We open with a 36.6 kilometer team time trial in Belgium. We start in Zottegem and finish on the paved Haaghoek sector, which the riders have to tackle three times. The Leberg is also included twice. This means some teams might encounter each other on the route today. A mix of cobblestones, climbing and time trialling today.
The starting order is determined by random draw, here is the result:
Rank
Team
Rank
Team
1
Grieg - Maersk
13
SPAR - Siam Cement
2
Podium Ambition
14
T-Mobile
3
Team Puma - SAP
15
Aegon - Lavazza
4
Aker - MOT
16
Andorra Cycling Project
5
Team Tinkoff
17
ISA - Hexacta
6
Gazelle
18
Fablok - Bank BGZ
7
Isostar - LimeBike
19
Evonik - ELKO
8
Air France - KLM
20
Repsol - Netflix
9
eBuddy
21
Festina - OAKA
10
Moser - Sygic
22
Farfetch Pro Cycling
11
EA Vesuvio
23
Bennelong - Mitchelton
12
Indosat Ooredoo - ANZ
24
Generali
Grieg - Maersk is the first team to take the start. They clock at 18'02 at the first checkpoint.
Podium Ambition comes after them, and crosses the top of the Leberg, where the checkpoints are located, eighteen seconds slower.
Team Puma - SAP is the new leader, going 24 seconds under Grieg's time!
Aker - MOT on the cobbles, but without cobblestone superstar this is where the time is lost. They go to third after the first lap, 42 seconds down.
Russia is the reigning World TTT Champion, but Team Tinkoff will not win today, one second faster than Aker for third.
Gazelle dethrones Puma by five seconds!
Isostar - LimeBike with the slowest time out of the starters so far, but only a second behind Podium Ambition.
This isn't a 16-man team time trial, but Air France - KLM is now on the same section of asphalt as Grieg. It might be one of the reasons they put down the slowest time so far on checkpoint one.
Grieg sets the benchmark on the second split at 36'17.
eBuddy turns onto the Haaghoek for the first time, just before Podium Ambition does this for the second time. They will become the slowest out of anyone so far, 1'06 down on Gazelle.
Podium Ambition has closed the gap to Grieg from eighteen to four seconds. Can they overtake them at the finish line?
Reigning champion Bewley, wearing number one, is ready to start with his Moser - Sygic team. His race is not off to a good start, losing a minute to Gazelle and leaving only eBuddy behind.
Puma were five seconds down on Gazelle at the first checkpoint. They drop Sagiv heading towards the second, where they beat Grieg by one minute and one second.
Aker moves into second, three seconds ahead of their Norwegian cousins. They were sixteen seconds behind them at the first split.
EA Vesuvio has its sights set after Tinkoff. This doesn't give them a boost as they go to second-a-last on the first table.
Tinkoff drops behind Podium Ambition in the second table.
Indosat Ooredoo - ANZ with the worst performance so far, 1'30 at the first checkpoint.
Gazelle taking on the Haaghoek just ahead of SPAR - Siam Cement, preventing a possible hold-up. The Dutch team had a worse second sector than Puma, as they drop behind them by 27 seconds.
SPAR is another team for the bottom half, just within a minute of Gazelle's first sector split.
T-Mobile, despite being 40 seconds down on Gazelle, goes to provisional fourth.
Isostar not able to improve much between splits one and two, from 0'42 to 1'26 behind Puma.
Grieg reaches the finish line fractured, 51'17 the time to beat. Wisniowski amongst the front five.
Aegon - Lavazza, with former winner Boom, heading towards the first split in the background. They are only 15 seconds down for third place.
Air France the eighth team to climb the Leberg twice, also eighth in the provisional standings.
Moulingui helps Podium Ambition on the final cobblestone section, but they finish twenty seconds down anyway, while the gap after the second ascent of the Leberg was only four seconds.
eBuddy crosses the second checkpoint, and has moved ahead of Air France.
Puma has a noticeable difference in cobble quality. Dunne first to cross the line by a small margin, then Melier, Ganna and Hadi. Declerq the fifth rider which counts, 49'59 leads Grieg by 1'19.
Andorra Cycling Project, the first of two wildcards to start, can witness Puma crossing the finish line. They have a reality check on their checkpoint, only Indosat is slower.
