Welcome to another exciting day here in California! We're still in the Sierra Nevada, and more precisely in the impressive Kings Canyon! This is a valley more than 1,600m deep, and surrounded by multiple peaks of more than 4,300m in height - impressive, as I said!
Today, we'll get another chance for the top climbers to shine - but to some extent, it's the day of truth: no more hiding behind an opponent, no more getting help by some teammates - it's everyone on their own, against the rock, against the clock! It's mountain time trial day - and you may have noticed that I'm pretty excited for this stage!
The route is straightforward: except for the first two kilometers, it's all uphill. Today's climb is rated 1st category, so there will be 16 KoM points for the stage winner (plus 20 sprint points). With 5.4% average slopes, it's clearly not the steepest ascent we've seen in this tour - but almost 20km of solo climbing will challenge everyone!
Furthermore, it's not a steady climb; there are sections with up to 9% gradients, followed by pretty flat parts that can almost be one kilometer in length. We'll see if time trialling skills actually matters, or if it all comes down to pure climbing strength - which will definitely be more important.
Let's take a look at the current GC situation, alongside the riders' skillsets:
Rank
Time
Rider
Mo
TT
Res
Rec
56
+ 31'05"
Manfredi
78
65
73
72
38
+ 21'47"
Ratiy
78
72
70
73
37
+ 21'18"
Spilak
78
70
71
68
29
+ 17'21"
Lunke
78
73
74
78
21
+ 14'08"
Nerz
79
72
70
72
20
+ 13'55"
Roman
77
64
73
74
19
+ 13'03"
Mannion
77
64
76
65
18
+ 12'23"
Hoehn
75
70
74
75
17
+ 11'49"
Canty
75
75
71
73
16
+ 11'06"
Eenkhoorn
78
69
77
80
15
+ 10'33"
Liphongyu
75
74
72
74
14
+ 8'55"
Senni
77
74
79
76
13
+ 6'39"
Kritskiy
80
76
70
69
12
+ 5'50"
Campero
78
69
70
72
11
+ 5'27"
Vasyliv
77
72
72
75
10
+ 5'16"
Kuss
78
64
76
71
9
+ 4'47"
Zimmermann
77
61
78
75
8
+ 4'40"
Aru
78
64
75
76
7
+ 4'02"
Hamilton
76
65
73
76
6
+ 3'13"
Carapaz
80
72
76
77
5
+ 2'41"
Ranaweera
80
75
75
74
4
+ 2'23"
Pluchkin
81
75
72
70
3
+ 55"
Faglum Karlsson
79
73
75
76
2
+ 40"
Choi
81
75
76
79
1
61h11'20"
Bennett
81
65
74
79
Those outside the Top 20 might be candidates for a good stage result - it will be interesting to see what defending champion Nerz can do when he can really ride for himself, not having to do helper duties.
It looks unlikely that we'll have many riders entering or dropping out of the Top 20; Nerz is the main candidate to move up. It also looks like the Top 14 won't be changing a lot - while the fight for the Top 10 spots should get pretty interesting!
Between 7th and 12th, anything could happen depending on daily form. The it's 4th to 6th within 50", and the Top 3 within 55" where we could see some movement. It doesn't look very likely that the GC podium will change today - but you never know!
According to the bookies, Choi, Bennett and Ranaweera should be today's top favorites - which are the same riders who took the podium spots yesterday. Pluchkin, Carapaz and Eenkhoorn are next, with Kritskiy, Faglum Karlsson, Senni and Aru rounding off the list.
Let's see what turns and twists we get today - but before covering the last 20 riders in full depth, let's take a look at what happened so far!
What happened so far
It's a beautiful day here in the Kings Canyon. But that was about the only positive point Orue could take from this stage. OK, maybe another one: he didn't finish last; that questionable honour went to his teammate Nizzolo. But the Paraguayan extended his lead in the race for the red lantern by 4 minutes, now trailing Taillefour by almost 10 minutes.
Well, onto the more important stuff then - who did well so far among the first 164 riders?
Provisional 10th place goes to Shapira. The Israeli was only 21st at the checkpoint, but gained 11 spots on the second half of the climb, trailing the current leader by 45". Which is a time of 48'10".
9th at the split, 9th at the finish - a very consistent ride by De la Cruz, just one second ahead of 10th place. Comparing the two riders' climbing and TT skills, the Spaniard should have taken a much bigger lead, but it looks like he didn't have the best of days.
Bouchard one spot ahead showed how it's done. Having identical climbing skills as De la Cruz but being a worse TTer, he's still 10" ahead - which results in a finishing time of just below 48 minutes: 47'59".
