The 12th stage has the flat time trial. 33,9km with some small bumps, which might help the mroe allround time trialists such as Fraile clearly or even riders like Nerz.
But normally the likes of Ford or Cruz should still be up there. That said, with 11 stages of lots of work in their legs, this might be the bigger struggle for the Glanbia duo.
Koren, Abal are other riders to watch out as they combine some stage racer skills alongside a good time trial.
Obviously Ford is already the first rider at the start and is looking confident. No question, he takes the first lead at both, half time and finish. It might need some time until we know what his time is worth, for now it`s an battle of the early starters.
Cruz is just sligthly better placed but hasn`t had as many solo kilometers. And this might even show off here despite his better all around skills anyway. Just 10s seperate them with the home rider going into the lead at halftime.
Delgerbayar so far was one of the riders relaxing inside the peloton and gruppettos for that stage mainly?
His time is decent, though 3rd behind Cruz and Ford at halftime.
And this doesn`t really change in the finish. 3rd and 24s off with Cruz going into the lead and keeping exactly those 10s from half time.
The next riders, Frame, Marryatt and Kelemen area at least 2'30 behind or in case of Keleman even incredible 10'36.
Into the top50 already as half the peloton did finish already and still the same podium.
Costa the first proper time trialist then, he spend a few days in the breakaway most recently and this might be one reason why he is not coming as close to the podium. 4th and 40s off.
Dulanjana as first stage racer, 3rd thier though being in the decent areas everywhere. He actually takes the lead at half time showing that recovery is a big key today as well. Just 2s though ahead of Cruz!
It remains until the finish though, where it even grew up to 19s!
Krasnoperov another rider with a decent ride lately. 69s off from the best time though and provisional 6th behind Costa.
Koren has a long palmares in his career, mainly though already couple years ago in the time trial battles of the PCT with Reus, Boom and other hilly time trialists.
Today he has another chance for a big win in his veteran years and it doesn`t look bad neither as he goes into the lead at half time 11s faster than Dulanja and even 22s faster in the finish.
Kiserlovski a bit later coming in attacking the top10 GC with a 6th of the day provisionally.
Liphongyu is a rider very similar to Dulanjana, but much better placed in 13th due to having leadership. Though his performance today is pretty bad, already losing 1min at half time and 1'21 in the finish.
Sure in the fight for a top10 or top15 he might still gain quite a bit of time on others but it won`t be enough for a great stage result as he is 6th for now, same time as Kiserlovski.
Fraile is on a mission to win todays TT and move into the top10 GC. And he is on fire, which can be seen late on the stage when he even passing Geniez, who is a decent time trialist himself.
The 22s lead at half time gains to 48s in the finish. The lead ahead of Koren and Dulanja with Cruz and Ford still in the top5 area!
Geniez in 7th having lost 2'10. A popular time with Liphongyu, Kiserlovski and basically Costa within 1-2 seconds.
Brandt is another rider to put pressure on the pure climbers sitting inside the top10. He eis passing Denz on the final kilometers and on the way to a top10 today, definitely passing Denz in GC and maybe also some of the next?
Garby as 22th at half time. Not the worst time trialist but neither a pretty good one. Duarte in similar range as Brandt actually going for a late top10 gaining 1-2 minutes on some rivals.
Actually in the finish those two are 5th and 6th within 1s at 1'35/36 while Garby is losing ~70s on them as provisional 16th and 2'42 just ahead of Moschella.
Now onto the better placed riders with awful TT skills. Raileanu as 6th already lost more than 2min at half time and usually this got doubled in the end.
Atapuma even another 20s off. He won`t be allowed to have more bad days in the mountains if he wants to come back towards the top5 or even podium!
Abal already next, sitting nicely on the podium and about to gain huge time today on the most direct 3 rivals. 4th at half time and just 31s off.
Kuss coming to that point later shows that he already lost ~2min by now. He is sitting in between Atapuma and Raileanu.
Nerz is just 22s off and the better timetrialist. Not by far but still could be enough to get into the GC lead today.
9th and +46s seems quite a decent ride.
Penasa at half time just 2 spots behind and +53!
That`s 7s only and even doubling this till the finish won`t be enough for Nerz!
Full overview about the half time. Fraile on a good way to win just like Koren to follow with Dulanjana having a strong ride ahead of Abal and the pure time trialists.
So far Penasa defends his lead while Abal might become the biggest winner as the time gaps behind his podium spot are about to gain hugely as Raileanu, Kuss or Atapuma are all losing more than 4min in the end!
Abal even climbs another step as he beats Dulanjana`s time in the end resulting in a stage podium if nothing surprising happens behind team mate Fraile and Koren.
Nerz needed to gain more on the second half and comes to the line.
6th behind Cruz actually! 1'33 off, as said, nothing huge today, neither bad nor very good.
It had needed a good performance though as Penasa also had a decent, neither good nor bad day and comes over the line in 10th 1'48 off. That`s 17s and so not enough for a GC change.
The mountains need to make the difference or the mountain TT later on, where it might be again a little bit in favour of Nerz.
The podium unchanged but very close now. The adjusted times later on make it 7s in between Penasa and Nerz.
Abal follows as clear podium favourite now at 3'35, which is a 6'10 gap to Kuss in 4th and then already Fraile inside the top5 now.
Duarte and Brandt follow him as better time trialists, who can climb while Raileanu drops down to 8th followed by Garby, Atapuma.
Just 2'30 between 4th and 10th, which should see the stronger climbers being able to change this again but the podium for now is looking out of reach.