Moser had a mediocre first section, and failed to pick up the pace for the second part.
The other wildcard, ISA - Hexacta, tangles with EA Vesuvio. They set the fourth time at 29 seconds, which is very good.
EA Vesuvio were in the bottom half of the table at split one, and do not improve.
Aker crossing the line with exactly five riders, posting the second time so far at 56 seconds, 23 seconds faster than Grieg.
Fablok - Bank BGZ is the only team to start with less than eight riders, as they only field seven. Despite the numerical disadvantage, they take tenth at the first ascent of the Leberg.
Tinkoff moves in between Aker and Grieg on the final step of the podium, meaning they had a better final section than the latter. They dropped Chernetskiy though.
Indosat still holds the worst split one time when they cross the second. Here, they also join at the bottom.
Evonik - ELKO turns left towards the first time check, where they are 53 seconds down on Gazelle.
That very same Gazelle goes straight on over the Haaghoek to finish. Unable to fully recover the loss to Puma, they finish 20 seconds down for provisional second place. Teunissen loses an additional three seconds.
Repsol - Netflix also way outside the top ten after 13.7 kilometer.
SPAR improves their position after 26.7 kilometer, jumping ahead of Air France, Moser and Vesuvio.
Festina - OAKA still looking happy at the start, but they are last after the first split. On the bright side, they can only go up.
T-Mobile has not gone up, they are still sixth at the first Leberg but only achieve eighth out of all passers on the second, with more teams still to pass.
Isostar splits in two groups, four riders each, and unfortunately it is the fifth rider that counts. They are the slowest out of all finishers so far but only five seconds behind Podium Ambition.
Only three teams left to start, Farfetch Pro Cycling is six seconds faster than Festina to not be last.
One kilometer for Air France, another lap for Aegon. Air France finishes at 2'34 for provisional last place.
Aegon flew past them on this cobble section, moving into second on the second check, 13 seconds behind Puma and 14 seconds ahead of Gazelle.
Gerts and Vermeltfoort leave the other eBuddy riders behind, which is not the optimal finishing strategy. They are only faster than Air France, at 2'15.
Bennelong - Mitchelton is also looking at the right side of the table, 19th place at the first time check.
Andorra confirms their status on that side as well, though they have managed to increase the gap to Indosat.
Three teams on the same stretch now, Moser on their way to finish, Generali to the first checkpoint and ISA to the second checkpoint. Going over them in starting order:
Moser is 2'19 slower than Puma, not the start Bewley wanted.
ISA continues their good form, placing fourth at 40 seconds, the place they also hold at the first checkpoint.
Generali, as last team to cross the first checkpoint, takes that fourth position though, 18 seconds down on Gazelle and 13 seconds down on current leader Puma.
The full overview after the first checkpoint:
Rank
Team
Time
1
Gazelle
17'33
2
Team Puma - SAP
+ 5
3
Aegon - Lavazza
+ 15
4
Generali
+ 18
5
ISA - Hexacta
+ 26
6
Grieg - Maersk
+ 29
7
T-Mobile
+ 40
8
Team Tinkoff
+ 44
9
Aker - MOT
+ 45
10
Isostar - LimeBike
+ 47
11
Podium Ambition
s.t.
12
Fablok - Bank BGZ
+ 52
13
Evonik - ELKO
+ 53
14
Air France - KLM
+ 56
15
Moser - Sygic
+ 57
16
EA Vesuvio
+ 58
17
SPAR - Siam Cement
+ 59
18
eBuddy
+ 1'06
19
Repsol - Netflix
+ 1'09
20
Bennelong - Mitchelton
+ 1'10
21
Andorra Cycling Project
+ 1'26
22
Indosat Ooredoo - ANZ
+ 1'30
23
Farfetch Pro Cycling
+ 1'31
24
Festina - OAKA
+ 1'37
Wirtgen leads EA Vesuvio, but they also end up in the lower midfield. Same time as Moser actually.
Fablok can be seen climbing the Leberg in the background. They were exactly mid-table after the first time, but sneak ahead of at least Isostar and T-Mobile.