Another 5" ahead, we have Dulanjana - who proves us that you just have to get some great breakfast to beat some stronger climbers in this race! 7th place for the Sri Lankan - and he even was 4th at the time check!
We're now moving in 2" steps, as that's the time gap between each place from 4th to 7th. Which means that Barta was 2" faster than Dulanjana, trailing the stage leader by 27". Surely a solid ride on home soil.
Ratiy is a better climber, but worse in pretty much everything else - in the end, he was another 2" faster. That's a time of 47'50" for the Ukrainian.
Which however isn't enough to be the highest placed rider from this country so far, as Topchanyuk finished 2" quicker. A solid 4th place for him, but no podium.
That's mainly because the (virtual) podium riders were quite a lot faster. While the 4th placed Ukrainian trails by 23", the Top 3 are actually just 5" apart! And on this 3rd place, with a 5" deficit, is Manfredi. The Italian proves once more that he just loves MTTs - although statwise there's no explanation for this. He just loves them, period.
Iranian TT champion Gilanipoor in 2nd place was 5" faster - yes, that means he posted the same time as our current leader! Missing out by fractions is never cool, but it was a great ride by the CT climber nonetheless.
But who's that stage leader, then?
Guess who's back on top - at least provisionally? Sure, it's Nerz! The defending champion was the strongest climber finishing this stage so far, and expectedly clocked the best time - although he might be disappointed that he didn't put a sizeable gap into his closest rivals.
The current best time is therefore 47'25".
Still, the German leads both at the finish line and at the time check - let's recapitulate what the current standings look like:
Time Check #1 (10.9km)
1.
Nerz
22'24"
6.
Barta
+ 16"
2.
Gilanipoor
+ 5"
7.
Bouchard
+ 18"
3.
Manfredi
+ 7"
8.
Brandt
+ 21"
4.
Dulanjana
+ 15"
9.
De la Cruz
+ 23"
5.
Ratiy
+ 16"
10.
Lunke
+ 36"
Kings Canyon Lodge
1.
Nerz
47'25"
6.
Barta
+ 27"
2.
Gilanipoor
s.t.
7.
Dulanjana
+ 29"
3.
Manfredi
+ 5"
8.
Bouchard
+ 34"
4.
Topchanyuk
+ 23"
9.
De la Cruz
+ 44"
5.
Ratiy
+ 25"
10.
Shapira
+ 45"
Given he has the stage lead and was 21st pre-stage, Nerz is obviously our virtual GC leader for now, leading 1'09" ahead of Brandt and having good chances to sneak into the Top 20.
And Top 20 is a good keyword, as we'll now take a look at how those 20 final riders fare. They should all be among the better climbers and hence among the high finishers in this stage - but will they indeed be?
LIVE +++ LIVE +++ LIVE
Roman currently sits in that 20th spot and hence is the first of them to arrive at the checkpoint. He's had a rather disappointing ride so far, though: 23'21" means that he's 57" down already - and he only had 13 seconds of advantage over Nerz.
Mannion then does 10" better, which is a time of 23'11" for 17th place. For now, that's enough to fend off the Kraftwerk rider, but if the gap continues to grow like that, he'll drop behind as well.
Hoehn is the best TTer of this trio - but the weakest climber. The 3rd of the U25 standings loses 1'03" on the first half of the stage already.
Let's move on with the next batch of three, then. Canty isn't the best climber, either, but a solid alrounder, and he posts the best intermediate time of the Top 20 riders so far: 23'04" (13th, + 40").
Eenkhoorn is actually the strongest of the U25 climbers on paper - but reality doesn't quite reflect this so far. And today is no exception - almost a minute lost until the checkpoint already. He's still 5" faster than Hoehn, though.
Liphongyu does even worse, though - he's actually the slowest Top 20 rider so far: 23'34" (35th, + 1'10").
We're already approaching the Top 10 - and that's where Senni was until yesterday and surely wants to return to. 4 minutes is a big gap, though - but posting the 7th split time is a good start: 22'40" (7th, + 16")
Not just the Top 10, but the podium was Kritskiy's initial goal - one he's highly unlikely to achieve. And even today isn't great for a climber with his skillset, as he's even outside the Top 10 at the split: 22'48" (11th, + 24")
Campero now is the first rider of that group of 5 within just 1'10" from each other. The Bolivian would love to join the Top 10 - and he's on a good way to achieve that, posting the 9th time and taking the provisional GC lead at the split: 22'45" (9th, + 21")
Vasyliv does have the same goal - and he's off to a decent start as well: 22'57" (13th, + 33"). However, this also means that he has lost 12" of his 23" advantage over Campero already!
