Although it was A. Nepomnyachsniy who was the first out of the gate, his opening time didn't last long enough for him to reach the hotseat. Dion Beukeboom, who had struggled in the mountain stages, was finally unleashed; it took him 9'51" to reach the first checkpoint, and his total time was just 21'18", a full minute and a half faster than his predecessor.

The first rider to show an interest in challenging Beukeboom
came from a surprising corner; Vingerling is better known for his quick finishes, but evidently there is some promise on the TT-bike as well. Unfortunately, he faded in the latter part and ended up more than a minute down.

This was followed up by a duo of TT-specialists in Campenaerts and Knotten. With both within 10 seconds at the intermediate timecheck things were looking promising, unfortunately for Knotten he couldn't maintain the same pace across the latter half. Campenaerts came excrutiatingly close, and had our eyes glued to the clock; unfortunately it ticked over twice just before he came to line.

A number of challengers then passed rapidly, none of them coming as close as Campenaerts had. Oram, Forssell, Tesfom, Tzortzakis. All looked like they might be in with a chance at the intermediate checkpoint but faded heavily in the second part. This pointed to the possibility that, far from everybody else fading away, Beukeboom had actually increased his pace coming into the finish.

Several other big names would pass through before we reached the Top 50: Akhmaevi, Daniel, Fejes, Downey; with the latter being the best of the lot. He was two seconds down at the intermediate checkpoint, but like so many others lost more time the further into the stage he got. He limited his losses to an aggregate of just 11 seconds where others were losing 20"-1'00".

We would have to wait a significant while before another worthy challenger emerged in the form of Miguel Angel Benito. Not exactly considered the most impressive of timetriallists he was perhaps benefited by the mild uphill slant of the stage, and especially the minor bump early on could be the cause of him being just a second down on Beukeboom at the intermediate timecheck. Unfortunately, he too would suffer from the curse of losing time later into the stage, although he would snag the final podium spot from Downey by a matter of milliseconds.

Fortunately 4| Benito was rapidly followed up by another exciting ride; keeping the viewers engaged. This time it was Jesus Herrada, who had done so much exciting work when his leader had lapsed. The Spaniard went one better than his countryman, holding a lead of a second come the intermediate sprint. Even this was not sufficient to break the curse which plagued all those who challenged for the hotseat: Herrada faded to a 9 second deficit.

The gaps had not been massive thus far, the Top 20 seperated by just 49 seconds. Not a good sign for those hoping to make large gains in the general classification.

With Will Barta nearly two minutes down on Brandon McNulty, something big would need to happen if there was going to be any change in the U25 classification. Similar gaps existed down the order there. Although Barta put in a good effort, so did McNulty; and a gap of six seconds was never going to mean much. Not even the horrendous TTing of Daniel Munoz resulted in any lost positions.

Exciting things were happening in the fight for the stage win however, as Jakub Novak came storming through the first checkpoint with a time of 9'40. This was enough to give him an 11 second advantage over Beukeboom, but not enough to see anyone confident in his victory. After all, everyone had been losing time to Beukeboom post-checkpoint, although for some that had been less than ten seconds... and so it was for Novak! In fact, the Czech cyclist's time of 21'03" meant he had gained an addition two seconds.

A ride to forget for Amador, as despite being the most prestigious timetriallist of the GC contenders he fails to live up to the name. A middling time drops him behind Potocki, and forced him to hope that his opponents would be even worse.

Another mediocre time from a decent timetriallist, perhaps the conditions had changed? Fortunately for Salinas he was marginally better than Amador; confirming a GC finish of at least 4th.

Well clearly it wasn't the conditions that were pressuring the previous two. Campero slamming through with a blistering time, putting him in an excellent position to challenge for the GC.

Poor from Martin, but that's what we expected. He drops behind Campero but does enough to stay ahead of Salinas.

After yesterday's heroics there will be many who will feel Kuss deserved to take the general classification as a reward. Unfortunately, it was not to be. An abysmal time saw him drop behind both Campero and Martin, handing the former the yellow jersey.