The historic townhall of Mulhouse, the first French start town of the race.
We have arrived in France after four eventful days in Germany. Leaving his home country, Herklotz has taken over the yellow jersey but time gaps are still minimal, stemming only from the prologue and a few bonus seconds. That will change in today’s team time trial, as might the GC leader.
On a 35 kilometers long route from Mulhouse to Rougemont le Château that is mostly flat, but contains prolongued stretches of 2% inclines and short ramps of up to 6%, we can expect some more significant time differences between those contenders whose teams have explicitly prepared for this stage and those that haven’t.
All of the top teams for this stage have a GC contender (of varying strength), so the fight for the GC and the fight for the stage win overlap. As a reminder, these are the expected team strengths from the preview:
Top 3
Top 5
Avg
Tinkoff - La Datcha Team
79
79
78
Polar
80
79
76
Duolingo
79
78
76
Team UBS
79
77
75
cycleYorkshire
79
77
74
Team Puma - SAP
77
76
75
Aegon - Peroni
77
75
73
Aker - MOT
78
76
70
MOL Cycling Team
76
75
72
Spoiler
Grieg - Maersk
75
74
71
Gjensidige Pro Cycling
75
74
71
EA Vesuvio
74
73
71
Gazelle
74
72
71
Moser - Sygic
76
73
68
De Stijl Cycling
75
73
69
ISA - Hexacta
73
73
70
Los Pollos Hermanos
74
72
69
King - Power
74
72
68
ELCO - ABEA
72
71
67
Isostar - Specialized
73
70
67
Zwift Pro Cycling
73
70
66
Huski Chocolate
70
68
66
Cedevita
69
68
66
Evonik - ELKO
64
64
62
And looking at those Top 6 teams, here are the riders that are the most realistic contenders to wear yellow after today:
1
Silvio Herklotz
Team Puma - SAP
14h11'00
2
Pierre Latour
Polar
+ 2
12
Joao Almeida
Duolingo
+ 13
16
Lachlan Morton
cycleYorkshire
+ 15
18
Pedro Sequera
Team UBS
+ 16
23
Rigoberto Uran
Tinkoff - La Datcha Team
+ 20
Already the second team on the road, Polar are one of the top favorites today. Not only do they want the stage win, but Latour has a good chance to be in yellow at the end of the day. They also show us that the gaps can indeed get pretty large today, beating Los Pollos Hermanos by 31 seconds on the first checkpoint alone. ISA – Hexacta is 20 seconds slower than Polar, Zwift a whole minute.
But there is still competition. cycleYorkshire, riding for the GC chances of Morton, are only 3 seconds behind the lead at the first checkpoint. Only one second slower is MOL, a strong start. Aegon comes through at + 12.
Herklotz’s yellow jersey was deemed in danger but maybe that was premature: Puma actually sets a new best time by 3 seconds!
As expected, UBS join the fight for the stage win. Their deficit to Puma is 7 seconds at the first checkpoint, so they still need to improve. Meanwhile, Cedevita challenge Zwift for the worst time but remain 3 seconds ahead, and Grieg comes through provisional 7th at + 23, right around where you’d expect them to be.
The first few teams have passed the second checkpoint and we have a takeover! cycleYorkshire catch up to Zwift, who had started 2 minutes before them. They also take the lead from Polar, now 2 seconds ahead.
New best time alert! Tinkoff – La Datcha had a terrific opening prologue with 3 riders in the Top 10 and they show their time trialing proficiency again here, blowing everyone else so far out of the water and taking the lead by 16 seconds at CP1! Just ahead of them, De Stijl for Yates is 50 seconds slower, certainly a bit worse than expected, while Evonik – ELKO claims last place by only a single second, surprisingly enough. Could be quite a fight between them, Zwift and Cedevita!
Lopez Nolasco leads home Los Pollos Hermanos, the first team at the finish line. But as you can see, Polar has already almost caught up to them, so their aesthetically pleasing time of
44’44
stands for only a few seconds. Polar does make the rookie mistake of having Latour come in last and since the time is taken at the fifth rider, he loses 8 seconds to his teammates. Still, the new best time now stands at
42’38
MOL is going fast, too fast at the moment for some of their riders. But also, not fast enough to compete with Puma. They trailed the Germans by 8 seconds at the first checkpoint, but that balloons to 22 at the second one. However, that speaks more to Puma’s great sector: Their leads over Polar and cycleYorkshire increase from 3 and 6 seconds, respectively, to 19 and 16!