Kuss did a great job on the first 15 stages - before he completely cracked yesterday. And unfortunately, his downfall seems to continue today, as he's already dropped behind both Vasyliv and Campero by now: 23'31" (38th, + 1'07")
U25 leader Zimmermann has already pretty much secured his main goal of the race - the white jersey. However, a Top 10 finish would be great for CT team Tryg as well - but he doesn't look great today. He's only just taking over the virtual GC lead - but we're only at the halfway point of the stage! And his time is even worse than Kuss': 23'36" (42nd, + 1'12")
Then we already have our first Top 20 rider finishing this stage - it's Roman! The Serb had already lost almost a minute by the checkpoint - and he lost another one on the second part. Not a good day for him:
49'26"
(35th, + 2'01")
Which means that he drops behind both Nerz and Brandt, and the split times suggest he'll indeed drop to 22nd in the GC.
Mannion was 10" faster at the time check - and he doubles that advantage:
49'05"
(25th, + 1'40")
He drops behind Nerz as well, but stays over half a minute clear of teammate Brandt, so he'll definitely end the day inside the Top 20.
Back at the checkpoint, we have the currently highest ranked CT rider, Aru. And although the Italian loses 10" to Vasyliv, he looks to be easily defending that position: 23'07" (19th, + 43")
Hamilton on the other hand probably doesn't have any major GC ambitions - those are just hindering his KoM quest. So dropping a bit wouldn't hurt him - and he's on a good way, joining Zimmermann for worst Top 20 rider so far: 23'36" (43rd, + 1'12")
It's then already a 1 minute difference to the next higher rider in the GC - and Carapaz does have different ambitions anyway. The Ecuadorian puts some pressure on those ahead of him, getting a provisional podium at the checkpoint: 22'30" (3rd, + 6")
The roads ahead of Hoehn are looking bright, his finishing time isn't:
49'49"
(42nd, + 2'24")
This time sees him drop behind Nerz, but also 4" behind Mannion. It's still a Top 20 and 3rd in the U25 standings for him, though - and he's not even his team's leader. So not much harm done.
Canty did a pretty decent job on the first half, losing 40" - but he lost almost a minute on the second part of the climb. Which sees him miss out on the provisional stage Top 20:
48'59"
(23rd, + 1'34")
Given his advantage of more than 2 minutes over Nerz, the Aussie still takes over the virtual GC lead and will at least defend his 17th place!
And he almost did enough to close the 43" deficit to Eenkhoorn - but the Dutchman just does enough to stay clear by 12":
49'30"
(38th, + 2'05")
We now have just the Top 5 riders missing at the checkpoint, and Ranaweera is the first of them! He's 32" ahead of Carapaz in the GC - but has already lost 9" at the halfway point: 22'39" (6th, + 15")
Pluchkin was looking strong 15 days long - and he also tried to follow the winning move yesterday, but had to fold. And his low recovery isn't a great precondition to strike back right away. But well, the Moldovan doesn't care - and instead smashes the best time by 10 seconds, wow! 22'14" (Leader)
And despite his 1'28" advantage, that puts some pressure on Faglum Karlsson - and the Swede doesn't have his best day, in fact losing almost half of his lead over Pluchkin! His time: 22'57" (16th, + 43")
Now onto the duel for the GC win - Choi vs. Bennett. The former has a 40" deficit to make up, let's see where he sets the bar for his rival at the checkpoint.
Well, not too high, honestly. It looks like yesterday's efforts took their toll on the bib #1 wearer, as he already trails by 37"!
22'51"
(16th, + 37")
Next up, we have not one, but two riders finishing their race, as Senni has in fact caught Liphongyu! It's definitely not a great time for the Thai:
50'02"
(51st, + 2'37")
The Italian is exactly two minutes faster, ends up in the provisional stage Top 10 and should also get a little bit closer to the GC Top 10:
48'02"
(9th, + 37")
Which means that Senni takes over the virtual GC lead, whereas Liphongyu's overall time is now matched by Eenkhoorn - but the Thai stays ahead to defend his 15th place.
It's time for part 2 of the GC duel at the checkpoint. Choi trailed by 37", and Bennett?
The Kiwi also trails - but by just 14 seconds, being 23" faster than his main rival! A clear advantage for him on the first half - does he just have better legs, or did his rival pace himself better? We'll find out!
