Hola y bienvenidos for the seventeenth stage of La Vuelta 2020! A 40.5 km TT will most likely be deciding the winner of this year’s Vuelta, even though there are still some mountain stages to come. Lecuisinier leads the GC by 1’13” over Tenorio and 1’43” over Kritskiy. The Spaniard coming from PCT outfit Desigual won the 25 km TT earlier, and beat Lecuisinier by 45”. If that trend continues today, it will be very close for the red jersey, and the Frenchman might hit himself in the head a couple of times again after losing eight seconds two days ago by celebrating too early. Both riders are also still in the race for the green jersey, with Lecuisinier having the advantage there as well. Kritskiy lost 30” to Tenorio in the first time trial, and if he also performs more or less the same, there is a chance of having three riders within a minute at the end of the stage. No more unnecessary talking though, as we’ll soon find out who is the strongest amongst the first riders.
So far, Tanfield is leading the ranking. Not a big surprise of course, as he sure knows how to handle a time-trial bike. Time differences can be very big today, as the red lantern of the stage so far is Clarke, almost 10’ behind 54’19” of the Brit.
Japanese timetrial champion Onodera flies by Olei and Liepins with 5 km to go. He lost 4” at the first chrono, 18” at the second chrono, only to make a comeback and be 7” faster than the best time at the finish! Arif Prayogo and Peng currently third and fourth and the only rider to be within a minute so far.
Surprising stuff by Sipos as well! He is even further behind at the first and second chrono, but also turns it around to be 12” faster than Onodera and also to be the first to dive under the 54 minutes with a time of 53’59”!
Who remembers this guy? Stage 1 winner and former red jersey Harrison shows he’s still feeling alright after sixteen stages and blows the best time of the table by nineteen seconds! Impressive stuff from the sprinter.
Should have saved the expression of “blowing the best time of the table” for this guy though, as Goldstein has the best time at every chrono and then finishes 41” ahead of the best time, and with a time of 52’59” is the first rider to go under the 53 minutes today.
Several riders now doing a bit better than anticipated before and getting in the provisional top-10. Those are Gillett (5th), Koshevoy (7th), Rachid (8th) and Mraouni (10th).
As more riders are finishing, it’s getting harder to finish inside the top-10. Daniel (8th), Castrillo (10th) and Sendeku (6th) manage to do so, but probably won’t be there until the end.
We enter the top-100 of the GC, as Sivakov does a good job by finishing 4th at 1’09” of Goldstein. Ioannidis didn’t manage to finish inside the provisional top-10, which might be a bit disappointing.
Danacik might be scoring some points for Moser – Sygic today. The Czech has the second best time, 28” slower than Goldstein. This pushes Harrison to third and Sipos off the podium.
Sepulveda is the fourth rider to be less than a minute slower than the best time of Goldstein. A finishing time of 53’56” puts him in fourth of today’s stage.
Will the biggest threat for Tenorio come from his own team? Fraile has the best time at the first and second chrono and demolishes the best time by 1’04”! With a time of 51’55” he is the first to dive under the 52 minute-mark. Time for the top 50 of the GC now.
Canty didn’t start very strong today, but saved the best until the end. He is 59” slower than the best time, which puts him in second.
Prado has already won a stage and is hungry for more! He has the sixth time at the first chrono, but now leads by 4” at the second chrono! Flash forward to the finish and… he beats the best time by 10”! Great ride from the Mexican!
Kennaugh does alright and has the fifth best time so far, at 1’18” of Prado.
28 riders to go and these are the thirty best times at the finish line.
Meanwhile, we take a quick look at the starting podium, where red jersey Lecuisinier is ready to do his thing! France, Spain, or maybe Russia. Which one will prevail and take a big step towards winning this year’s Vuelta?!
Valls is 1’56” slower than Prado, which puts him in ninth at the moment. Teammate Velits and Sequera are both 2’25” slower than the best time, which puts them into the top-20 for now. No top-20 for Elissonde, Sosnitskiy and Anacona.
After a terrible day not too long ago, Reis seems to be back in business. The Portuguese TT champion has the second time at the first chrono, to then be first at the second chrono, but fall back to third at the finish line! The number 20 in the GC is 14” slower than the best time, while Kirsch falls outside the top-20 of today’s stage at 2’30” and Bouchard loses even more time and finishes around 45th.
Shikai is another rider who disappointed his manager in this Vuelta. He is 4” slower than Reis and 17” slower than Prado’s best time, which leads to a provisional fourth place.
At the moment, every rider has passed the first chrono. It’s interesting to see how Prado was seventeenth there at 33” of the best time, but is still in the lead at the finish line with 18 riders to go! More interesting though is the battle for the GC! Tenorio has gained eleven seconds over Lecuisinier in the first 12.5 km. He will need to ride a bit faster to overtake him though, as he is still 1’01” behind with 28 km to go! Kritskiy gains six seconds on the red jersey and loses some time to the Spaniard, so he remains in third so far.
Warchol isn’t the best time-trialist and gets passed by Faglum Karlsson with 5 km to go. The Swede finishes in eight position so far, with the riders around him ( Nesset, Warchol and Smith doing worse and not in the top-50 of today’s time trial.
Formolo has been in the top-10 of the GC for quite a while, but dropped out yesterday. He is not the best time-trialist and has to be content with 39th so far, 2’50” slower than the best time.
Goos on the other hand has a decent chance of entering the top-10 of the GC! He’s currently fifth in today’s stage, a bit more than a minute slower than Prado’s time. That could be enough for the man from Vesuvio!
Arndt is definitely the worst time-trialist amongst the climbers. He loses 9’38”, I’m afraid that will mean a lot of GC places, as he was 14th before today’s stage.
Schelling finishes 21st today at 2’44” of the best time, and gets overtaken by Goos in the GC.
Tvetcov is the first of the top-10 riders, and to see the Latvian make it this far is already a pleasant surprise. With an 11th time at 1’47” off Prado’s time one thing is for certain: Goos stays behind the Evonik-rider, who remains in the top-10!
Godoy and Galta meet each other before the second chrono. Galta started later than the white jersey, as the rider from Aker-MOT is only 1” slower than Tvetcov and remains ahead of him. The same can’t be said for the Brazilian though, as he finishes outside of the top-100 at almost five minutes and sees Tvetcov, Goos and Schelling overtake him in the GC!
Brambilla finishes 65th at 3’31”! Galta replaces him in the GC at the seventh place, but the Italian holds on to 8th, which is very nice!
For Hirt this time-trial was more about defending his sixth place in the GC than attacking fifth. Haig flies by him before the finish line, but the Czech finishes 58th and holds his position in the GC!
Haig himself has the fifth best time so far. Fourth place is way too far ahead though, so he remains in fifth in the GC.
With a ninth place at 1’17” of Prado , Gesink didn’t ride the most amazing time trial of his life. It’s more than enough to remain in fourth in the GC though.
Update from the second chrono, as everybody has passed there now! Tenorio still the best of the big three, but Kritskiy only 6” behind! Lecuisinier has only lost 32 seconds so far, which is good enough to keep the red jersey! The Frenchman has 41 seconds to spare with only 9 km to go!
Kritskiy is the first of the big three to come in. He had the fourth time at the first and second chrono, but drops to fifth at the finish line! He is 36” slower than Prado, who is now waiting for the arrival of Tenorio!
Here he is… but only comes in fifth! The Spaniard is 11” faster than Kritskiy, but 25” slower than the Mexican!
Red jersey Lecuisinier doesn’t lose his jersey! He has the ninth time at 1’07” of Prado and 42” of Tenorio!
