The second and final time trial of this race is a team time trial. There are two battles going on at the same time, but the two are closely interwoven. The first is for the stage win, the second is for gains and against losses in the GC. They can’t be entirely seperated, of course, because all of the top favorites for the stage win also have GC riders in their ranks. Let’s first take a look at the team strengths for today:
Top 3
Top 5
Top 7
cycleYorkshire
79
77
75
Generali
78
77
76
Team Puma - SAP
78
77
76
Team UBS
78
77
76
Air France - KLM
78
77
74
Gazelle
76
76
76
Moser - Sygic
77
75
72
Bennelong - Mitchelton
76
75
73
eBuddy
77
74
72
Rakuten Pro Cycling
76
74
73
Spoiler
Top 3
Top 5
Top 7
EA Vesuvio
75
73
71
Volvo acc. by Spotify
76
72
70
Grieg - Maersk
74
72
71
Aker - MOT
75
72
69
Azteca - NBCSN
74
72
70
Aegon - Peroni
73
72
71
Team Tinkoff - La Datcha
73
72
71
Indosat Ooredoo
74
72
68
Festina - OAKA
75
71
68
ISA - Hexacta
72
71
70
King Power
72
71
69
Evonik - ELKO
70
69
68
Swisslion Cycling Team
71
68
67
Isostar - Specialized
69
67
66
Four teams stand out as potential stage winners: cycleYorkshire, Generali, Team Puma - SAP and Team UBS.
With that in mind, here are the riders I considered GC contenders in the preview, with their current GC position and their estimated team strength today:
1
Silvio Herklotz
Team Puma - SAP
30h59'14
*****
3
Romain Sicard
Air France - KLM
+ 30
****
4
Simon Spilak
Generali
+ 41
*****
5
Angel Madrazo
Gazelle
+ 48
****
7
Lachlan Morton
Bennelong - Mitchelton
+ 1'10
****
8
Joseph Dombrowski
eBuddy
+ 1'33
***
9
Louis Meintjes
cycleYorkshire
s.t.
*****
10
Patrick Schelling
Team UBS
s.t.
*****
12
Nairo Quintana
Rakuten Pro Cycling
+ 1'37
***
13
Daan Olivier
Aegon - Peroni
+ 1'38
**
15
Primoz Roglic
Isostar - Specialized
+ 1'44
*
16
Warren Barguil
Moser - Sygic
+ 1'50
****
24
Ryan Eastman
Azteca - NBCSN
+ 2'33
***
25
Jose Alarcon
Volvo acc. by Spotify
+ 2'41
***
26
Natnael Berhane
ISA - Hexacta
+ 2'54
**
34
William Chiarello
Evonik - ELKO
+ 3'42
*
42
Fredrik Strand Galta
Aker - MOT
+ 4'09
***
55
Caio Godoy
EA Vesuvio
+ 4'34
***
62
Gregory Brenes
Indosat Ooredoo
+ 4'50
**
90
Andy Schleck
EA Vesuvio
+ 5'41
***
103
Richard Antonio Carapaz
Volvo acc. by Spotify
+ 5’57
***
So among the top contenders, Herklotz, Spilak, Meintjes and Schelling can be hopeful to gain some time, while Dombrowski, Quintana and to an even bigger extent Olivier and Roglic and their teams have to be in damage control mode. Considering the last few names, Barguil could also end up as one of today’s beneficiaries.
Swisslion Cycling Team, as the last team in the teams classification, starts today off. It’s not very likely that they move up from that place, as they’re expected to be involved in a three-way fight for last place today with Isostar and Evonik. Their time at the intermediate time check stands at 18’06.
The first team with a GC contender on the road is Aker - MOT. Galta has already lost a bunch of time and will likely be relying on breakaways to improve, but their time today looks decent for the moment. Provisional second place at the checkpoint, 6 seconds behind current leaders King Power.
Grieg - Maersk has neither a GC rider to support nor any great ambitions for today, but that doesn’t prevent them from putting in a really good effort so far. They set the new best time by 15 seconds.
