Both Visser and Price-Pejtersen were expected to have outside chances at a decent result in the young riders classification. Visser was fairly disappointing, falling short of the best time that had at that point been set by Ji and would be beaten many times afterwards. Price-Pejtersen fared significantly better, he was just 7 seconds off the best time as he passed the checkpoint, the best young rider at that point indeed.



Krasnoperov and Cardona were expected to battle for the best time in this early slate, but actually, neither of them took it at the checkpoint. Cardona tied Price-Pejtersen’s time, Krasnoperov was one second faster. But both were beaten by De Vos, who looked really strong on this early sector.

Things are heating up now, with some actual contenders taking the road. Mottin is the first and he certainly leaves his mark, overtaking Ciolek already and demolishing the best time at the checkpoint by 26 seconds.



Ablenado disappointed, barely cracking the Top 10 at the checkpoint, but Richardson does better and comes through in second place. Still 15 seconds behind Mottin though.



As Castrillo, one of the top favorites for white, comes through, it becomes obvious how strong Mottin’s time was. The Spaniard is 26 seconds behind, tied with both De Vos and Geniez, who passed the checkpoint moments earlier.



Bulgarian Champ Stoenchev can’t compete either, he’s another 4 seconds slower than Castrillo. Quite the disappointment so far, but maybe he can recover a bit on the second half of the course. Christapopoulos is next, he ties Castrillo and Geniez.

Nothing significantly changed over the second half of the course and to most people’s surprise but surely his manager’s delight, De Vos proved to be the strongest rider in this group. He even extended his lead further!



Cardona managed to improve a little bit to overtake both Krasnoperov and Price-Pejtersen, but not enough for this man, as Agostini kept his second place for now.

Mottin is on a roll, almost overtaking a second rider. He almost doubles his lead over De Vos from 26 seconds at the checkpoint to 51 at the line. That’s going to be tough to beat.



Richardson is still the main challenger so far, he manages to limit his losses to a total of 26 seconds.



Geniez was doing really well in the first half, competing with nominally stronger riders. He moves into third overall for the moment, ahead of De Vos.



It’s super close in that range. First, Castrillo moves into third by less than a second, then Christapopoulos falls short of him and Geniez by just about one second and is fifth for now. Stoenchev does not even beat De Vos, that’s disappointing.

More and more contenders are underway now, for the GC of course, but also for white, trying to compete with Castrillo. Marryatt was one of them, but he couldn’t deliver. Then comes Noia (pictured) though and he really does. 3rd at the checkpoint as he passes, 23 seconds behind Mottin but also 8 ahead of Van Winden, who does not seem to have a good day whatsoever.



Andersen on the other hand looks excellent. He beats Noia and is just one second short of Richardson. Teammate Marchewka doesn’t quite do as well, he’s 12 seconds slower.



Campenaerts was expected to compete for the GC win and he does well for sure, provisional second at the moment, but still 13 seconds behind Mottin, whose time only gets more impressive as time passes.



Vandousselaere is the last rider of note in this batch, it’s a decent time though nothing spectacular. 31 seconds off the lead, enough for 13th at the moment. Just before him, Pavlic came through with a very disappointing time, another 24 seconds slower.

Van Winden came with at least Top 10 ambitions, perhaps even more. He won’t get there. 8th place for the moment with almost 50 riders still to come.



Noia on the other hand confirms his good form. He loses another 20 seconds on Mottin but manages to keep the likes of Castrillo and Geniez behind him. He then has to give up one spot to Andersen though, who confirms his time from the first split and ends up in third, again just a single second behind Richardson, who rode a very impressive race.



The same can’t be said about Marchewka, unfortunately. He still does end up ahead of Van Winden, but won’t ultimately land in the Top 10 either.



Campenaerts will for sure. Will it be the podium, though? His provisional second place might be enough, but can’t be sure yet. Crabbe get another highlight a few minutes later, as Vandousselaere actually had a stellar second half of the race and moves all the way up to fifth place for the moment!

With Richardson already in provisional 3rd place and still three more top time trialists on the road, Glanbia hopes for a great day. Oram is the first of the three, he ties Richardson for third place. Shortly afterwards, Downey does him one better: He comes by far the closest to Mottin, just 4 seconds off! Gonzalez Cortes meanwhile was not able to crack the Top 20.



Glanbia’s top option is Cruz though and he shows it! New best time by 10 seconds! The wind has picked up a bit over these past few minutes and it’s coming from behind for the most part, so we might see some very strong times coming up.



And indeed, Cruz’ best time lasts for exactly two riders, then Cosnefroy comes through and is another 10 seconds faster! Teammate Thomas slots into second place, 2 seconds slower.



Li is the final favorite on the road. He confirms his ambitions and is just 5 seconds slower than Cosnefroy!

Both Oram and Downey (pictured) come to the finish and the former is actually the first riders to be faster than Mottin on the second half of the course, evidently benefitting from the better wind conditions as well! It's still not enough to take the lead, so Downey ends up second and Oram third, 6 and 10 seconds behind the French, respectively.



Then comes Cruz and unsurprisingly, we see a new best time. 17 seconds faster than Mottin, almost cracking the 23 minute mark - but it can surely only be a matter of time before that’s broken.



Indeed, just as at the time check, Cruz’ time doesn’t hold long. Cosnefroy beats it by a whopping 18 seconds.



Thomas comes in 4 seconds slower and makes it a 1-2 for Aramco at the moment, only one man who can possibly prevent it …



… but Li doesn’t quite get there! Third place for the Chinese!



Kump obviously never stood a chance to defend yellow today, but he’ll still wear green tomorrow, hunting for a second stage win.