And as all riders have passed the time check, let's take a look at the Top 10 at this point - and also at the virtual GC Top 13!
Time Check #1 (10.9km)
1.
Pluchkin
22'14"
6.
Manfredi
+ 17"
2.
Nerz
+ 10"
7.
Dulanjana
+ 25"
3.
Bennett
+ 14"
8.
Ranaweera
+ 26"
4.
Gilanipoor
+ 15"
9.
Ratiy
+ 26"
5.
Carapaz
+ 17"
10.
Barta
+ 26"
Virtual GC | Time Check #1
1.
Bennett
61h33'48"
=
2.
Choi
+ 1'03"
=
3.
Faglum Karlsson
+ 1'24"
=
4.
Pluchkin
+ 2'09"
=
5.
Ranaweera
+ 2'52"
=
6.
Carapaz
+ 3'15"
=
7.
Hamilton
+ 5'10"
=
8.
Aru
+ 5'19"
=
9.
Zimmermann
+ 5'55"
=
10.
Vasyliv
+ 5'56"
1
11.
Campero
+ 6'07"
1
12.
Kuss
+ 6'19"
2
13.
Kritskiy
+ 6'59"
=
The gap on top is growing, and while Faglum Karlsson still seems to comfortably sit in 3rd place, we already mentioned that he already lost half of his advantage over Pluchkin.
It's an interesting fight from 9th to 12th, though - and even Kritskiy might (rather unexpectedly) gain a spot, given Kuss' time loss so far. Let's find out how things turn out on the second half!
And right as we were talking about him, Kritskiy is on the final meters! He had an OK-ish first half, and the second one was about the same - 13th place for him.
48'17"
(13th, + 52")
Despite losing 15" to Senni, the Russian still takes the virtual GC lead with a margin of 2'01".
However, that provisional lead doesn't last long. Campero was already faster at the halfway point, and he pulls through to the finish line. Provisional 10th place for him, a good ride by the Bolivian!
48'07"
(10th, + 42")
Vasyliv wasn't quite as strong on the first half - and he lost even more time to the Sauber leader on the second part. He had a 23" advantage pre-stage, whereof he lost 12" by the checkpoint - and in the end he trails the Bolivian by 27":
48'34"
(16th, + 1'09")
Which means that Campero holds onto the GC lead for now.
And Kuss clearly can't change this. The American had already dropped behind both Campero and Vasyliv at the split, and he wasn't able to up his pace on the second half. On the contrary, it's a massive time loss of over 2 minutes for him:
49'41"
(47th, + 2'16")
Only 47th place for an otherwise really solid climber - something must have gone horribly wrong these last two days. He actually even drops behind Kritskiy, although both have the identical overall time now.
Next up is U25 leader Zimmermann - and the German does even worse!
49'49"
(50th, + 2'24")
However, he had enough of a cushion to stay ahead of both Kuss and Kritskiy - but he's unable to fend off Campero and Vasyliv. Which means that both of the latter are moving inside the Top 10!
Aru had a 1'10" margin over Campero - and although his split time wasn't great, it didn't look like he'd give away as much today. And indeed, he takes the virtual GC lead and defends his position as the best placed CT rider.
48'44"
(21st, + 1'19")
Hamilton is the weakest climber inside the Top 10 - and probably doesn't have huge GC ambitions anyway. Still, being overtaken on the course is never a great feeling, and neither is his time:
49'50"
(55th, + 2'25")
His 38" advantage over Aru was by no means enough to stay ahead, so the Aussie drops one spot.
The Italian still loses the virtual GC lead, as we saw Carapaz overtaking Hamilton - and actually even attacking the stage lead! He was 7" behind Nerz at the checkpoint - and now?
He was indeed faster than the German on the second half, but given the tie between Nerz and Gilanipoor, it's only enough for 3rd. Still, the Ecuadorian takes a commanding virtual GC lead, almost 3 minutes ahead of Aru.
But can he even gain a spot? Ranaweera lost 9" of his 32" advantage by the split - but the Kraftwerk leader had a solid enough second half to defend his 5th place:
47'48"
(6th, + 23")
So in the second TT of the race, he loses the duel with teammate Nerz for the second time - which might make it clear why he's not currently in direct podium contention.
Pluchkin, on the other hand, is seriously fighting for a podium - and was even dreaming of the win for quite some time.
Well, the GC win isn't too realistic anymore at this point - but a second stage win looks very likely by now, as he crushes the opposition by taking the lead by over half a minute! What a sensational ride by the Moldovan!