Evonik was only a second behind the Polish team at the first checkpoint, but that has gone up to 24. They cannot jump the aforementioned teams.
SPAR almost catches Indosat. The Indonesian team struggled over the final section, as they had lost Van Avermaet already. Kristoff is still amongst the front, but that doesn't prevent them from taking over the laterne rouge, 3'36 down on Puma.
The Thai team did manage to stay in largely one piece. They are one second shy of losing two minutes, virtual eighth place.
Repsol has reached the second timing point, and has to concede a position to Andorra.
Festina once again placing bottom, already more than three minutes behind Puma.
T-Mobile and Aegon also finishing almost together. The pink brigade was seventh after the first checkpoint but lost many places at the second. They go even further down as Moser, Vesuvio and Air France go past.
Aegon has De Bie and Boom amongst the front five, which keeps their GC options open. They finish 38 seconds behind Puma, which means Gazelle goes past them again for second place.
Farfetch increases its lead over Festina for the wooden spoon, twenty seconds the gap between the bottom two.
Another duo finish, this time including both PCT teams, Andorra and ISA.
Andorra dropped Bakari before the final cobble section but still have Summerhill. He won't be happy with the nearly three-minute time loss though.
ISA dropped Bush before the final cobble section but still have Bolivar. They finish fourth behind Puma, Gazelle and Aegon, losing 47 seconds.
Generali has almost overtaken Bennelong on their final ascents of the Leberg. Bennelong drops from 20th to 22nd, while Generali drops behind ISA in fifth.
The full overview after the second checkpoint:
Rank
Team
Time
1
Team Puma - SAP
35'16
2
Aegon - Lavazza
+ 13
3
Gazelle
+ 27
4
ISA - Hexacta
+ 40
5
Generali
+ 44
6
Aker - MOT
+ 58
7
Grieg - Maersk
+ 1'01
8
Podium Ambition
+ 1'05
9
Team Tinkoff
+ 1'08
10
Fablok - Bank BGZ
+ 1'20
11
Isostar - LimeBike
+ 1'26
12
SPAR - Siam Cement
+ 1'37
13
T-Mobile
+ 1'39
14
Evonik - ELKO
+ 1'44
15
Moser - Sygic
+ 1'51
16
EA Vesuvio
+ 1'52
17
eBuddy
+ 1'53
18
Air France - KLM
+ 2'14
19
Andorra Cycling Project
+ 2'25
20
Repsol - Netflix
+ 2'45
21
Indosat Ooredoo - ANZ
+ 2'52
22
Bennelong - Mitchelton
+ 2'54
23
Farfetch Pro Cycling
+ 3'06
24
Festina - OAKA
+ 3'26
Fablok reaches the finish line with help from Bakari and Bush. That help did not turn out too well, as they drop back behind Isostar and SPAR, which they had beaten after 26.7 kilometer. 2'09 the damage in the end.
Evonik led by Blythe with no rider in a different color around them, what a refreshing sight. The team finishes a mediocre 2'33 down on Puma, which will likely give them 16th place after all teams have finished.
Repsol is led by Vanmarcke with Rodriguez on his wheel. Then there is quite a gap to the others, which might be the reason they post the slowest time so far with only four finishers left.
They won't hold the distinction for long. Festina was last at both the Leberg checkpoints, and also put themselves bottom of the table here. 4'39 down on Puma, nearly a minute behind Repsol.
Farfetch is lucky Festina is in this race, otherwise they would have had this distinction. Four and a half minutes behind Puma, which is a serious dent in McCarthy's GC ambitions.
Four Generalis and four Bennelongs sprinting to the line, but they have to wait for the fifth rider.
Generali is the first to have its fifth rider over the line, but the tangle with Bennelong cost them dearly. While they were fifth after the Lebergen, they drop to eighth, one and a half minute behind Puma.
Bennelong is the last team to finish the stage, but they avoid finishing last on the stage rankings. 4'07 for 22nd place.
Now that every team has finished, Team Puma - SAP can finally celebrate. They have won the opening team time trial by 20 seconds over Gazelle and 38 over Aegon - Lavazza. Connor Dunne was the first rider from Puma over the line, which means he receives the first yellow jersey. The white jersey of the youth classification goes to Lukas Melier.
