The riders start in Graytown and finish in Nagambie for their individual, 20.8 kilometer long effort. Zhyhunou is the first to set off, and the 128th and final rider to finish will be Cimolai.
From the riders who are more than 1'01 down in the GC, Sleen has set the fastest time at 25'32.
The first stage contender is Sebright, and he is already thirty seconds faster than Sleen at the halfway point. He ends up beating his time by a minute.
Just as he made it to the hotseat, Robert takes the best time by a second. They had the exact same time at the checkpoint but the Frenchman rode the last ten kilometer a tiny bit faster.
Virtual third place for Ratiy, but 40 seconds down.
Braico does not have the best days, only the eleventh time at split and would not improve much on the second section. He loses more than a minute to the leaders
Al Murawwi goes to sixth place behind the three leaders but also Beniusis. He was behind Flakemore at the checkpoint but overtook him on the rankings at the finish line.
Durasek takes a virtual podium spot, beating Ratiy by ten seconds, half a minute slower than Robert.
Ortega tied with Ratiy at the intermediate, but has a far superior final than him and Durasek to take third, + 23.
Downey two seconds down on Robert at the split and doubles that at the finish line. He pushes Ortega off the podium by taking third place at four seconds.
Van Baarle cannot match the top times, goes to fourth place at 21 seconds.
Joeaar ranked seventh halfway, but beats Durasek by a second for sixth place.
Betilson outside the provisional top ten with his eleventh position, he had hoped for more.
Thill takes a good seventh place, + 37.
One of the favorites for the youth classification is Kukrle, and he takes the virtual lead there. In the category for all ages, he is currently sixth.
Cruz had beaten Robert at the split by two seconds, and he has not lost that advantage in the second part. He even increased his margin to take the fastest time so far: 24'24, seven seconds faster than Robert.
Rekita was very close at the checkpoint, also two seconds down, but he loses the same margin as Robert to tie for second place, the Frenchman ranking ahead on milliseconds. He does take the virtual lead in the young rider classification, with only current leader Kamberaj left to finish.
All riders at 1'01 from Cimolai have now finished, with Cruz as virtual stage winner and GC leader. The current stage top ten is also the virtual GC:
Rank
Name
Team
Time
1
Freddy Cruz
Glanbia Foods Cycling Project
24'24
2
Stelly Robert
Euskaltel - Elior
+ 7
3
Szymon Rekita
Netia - Vonin
s.t.
4
Aggrey Sebright
Glanbia Foods Cycling Project
+ 8
5
Sean Downey
Glanbia Foods Cycling Project
+ 11
6
Dylan Van Baarle
CYBEX Platinum
+ 28
7
Sergio Ortega
Azteca - NBCSN
+ 30
8
Michal Kukrle
Adastra - Hell Energy Cycling
+ 35
9
Gert Joeaar
Eddie Stobart
+ 36
10
Kristijan Durasek
NENT Racing p/b Hootsuite
+ 37
Lauk had only gained six extra seconds at intermediate sprints, and his advantage is already gone after the first few kilometers. Szalontay beats Lauk by a second to defend that position, but he will drop to 30th in the GC. Zingle is probably the best time trialists of these riders so far, and finishes at 1'10 on the edge of the stage top twenty. Everyone up to Durasek will overtake him in the GC, meaning he is 11th at the moment.
Mihaylov is an even better time trialist, ten seconds faster than the Belgian at the split and twenty seconds on the line for 14th place today. He goes to virtual sixth behind Cruz, Robert, Rekita, Sebright and Downey.
But Reckweg is the fastest of them all. He can lose 27 seconds to Cruz to take the GC lead, and has spend only eleven of those at the checkpoint. At the finish line it doubles to 22 for sixth place, but that is still enough to take the virtual lead by five seconds with thirteen riders left to finish.
Carsi, Kamberaj and Cisse are the last riders at + 34 to start, and finish at + 1'50, + 1'27 and + 1'28 respectively. Despite placing on the edge of the top thirty on the stage, Kamberaj loses white to Rekita.
The next three starters are Bennett (+ 32), Yamamoto (+ 28) and Van Poppel (+ 28). At the split they are all more than a minute down already, the Japanese even two minutes. Van Poppel has the best time of the trio, + 2'45, but they will all drop out of their high GC spots.
Rovny (+ 26) finishes in then 76th place at 2'32. Not as bad as the riders before him, but not enough for a GC top 30. It is certainly a lot better than Young (+ 16), who finishes 118th out of 128 riders at + 4'07. Nepomnyachsniy (+ 14) is the first in a long time to not lose more than two minutes on the entire stage. His time at the finish line is just not enough for a top 50, but his plummet in the GC is not as huge as others, around 20th place with only a few riders to finish.
From the sprinters, Moser (+ 14) is the only one with a plausible chance to stay in the top ten, and if he has a very good day he might even take yellow. He has a margin of 20 seconds to Reckweg, and loses one second too much first ten kilometer. On the finish line it is 20th place for the day (+ 1'06 to Cruz, + 44 to Reckweg), and seventh in the GC (+ 24 to Reckweg).
Not the worst ride in the world for Suryadi (+ 10), + 2'22 and 72nd on the stage, but he is now outside the GC top thirty which won't yield any ranking points.
Von Hoff (+ 10) does everything in his power to stay inside that top thirty, and succeeds. He finishes 43rd on the stage at 1'38, which is enough to occupy sixteenth place.
GC-leader Cimolai was not expected to defend the jersey today. He finishes 116th today and drops to 62nd in the GC, but at least he still has the pictures of him in yellow.
With all riders having crossed the line, the results are definitive. Freddy Cruz wins the stage by seven seconds over Robert and Rekita, eight over Sebright and eleven over Downey.
The man of the day however is the rider who finished sixth, Morten Reckweg, as he takes the lead in the GC by five seconds over Cruz with Rekita and Robert, notice the inversion of the stage result, at thirteen seconds in third and fourth. Sebright and Downey fifth and sixth at the same intervals as the stage result. Moser is the best of the sprinters in seventh at 24 seconds, and needs the stage win plus some bonus seconds on the intermediate to take the jersey. Mihaylov also used his advantage to move up to eighth at 28 seconds. Van Baarle and Ortega, who finished seventh and eighth on the stage, complete the GC top ten at 33 and 35 seconds respectively.
The points and mountains classification remain unchanged with Von Hoff and Roberge going into the final stage as leaders. The youth and teams classification did change its leader, Rekita is the best rider under the age of 25 and Glanbia, with three riders in the top five today, has claimed the lead by 1'24 over Netia.