Rakuten Pro Cycling around Japanese time trial champion Onodera and GC captain Quintana is on paper the strongest squad so far, but they trail Grieg - Maersk by 14 seconds at the checkpoint.
As mentioned earlier, Team UBS is among the favorites for the stage win. They underscore that by taking the lead at the checkpoint, but 10 seconds on Grieg - Maersk isn’t all that much.
Cyprian champ Christodoulos leads Swisslion over the line. The first time at the finish is
35’49
King Power finishes and, not surprisingly, take the lead.
35’06
Meanwhile, Air France - KLM passes the checkpoint. With a very good time trialing squad, trailing Team UBS by 7 seconds is within expectations, but they are only 3 seconds ahead of Grieg - Maersk. But that likely says more about how good their time actually was.
Next at the line is Festina - OAKA. They had a stellar individual time trial, which led to Vlatsos taking the yellow jersey, but other than him, there’s not much there in terms of time trialing ability and it shows. 30 seconds off the lead for them.
Said two riders are even overtaken by Aker - MOT as they cross the line. But that’s more due to their weakness rather than Aker’s strength. They finish second for the moment, 13 seconds behind King Power, who do much better than expected so far.
35’18
Volvo acc. by Spotify have a decent squad on paper with Norwegian Champ Haugaard and Van Zandbeek, but they really leave their leader Alarcon hanging. At the checkpoint, they’re third to last.
Azteca - NBCSN can’t do much to help Eastman out, but that was to be expected. They’re 8th at the moment at the checkpoint, with the same time as Aker
With half the teams past the checkpoint, here’s a quick overview.
Grieg - Maersk, the overperformers of the first section, unsurprisingly take the lead at the finish, but they actually lose 2 seconds of the gap they had to King Power.
34’50
Rakuten Pro Cycling have a poor second sector and fall behind Aker and King Power, who they both were ahead of at the checkpoint. Certainly a blow for Quintana.
35’23
Bennelong - Mitchelton on the other hand do pretty well, they’re third halfway through the stage, only a second behind Air France and Sicard.
Dillier leads Team UBS over the line to make their bid for the stage win. They take the lead comfortably with 15 seconds to spare.
34’35
The fight for (against?) last place is also on. Isostar - Specialized are 3 seconds slower than their compatriot team Swisslion.
Air France - KLM were 7 seconds behind Team UBS at the checkpoint and just about double that to 15 seconds, tied for second place with Grieg.
34’50
Then eBuddy come to the checkpoint. Their references for the GC podium fight are Air France and Bennelong, but somewhat expectedly, they fall behind both of them, 17 and 16 seconds, respectively.
Team Tinkoff - La Datcha are the next to finish. There’s very little at stake for them, but they do reasonably well. 5th for the moment.
35’16
Volvo acc. by Spotify were towards the bottom at the checkpoint and they continue that way, finishing second to last, just 3 seconds ahead of Swisslion. However, that’s also just 1’10 behind Team UBS and 22 seconds behind a team like Rakuten. The gaps are significantly smaller than they were on a comparable course last year.
35’45
Aegon - Peroni cross the checkpoint with the exact same time as Volvo. Not great, but that was to be expected.
Then we’re back to the fight for the stage win, but cycleYorkshire have a pretty disappointing first sector. Just the 5th best time, 11 seconds behind UBS.
With Team Puma - SAP, another stage win contender follows next and they do much better. They’re also behind UBS, but only by a single second.
Azteca - NBCSN finish with a decent, though not particularly notable time. 8th place for now, close to a minute off the lead.
35’31
Which means that half of all teams are now done, so time for another overview.
Bennelong - Mitchelton finish in 4th place for the moment. Just 3 seconds behind Air France. I assume they will be okay with that.
34’53
Five teams are left at the checkpoint, the first is EA Vesuvio. They’ve had a rough race so far, as Schleck’s GC campaign has gotten off to a desastrous start and despite all their sprint power, they only have a single third place to show for. Today though, they perform according to expectation and are right in the middle of the pack at the checkpoint.
