Hello and welcome to sunny Slovenia and the first stage which is a Team Time Trial. We have a perfect full startlist with all 20 teams sending 8 riders each, all of whom will be looking to make a good start as a platform to push on for the rest of the race.
Let us look at the favourites for today in the following section.
Favourites
Duolingo
*****
EA Vesuvio
*****
Polar
*****
cycleYorkshire
****
Generali
****
Los Pollos Hermanos
****
Minions
****
Team Puma - SAP
****
Team Tinkoff - La Datcha
***
Kraftwerk Man Machine
***
Podium Ambition
**
Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam
**
Grieg-Maersk
**
Bralirwa - Stevens
**
Binance Cycling
*
Eurosport x GCN
*
Festina - OAKA
*
Mapei
*
Project: Africa
*
Sauber Petronas Racing
*
Los Pollos get us started and go through the first time check with a time of 11'29".
Puma improves it by 2 seconds to 11'27".
Eurosport are slower by 34 seconds.
Polar ties up the best time at the first check.
Lierse loses 21 seconds.
Grieg is a second quicker than Lierse.
EA Vesuvio ties the best time at the first check.
Minions lose 12 seconds so far.
Binance is 34 seconds down.
Duolingo sets the new best time of 11'25".
Generali is 6 seconds off.
Kraftwerk is a bit slower still, down 18 seconds.
Mapei aren't doing well and are already 49 seconds down.
Project Africa are only just a bit better at 41 seconds.
Sauber is a further 5 seconds slower.
cycleYorkshire are better but still 15 seconds down.
Festina not doing great so far, having lost 34 seconds.
Podium Ambition lose 21 seconds in the first sector.
Tinkoff go close. They are 7 seconds down.
Bralirwa are 34 seconds down.
Rankings after First Intermediate
Duolingo
11'25
EA Vesuvio
11'27
Puma
s.t.
Polar
s.t
Los Pollos
11'29
Generali
11'31
Tinkoff
11'32
Minions
11'39
cycleYorkshire
11'40
Kraftwerk
11'43
Podium Ambition
11'46
Grieg
11'47
Lierse
11'48
Bralirwa
11'59
Festina
s.t.
Binance
12'01
Eurosport
s.t.
Project Africa
12'06
Sauber
12'11
Mapei
12'14
Los Pollos set a time of 31'34" at the second time check.
Puma improve it to 21'29".
Eurosport fall further back to 1'15" down.
Polar tie the fastest time.
Lierse are 41 seconds down.
Grieg have lost 51 seconds in the first two sectors.
EA Vesuvio set the fastest time of 31'28".
Minions are slower by 25 seconds.
Binance are more than a minute down at 1'15".
Duolingo set the new fastest time of 31'22".
Generali are 16 seconds off the pace.
Kraftwerk are 31 seconds slower so far.
Mapei are already nearly 2 minutes down!
Project Africa are 1'36" behind already.
Sauber are a further 10 seconds off the pace.
cycleYorkshire have lost 30 seconds so far.
Festina are slower by 1'14" across the first two sectors.
Podium Ambition are slightly better off at 46 seconds.
Tinkoff remain consistent and sit 15 seconds off the pace for the moment.
Bralirwa are now 1'15" down.
Rankings after Second Intermediate
Duolingo
31'22
EA Vesuvio
31'28
Puma
31'29
Polar
s.t.
Los Pollos
31'34
Tinkoff
31'37
Generali
31'38
cycleYorkshire
31'52
Kraftwerk
s.t
Minions
31'53
Podium Ambition
32'08
Lierse
32'10
Grieg
32'20
Festina
32'36
Bralirwa
32'37
Binance
32'43
Eurosport
32'44
Project Africa
32'58
Sauber
33'08
Mapei
33'16
Los Pollos set a final time of 41'20".
Puma better it to 41'16".
Eurosport are 1'38" down after today.
Polar are just 2 seconds off the best time at the finish!
Lierse are 52 seconds off the pace.
EA Vesuvio are the new leaders, setting a time of 41'13".
Minions are 33 seconds down at the finish.
Binance are 1'38" slower today.
Duolingo maintain their form and set the fastest time of 41'06".
Generali lose only an extra second in the finals sector and end up 17 seconds off the pace.
Kraftwerk are 31 seconds slower than the best time.
Mapei are a huge 2'33" down at the line.
Project Africa clock in having lost 2'4".
Sauber are a further 20 seconds down at 2'24".
cycleYorkshire lose 26 seconds.
Festina lose 1'35".
Podium Ambition stop the clock 58 seconds down.
Tinkoff are 21 seconds slower today.
Bralirwa are the last team to finish and lose 1'37".
Today's winner - Duolingo.
Duolingo put Kacmarek into the leader's jersey and Razumov into the U25s jersey by winning today's stage.