With Polar and cycleYorkshire underperforming, there’s one main challenger left for Tinkoff and that’s Duolingo. A very good first sector has them just 3 seconds slower than the leaders. Meanwhile, UBS jump past cycleYorkshire and Polar to second place at the second checkpoint, while Aegon – Peroni remains a tier below, currently 39 seconds behind Puma.
ISA – Hexacta is the next team at the finish line, beating Los Pollos Hermanos comfortably but falling short of Polar by 1’20.
44’18
cycleYorkshire do it right and have Morton crossing the line first. However, despite beating Polar at the second checkpoint, they fall behind them again, now by 4 seconds.
42’42
Zwift fall apart in the final few hundred meters. If they want to go for last place, this is certainly not a bad attempt.
46’19
Up next at the finish line are Aegon – Peroni. They have a very good final sector, adding only 8 more seconds to their deficit from the second checkpoint and finish 28 seconds slower than Polar.
43’06
Poor Young has the distinction of being overtaken by two teams today, letting MOL pass by as he crosses the finish line. Despite how this looks, Tenorio’s team had a very poor run to the finish, losing a whopping 33 seconds to Polar on that final stretch alone and falling behind Aegon, who they had led by 16 seconds earlier.
43’15
Then Puma come to the line. They were expected to be behind the likes of Polar and Team UBS and at best neck and neck with cycleYorkshire, but they beat all of them handily, making major strides for Herklotz’s GC ambitions. They take the best time by 18 seconds, but most importantly gain 41 seconds on Morton and 1’15 on Tenorio.
42’00
Meanwhile, a few more teams have come through the first checkpoint, all with unremarkable times. Isostar are the best of them provisional 9th and 37 seconds behind Tinkoff. King Power (10th, + 39), ELCO – ABEA (13th, + 42) and Huski Chocolate (14th, + 45) are all roughly in that range.
Returning to the finish, we see that Team UBS overtake Cedevita to finish second. 18 seconds behind Puma, they firmly beat Polar and cycleYorkshire. Cedevita meanwhile are a whole minute faster than Zwift.
42’18
45’16
Tinkoff have increased their lead on Puma to 32 seconds at the second checkpoint, but have they done too much too early? They seem to fall apart, with strong time trialists like Goldstein and Yatsevich potentially feeling their heavy legs from yesterday. Duolingo are only 6 seconds slower, which puts Almeida in the virtual yellow jersey, but only by a single second over Uran.
Grieg – Maersk are next at the finish line. Without a real GC threat or a chance at the stage win, this stage didn’t mean much to them but they still turned up and come in at a good provisional fifth place, just ahead of Aegon.
43’02
De Stijl are no Zwift or Evonik and yet they still get overtaken by Tinkoff – La Datcha at the line, who apparently recovered nicely from their earlier struggles. They only put 9 more seconds into Puma, but that’s still the best time by 41 seconds! Now they have to wait for Duolingo to find out if they win the stage and the yellow jersey.
De Stijl meanwhile finish 9th for the moment ahead of ISA and Los Pollos Hermanos, around what you’d expect.
41’19 43’38
This is for the stage win, then! Duolingo are the only ones who could still beat Tinkoff and they have a very strong last sector, in fact it’s just as strong as the Russians’ … but that of course means they fall 6 seconds short!
That’s still the yellow jersey though, right? But there’s additional drama, because Almeida is the rider in the background, getting distanced in the final few hundred meters! He comes in 21 seconds behind his teammates, which gives the yellow jersey to Tinkoff, too!
41'25
Meanwhile, all teams are through the first checkpoint. Moser (12th, + 31) and Aker – MOT (8th, + 20) set rather unremarkable times.
Instead, EA Vesuvio are the best and very surprisingly come through in third place, just 10 seconds behind Tinkoff. Gazelle and Gjensidige in 4th and 5th place also vastly outperform expectations at this point – a very modest wind that was blowing earlier has died down, which might contribute to this. We can’t expect them to keep this up though.
One more battle needs to be decided, and that’s of course for last place. Evonik – ELKO were the big favorites, seemingly constructing much of their team for this exact moment, and they don’t disappoint. Slower than Zwift by over 40 seconds, they take their rightful place at the bottom of today’s stage’s leaderboards.
