo, who have a two-legged team here for Wellens and Ahlstrand, haven't brought a great TTT squad and have already lost 51 seconds at the chrono in Knetzgau. Wellens is another GC man with an anonymous (for him below where he'd want) first week, and is six minutes behind, whilst Ahlstrand has a 1st and a 2nd to his name in the sprints, looking like the strongest on the flat stages! If the Belgian can keep up his end of the bargain it could be a lucrative month for the Swedes.
Mmm, swedes.
The soon-to-be home team Air France is lead by podium outsider Sicard (leading the team literally here), who will hope to post a decent time here after already conceding nearly two minutes to our GC leader this week. He's not too badly off right now, sitting 7th on GC and 4th of the GC men. He's got a decent support team behind for both this event and the mountains (with Salinas and Koch, who are both more used to leading than serving). They’ve done rather well at the first bit, as they come in fourth in Knetzgau, 11 seconds behind our Aussie leaders.
Now another team of one of our GC big guns as Taaramäe is first of the big three to post a time with T-Mobile. A strong squad for the mountains and the time trials behind the Estonian here and they post an intermediate time just 13 seconds behind Bennelong.
EA-Vesuvio are next through. A balanced squad with a sprinter (Afewerki), a GC leader (Keinath, 5'56 down before this morning) and some solid support and breakaway riders too. They come into the first check with a decent time, 35 seconds down.
RBC are here for stage and breakaway success, looking towards a stage win, and to those ends they have put their best foot forward so far, with Houle getting a stage top 5 on Stages 3 and 6, breakaway attempts on every day and young Tiesj Benoot already animating stage 5 and getting 5th that day. 48 seconds behind in Knetzgau but today is really no big deal for them.
Our second home team Festina are here to push for the GC podium, whoop some young ass (by that I mean win the white jersey) and get some nice stage results if possible. They're a little off the pace on the former, well on their way to the second and we'll take a raincheck on judging the latter - but Tzortzakis has done a good job so far. They are also carrying the polka dots into France on the shoulders of Le Roux, which is a great thing for a French rider and team. A middling time of 36 seconds down at the intermediate check, which is nothing to be ashamed of.
Up ahead their rivals for best French rider, team and the GC podium, AirFrance, come in strong and are just 15 seconds behind Bennelong, conceding just 4 seconds in the last part of the course.
Aker-MOT started well with Vakoc in this week with 2nd on a stage and even now 5th on GC, but the rest of their hopes aren't going so well, with climbing hope Galta already 10 minutes down! Not a bad time at all here, 21 seconds at the checkpoint.
eBuddy are another team aiming for a good GC placing and sprinting success. Grosu has picked up a stage win and so the latter looks promising, whilst Brambilla has had an average week and ended up, like many GC contenders who have stayed out of trouble, six minutes down on Gesink after yesterday. He won't be helped out here as his team can only manage 42 seconds behind Bennelong.
At the finish line, T-Mobile outdo AirFrance and are the new third place, just 13 seconds off the pace, meaning they did the back half of this route as fast as Bennelong, losing no time!
Gazelle have brought a squad chocka full of stage racers going for minor GC placings and maybe the Teams classification, as well as doing a good job today! Kangert looks the likeliest so far, within three minutes and in the top 15 on GC, but Karnulin is also within five after a very strong Stage 3, where he was in the top 10. Fejes also brought some joy with a spell in the King of the Mountains lead earlier in the week. They are just 20 seconds down at the intermediate check.
Perhaps the team that's looked the most well drilled so far this week has been Isostar, in service of their defending champion Simon Spilak. He may have a 33 second deficit to Gesink, but the men in lime have put their stamp on the race by controlling everything uphill. Unfortunately this doesn't always translate to the flats, but they're a determined unit are those lime, and manage to keep their midway deficit to Bennelong under 30 seconds - and just 17 to Taaramae’s T-Mobile!
Unfortunately news here from Gazelle that Karnulin has been dropped - a surprise given he is a good time triallist!
Fablok have had a very good opening week by any standards but even more so for a PCT team, with two stage podiums, a 4th and a 7th. They'll hope to chase stages in the next two weeks, with some good climbers (including Nicholas Roche, who is already on form) and a top sprinter (who hasn't been firing) in Mohs. But in this event, survival is the only thing they can do, 42 seconds down at the check.
One of the most underrated yet consistently solid TTT teams around is Aegon - Lavazza, and they show it again here with 2nd at the chrono, just 2 seconds behind! They aren't slowing down and we should have a very tight finish, probably going for the win here!
A solid team from the Dutch-Italian squad, we already saw Lars Boom take yellow for two days and knowing him (3rd in the KoM at this race not too long ago) he isn't done being at the front of affairs. French darling Tony Gallopin also here as well as some decent climbers and powerhouses in support of team leader Dekker.
A very smooth Spilak leads in his Isostar squad, and stops the clock 53 seconds behind Bennelong - or, should I say, 40 seconds behind Taaramae, which puts the Estonian four seconds ahead on GC! I’d wager if you offered the Isostar manager this for the first week he’d have taken it!
If Fablok have had a great start for a wildcard team then Kraftwerk's has been astronomically so. Two stage wins courtesy of a flying Alexander Flugel, a further two stage podiums, a stint in the green jersey ongoing and currently 3rd and 6th on GC. A great reception for them in their home country here, what a success already! As for the TTT, it's not half bad either, 33 seconds down at Knetzgau.
5... 4... 3... 2... 1... 1... 2... 3... Aegon just miss out at the death, a credible but unsuccessful 7 seconds behind. Still, a good performance for Dekker who should move up on GC and have a nice position ahead of other outsiders before tomorrow's Vosges trip.
Kraftwerk +52, a solid showing especially for a PCT outfit. Now we just are waiting for...
Berg Cycles, who are a not-so-great 49 seconds down at the time check. At the finish they are 1'20 down, and just let me do some mental maths...
Taaramae... doesn't take yellow. He's 2 seconds off by my count, oh so close to a major comeback. But his losses from the Strazne stage are 99% erased, he's overtaken his main rival Spilak, and the peloton should be very, very scared.
Canty is our winner on the results sheet but, as in any TTT it was a team effort (duh) and so we congratulate Bennelong - Mitchelton on a well-executed and powerful stage win. A nice boost for their leader Jack Haig on GC as well.
Gesink keeps yellow but his advantage has been taken away in two swift steps on Stages 5 and 7, now just two seconds to Taaramae and 7 to Spilak. The big three already putting plenty of daylight to any potential surprisers bar Sicard, who had a great day today and quietly is not within a minute of Gesink.
They're almost completely tied going into the second week, which begins tomorrow in the Vosges with a medium mountain stage with a finish on La Planche des Belles Filles, with it's 20% final kicker. Unless there's a breakaway then it's fair to say that the winner tomorrow will take yellow into Stage 10's time trial - and take a huge mental victory over the other two. See you then.