46'50"
(Leader)
He's now 1'16" ahead of Ranaweera in the virtual GC and definitely puts the pressure on for the current podium riders!
Faglum Karlsson's split time already showed that he's not on his best day, but a 1'28" advantage over Pluchkin still seemed comfortable. 43" of those were gone by the halfway point - and all is gone now!
48'25"
(18th, + 1'35")
Pluchkin indeed moves back on the virtual podium, leaving the Swede behind for now by 7 seconds!
The second-last to finish this stage is Choi - and from this picture we can see that he's either not the fastest, or that Bennett is flying. The split time suggests the former - and his finishing time confirms this:
48'10"
(16th, + 1'20")
The good news is that he takes over the virtual GC lead nonetheless, and he even doubles his advantage over Faglum Karlsson from 15" to 30". The bad news is that Pluchkin is trailing him by just 23" now!
And here's already our yellow jersey Bennett! He trailed by 14" at the time check, and he looked really fast on those final meters - can he even beat Pluchkin?
Well, no, not quite:
47'14"
(2nd, + 24")
The bad news for the Kiwi is that he takes yet another 2nd place - his 3rd of the race already. However, this one must feel like a big win, as he extends his lead over Choi by 56" today!
The biggest winner of the day, though, is Aleksandr Pluchkin! Not only does the Moldovan win this MTT - his 2nd TT win after the prologue - he also moves back on a podium spot!
George Bennett, as said before, finishes 2nd for the third time in this race - yet makes a huge step towards the ultimate goal, as we'll see in a minute.
And last but not least, defending champion Dominik Nerz gets another - maybe his last - stage podium in the Tour of America. And one might wonder if the team should still have supported him as their primary GC rider... Anyway, it's too late now for such thoughts, as the German is just barely inside the Top 20 by the end of this stage.
The top GC spots belong to other riders this year - first and foremost we're talking about George Bennett, who didn't just defend his lead, but extended it to 1'36" over Ki Ho Choi! With only two GC defining stages left, that looks like a lot - but we've seen today how much time can be lost on a bad day.
And let's not forget Aleksandr Pluchkin, who's back on the podium, trailing Choi by just 23". The Moldovan has won both stages against the clock so far - and there's still one of them to come!
Let's take a look at the full GC Top 10 after this stage:
GC Top 10 | After Stage 17
1.
George Bennett
61h58'34"
=
2.
Ki Ho Choi
+ 1'36"
=
3.
Aleksandr Pluchkin
+ 1'59"
1
4.
Marcus Faglum Karlsson
+ 2'06"
1
5.
Suranga Ranaweera
+ 3'15"
=
6.
Richard Antonio Carapaz
+ 3'27"
=
7.
Fabio Aru
+ 6'10"
1
8.
Lucas Hamilton
+ 6'38"
1
9.
Piter Campero
+ 6'43"
3
10.
Yuriy Vasyliv
+ 6'47"
1
So we have 2nd through 4th within just 30 seconds, and hence a very tense race upcoming for those podium spots! Even Ranaweera and Carapaz are less than 90" behind 3rd place - they could still get a GC podium, but would need a huge day for this.
Then it's extremely close from 8th through 10th, with just 9" separating these three riders! Aru doesn't have a huge advantage, either, and just outside the Top 10 we have Zimmermann, Kritskiy and Kuss all still within a minute of those sought-after places.
The GC riders will likely get some respite tomorrow, before fighting each other again on stage 19!
No respite for the sprinters tomorrow, though - if they want to fend off the GC riders in the points standings! Tom Van Asbroeck only just holds onto his jersey, with George Bennett trailing him by one tiny point now! The biggest danger tomorrow should come from Ingus Eislers, though, who's just 8 points off!
Lucas Hamilton's KoM lead was never in danger today - but with 10 points on offer tomorrow, Daniel Hoelgaard could make up his 5 points deficit and take back the jersey. Hermann Pernsteiner trails by 28 points already and would need some kind of a miracle to still win this jersey.
Georg Zimmermann lost 19" to Pascal Eenkhoorn today - but with a 6 minutes lead, he should easily bring the white jersey home. Alex Hoehn is still 3rd, 7'36" down. All others are more than 10 minutes behind.
So, that's it. We're looking back on a truly exciting day, a memorable second TT win by Pluchkin - and the day where Bennett put some serious time into his direct rivals. In retrospect, it might have been the decisive day of the Tour - but let's not get ahead of ourselves, there's still a mountain stage and another ITT to come! But tomorrow, it's finally another day for the sprinters - see you then!
Tour of America 