Isostar - Specialized were just 3 seconds behind Swisslion at the time check, but they really slowed down towards the finish and increased that gap to 26 seconds. They are the only team so far with a gap of more than 1’30.
36’11
ISA - Hexacta are next and while they do better, they don’t do so by much. Falling 4 seconds behind Swisslion, they drop to second to last place.
35’52
Moser - Sygic and their leader Barguil were expected to do pretty well today, but they’re only 12th at the checkpoint.
The fight for the stage win is shaping up to be incredibly close. Generali are only a second behind the lead at the halfway point, tied with Puma.
Dombrowski leads eBuddy over the line. While they weren’t expected to compete for the stage win, they surely hoped to do better than losing almost half a minute to Air France and Bennelong.
35’16
Gazelle do pretty well so far, 8 seconds behind UBS and, more importantly, just 7 behind Puma and Generali.
Aegon - Peroni finish 13th of 17 so far, which is not great, but at + 1’10, they limit their losses to many of their direct rivals pretty well.
35’45
The last team through the checkpoint is Evonik - ELKO. They haven’t given up on the last place that has so often been theirs, riding only a second faster than Isostar so far. But the Slovenians had a terrible second half of the race.
Final overview before we know the full result: It’s a three way battle for the stage win.
cycleYorkshire recover a little bit and only add 3 more seconds to their deficit to UBS. That’s enough to jump past a few teams to provisional second place, but it’s still not quite what they had hoped for.
34’48
Who gets the stage win, part 1: With a phenomenal second sector, Team Puma - SAP turn a one second deficit into a 10 second lead! That’s quite the hurdle for Generali and also a gap of 25 and 28 seconds to GC rivals Sicard and Morton.
34’25
EA Vesuvio have a pretty solid second half and jump from 16th to 10th - although three teams left on the road might still overtake them.
35’17
Moser - Sygic are the first of them, and they do so in convincing fashion. With a second half that was just as fast as that of Puma, they enter the Top 10, even ahead of Bennelong!
34’52
Who gets the stage win, part 2: Generali have to follow up a fantastic performance by Puma …
Spoiler
… and they actually do! They take the lead by a full five seconds!
34’19
With phenomenal times by the teams of Herklotz and Spilak, Gazelle are under pressure to keep Madrazo close. And they deliver! Overtaking UBS and cycleYorkshire, they finish third, just 7 seconds behind Generali and 2 behind Puma! They blunder a little by having their leader finish 7th of the team, which costs him 5 seconds, but still, very impressive.
34’26
The final decision of the day: Who finishes last? Completely against their nature, Evonik - ELKO actually do pretty well in the second half and not only not finish last, but even move up to 19th! Not bad! Or is it?
35’43
So while the predicted Top 6 indeed finished in the Top 6, the order and some of the gaps are certainly a bit surprising. cycleYorkshire losing almost half a minute, and Gazelle gaining more than 20 on Air France and keeping up with Generali and Puma run counter to expectations.
We now have a clearer picture of the GC heading into the mountains. Herklotz leads the GC with a gap of 35 seconds to Spilak and already 53 seconds on Madrazo. Sicard is only a second behind, fully in the fight for the podium.
Morton lags behind a bit, 43 seconds behind the Frenchman. Dombrowski has lost even more, he’s a full minute and a half behind Sicard and Madrazo.
Among the second tier of GC contenders, Schelling and Meintjes leave the first nine days in the best position, Barguil not far behind.
And while Cavagna has extended his lead in the young riders classification significantly today, tomorrow is likely still his last day in the white jersey. The stronger climbers will take over from here, with Gidich, Geoghegan Hart, Powless and Godoy all within reach.
With their strong performance, Gazelle have taken over the lead in the team classification. And lastly, of course, a look at the GC also reveals that Van Zandbeek has fallen behind Heymes again to take the Lanterne Rouge. However, with the first mountain top finish looming tomorrow, expect some movement there as well.
Tour de France 