47’01
Meanwhile, Gjensidige continue their surprisingly strong run and are listed 3rd at the second checkpoint. EA Vesuvio is 4th, Gazelle is 6th, just a second behind Puma, shockingly good preliminary results for teams that were expected to be middle of the pack.
Isostar – Specialized come to the finish line fighting for the GC chances of Geoghegan Hart. They don’t have a great TTT squad and accordingly lose almost 3 minutes to Tinkoff.
44’17
Huski Chocolate are next, an expectedly poor performance. Third from the bottom, a few seconds behind Cedevita.
46’24
Then come King Power, who also lose a bunch of time.
44’31
We would have expected ELCO – Abea somewhere slightly below that range and they are, coming in another 19 seconds slower. What we did not expect was that performance from Gjensidige. They can’t quite keep their third place from the second checkpoint, but finishing 5th and leaving the likes of Polar and cycleYorkshire behind is a massive overperformance.
44’50
42’28
Also outperforming expectations is Gazelle, who finish only 4 seconds slower than Gjensidige!
42’32
Hirt’s GC ambitions take a slight hit as Moser – Sygic lose more than 2 minutes today.
43’41
EA Vesuvio falter a bit on the final stretch, falling behind to a more reasonable 9th place. Even worse, they lose sight of Godoy, who adds a few more seconds to his time.
42’57
The final team to finish is Aker – MOT. They beat EA Vesuvio to take 9th place in the final results, which is around where you’d expect them. However, their GC leader Preidler fell behind a few kilometers before the finish and loses almost three more minutes, clocking in at + 4’20.
42’43
So, we have a deserved win for Tinkoff, their TTT focus really paid off. Duolingo were the only ones who came close, while Polar and cycleYorkshire will be mightily disappointed, as will probably Aegon and MOL.
Looking at a list of those teams, it’s clear who’s going to be very happy. While Sivakov and Eastman benefitted the most from today in absolute terms, when you compare the results to expectations it’s obvious that Herklotz made the biggest step towards GC glory in Paris. Instead of losing time to Morton, he gains over 40 seconds and he distances Tenorio by 1’15. Absolutely massive for the German.
All that will soften the blow of losing the yellow jersey, which goes to veteran Uran. Tomorrow will actually be his 6th career day leading the Tour de France GC, which breaks a tie and gives him sole possession of 16th place in the all time ranking. It’s going to be very tough to add another one, given that tomorrow is the first full-on mountain stage, but who knows.
If Uran might lose the jersey, who could take it? Here’s a look at where the main GC contenders stand after this TTT:
1
Rigoberto Uran
Tinkoff - La Datcha Team
14h52'39
2
Pavel Sivakov
Tinkoff - La Datcha Team
+ 1
3
Ryan Eastman
Duolingo
+ 10
5
Silvio Herklotz
Team Puma - SAP
+ 21
7
Patrick Schelling
Team UBS
+ 56
8
Timofey Kritskiy
Gjensidige Pro Cycling Team
+ 1'01
12
Pierre Latour
Polar
+ 1'09
14
Lachlan Morton
cycleYorkshire
+ 1'18
20
Tim Wellens
Aegon - Peroni
+ 1'43
21
Justo Tenorio
MOL Cycling Team
+ 1'47
22
Alex Kirsch
EA Vesuvio
+ 1'53
24
Bartosz Warchol
Moser - Sygic
+ 2'15
25
Adam Yates
De Stijl Cycling
+ 2'16
26
Jan Hirt
Moser - Sygic
s.t.
27
Caio Godoy
EA Vesuvio
s.t.
32
Tao Geoghegan Hart
Isostar - Specialized
+ 2'53
33
Thibaut Pinot
ISA - Hexacta
+ 3'05
36
Primoz Roglic
King Power
+ 3'15
39
William Chiarello
ELCO - ABEA
+ 3'39
42
Tadej Pogacar
Cedevita
+ 3'58
49
Georg Preidler
Aker - MOT
+ 5'07
A few more classification changes to record: Sivakov is the new rider in the white jersey and he certainly has the ambition to carry it all the way to Paris. Tinkoff does not end up with the lead in the team classification though, that one goes to Gjensidige Pro Cycling Team - quite the achievement for a wild card team at this stage of the race! And finally, after just one day, Yatsevich passes the flamme rouge to one of today’s more tragic figures, Young.
Tour de France 
