Meintjes and Latour combined to deliver a gut punch to the rest of peloton on the final climb yesterday, and see themselves at 2nd and 4th respectively in the GC at the start of today's stage. The former in fact is tied on the same time as race leader Pluchkin, and only trails via a tie-break. Neither are particularly good time-triallists, so they will be on the defensive today to protect their places.
The Top 10 is still quite close and there could be many changes in positions in those positions. That trend continues till a bit further down in the GC and it is only around the 20th spot that the gaps begin increasing. Gesink in 6th is one of the pre-stage minor favourites, and he will be hoping to make up some time and places on this stage. Barring any catastrophe, Pluchkin should take the GC win here as he is a much better time-triallist than the entire Top 10, barring Gesink.
Favourites
FLA
TT
Lammertink
74
80
Viennet
72
80
Mottin
69
79
Nareklishvili
74
78
Pluchkin
73
78
Hofer
73
78
Leung
73
78
Gesink
71
78
Bobridge
73
77
Postlberger
73
77
Hussein
68
77
First Sector
Mottin is placed last in the GC currently and is the first rider to set off. He sets a time of 15'24" at the first intermediate.
Viennet starts a few positions later and improves the best time to 15'8".
Leung hasn't had the best of starts. He is 27 seconds down.
Hofer does better and slots into 2nd, 6 seconds down.
Postlberger has lost 13 seconds.
Christodoulos is just 1 second off the best time!
Mora sets the new best time! It's 15'2". The uphill seems to be having quite an effect on the times.
Hussein further improves the best time to 14'58"!
Penko is 8 seconds off the pace.
Lammertink sets the new best time of 14'46". He has already won the Prologue in this race. Can he do the TT double?
De Luna improves the time further to 14'36"!
De Bod loses 14 seconds.
Nareklishvili moves into second, having lost just 4 seconds.
Andriafenomananiaina is in contention after losing 8 seconds in the first sector.
Barbio is down by just 1 second.
Intxausti having a much better day, and is 2 seconds off the top currently.
Bernal is a further second down.
Bobridge is looking for some redemption but he's lost 17 seconds already.
Senni takes the lead with a time of 14'35".
Tvetcov is 5 seconds down.
The Top 15 in the GC are on the road now...
Brenes is down 31".
Penasa is just a second better off.
Karnulin is slower at 39 seconds.
Carthy is on a bad run. 1 minute down at the first checkpoint.
Talansky is slower by 33 seconds.
Bennett is struggling already, down 1'8".
Sagan is on a worse run still. He has already lost 1'22".
Oomen loses 37 seconds.
Choi is a little better off at 34 seconds.
Gesink with the new best time! The time to beat now is 14'13".
Kudus loses 35 seconds.
Latour is 1'3" down already.
Lopez has lost 36 seconds.
Meintjes has lost 7 seconds further still.
Pluchkin is the last one through the first intermediate and he is down by just 4 seconds.
First Intermediate Top 20
Gesink
14'13"
Pluchkin
14'17"
Senni
14'35"
De Luna
14'36"
Barbio
14'37"
Intxausti
14'38"
Bernal
14'39"
Tvetcov
14"40"
Nareklishvili
14'40"
Andriafenomananiaina
14'44"
Lammertink
14"46"
Soler
14'46"
Kudus
14'48"
Lopez
14'49"
Dulanjana
14'49"
De Bod
14'50"
Duarte
14'52"
Bobridge
14'53"
Ignatenko
14'57"
Hussein
14'48"
Second Sector
Mottin sets the first time at the finish. It is 27'59".
Viennet improves it to 27'30".
Leung has had a bad day and loses nearly a minute at the line.
Hofer is 2nd for the moment, losing 21 seconds.
Postlberger is 36 seconds slower.
Christodoulos didn't have a good second sector and finishes 26 seconds slower.
Mora too loses time on the second sector and finishes 14 seconds off the pace.
The same trend continues with Hussein who can't keep his advantage from the first sector and ends up 9 seconds down.
Penko loses 20 seconds.
Lammertink sets the new best time of 27'12". He keeps his chances of doing the double.
De Luna loses 10 seconds a the line. The specialists are getting time back in the second sector.
De Bod is 29 seconds down.
Nareklishvili goes into 3rd, with a time of 17'25".
Andriafenomananiaina moves into 2nd, 10 seconds down.
Barbio takes 2nd place away. He is 9 seconds off the pace.
Intxausti loses a bit at the end and ends up 17 seconds slower.
Bernal does a little better, 12 seconds away.
Bobridge will be disappointed again, 28 seconds off the pace.
Senni gets close but is 3 seconds slower at the line. He sits second for the moment.
Tvetcov loses 21 seconds on the day.
Back with the Top 15...
Brenes loses 1'9".
Penasa is 2 seconds better off.
Karnulin loses 1'17".
Carthy's day gets worse as he loses nearly 90 seconds.
Talansky improves in the second sector and finishes 29 seconds down.
Bennett with a huge time loss of 1'39". That will surely be some positions dropped for him.
Sagan is slower still at 1'46". He too is looking to be going the Bennett way in the GC.
Oomen does well and limits his time limit to 34 seconds.
Choi does better, improves in the second sector and ends up 26 seconds down.
Gesink stays to form and improves Lammertink's time. The new best time is 26'40".
Kudus loses 1'5" to Gesink and with it, his GC place too.
Latour does worse, loses 1'49" and drops down a few positions in the GC as well. Yesterday's good ride seems to be a distant memory now.
Lopez loses 1'3" and he too will lose a GC place.
Meintjes is slower than Gesink by 1'14" which is almost exactly the gap in the GC before this stage. It's going to be close for 2nd place!
Pluchkin comes through, putting an end to this race. He loses 9 seconds on the day, finishing 2nd. He retains his jersey with and wins the race!
Today's winner - Robert Gesink.
Aleksandr Pluchkin wins the 2020 edition of the Volta a Portugal. His gap at the end is over a minute but it was anything but that easy over the duration of this race. Gesink keeps his best for last, winning the stage today and moving up to 2nd in the GC, just a second faster than Meintjes, whose effort yesterday was one for the ages! The latter will be disappointed with losing 2nd on the final day but a podium placing is a good result for him still.
Lopez led the race for a day. He finishes 4th in the GC. Kudus went under the radar for most of the race, but consistency gets him 5th place. Choi had a bright start to the race but a couple of weaker hilly stages saw him drop down a few spots, before a resurrection on the final few stages to finish 6th. Latour was brilliant on Stage 8 but the ITT was a step too far and he falls to 7th. Oomen held the U25 jersey from Stage 2 onwards. Like Choi, he too started brightly, but fell off in the hilly stages. He couldn't quite improve as much and ends 8th. Talansky did well today and moves up two spots to 9th. Sagan drops to 10th, the best finish by a pure puncher in the race. Bennett drops out of the Top 10 after toady's stage.
Pluchkin also wins the Points standings, with Gesink jumping to 2nd today. Lopez finishes 3rd.
Krizek had wrapped up the KOM jersey yesterday. Meintjes and Lane finish on the podium.
Oomen comfortable wins the U25 classification, 8 minutes ahead of 2nd placed De Plus, giving Lierse a 1-2. Min finishes 3rd.
Generali wins the Teams standings with their consistency all through the race. Lierse, also very consistent, finish 2nd, ahead of Duolingo.
