Praha - Karlovy Vary - Praha
Stage 3
60.0km ITT
Karlovy Vary - Karlovy Vary
The Czech organizers have finally figured out their ITT timing after a long delay - a delay that also paused racing in the prologue. Still, teams are excited to be racing again and fighting here in the queen stage.
The 60.0km time trial will test the best of the time trialists and should create some huge gaps over the flat, but undulating terrain. With every second counting, especially with the tiniest gaps from the prologue, this race could come down to the final riders.
Heidemann gets the race started, but it should be a challenging situation for him to move up the rankings more than a few spots. He sets preliminary best times of 22’06” for checkpoint 1, 48’56” for checkpoint 2, and crosses the finish line in 1:12:01 to establish a standard for the rest of the field.
Foss is the first rider to challenge the original best times as the race enters the group of time trial specialists dropped on stage 2. He sets a new best time at the finish of 1:11:13!
Nareklishvili is another strong competitor racing in the early part of the start list and he drops the standard to 1:10:59.
Conci is also storming home to the finish with splits that rival Nareklishvili and barely edges him at the line by 3 seconds. 1:10:55 for Conci!
Dal Col is one of the first true stage favorites to start. With just 1km left in his ride, he still holds equal best time at time check #1 and is only 2 seconds back at time check#2 - 13 ahead of Conci. He is pushing hard to the finish and its a new best time by 20 seconds. 1:10:35! This time might hold up for a while.
Zakarin approaches the finish line as with the best splits at both time checks as he contests the time of Dal Col. It will still depend on how he manages his energy over the final sector. It’s another new best time of 1:10:26.
Upon Zakarin’s finish, we see Byron Munton jumped into 2nd position. Munton had been behind 48 seconds behind Dal Col after time check #2 and clawed it all back in the final 20km so there are huge opportunities for change in the final section. This means we could see surprises at the finish line that go unseen by even the best spectators.
Hepburn is a great example of those athletes negative splitting who don’t appear in contention. Hepburn was 1:18 behind at checkpoint 1, 36 seconds behind at checkpoint 2, and at the finish… he becomes the new leader! 1:10:11 to go ahead by 15 seconds! A fantastic race plan by EA Vesuvio (who is clearly mastering this with Munton using the same example).
The EA Vesuvio tactic strikes again! Tanfield finishes :03 back in 2nd place using the same negative split as Hepburn. Both had the same time coming in so Tanfield remains the GC leader at this point.
Viennet is the first rider outside of EA Vesuvio to be using the negative split strategy. As he crosses under the 1km to go banner, he knows that he can get the best time as he was 12 seconds ahead of Hepburn at checkpoint 2. The French champion becomes the new leader and first under 1:10. 1:09:54 is Viennet’s time!
Viennet holds the GC lead after all those dropped on stage 2 have come to the finish. The stage snapshot at the finish is above with 32 riders across, but with such a high percentage being strong time trialists, we expect many of these results to stay high. No one has entered the preliminary top 20 of stage results ahead of our next main competitors.
It’s a long time until our next significant time trialist hits the road in Goldstein. Starting in 65th place just 28 seconds back in GC on the day, he holds a 1:34 gap on Viennet to start the day. Goldstein finishes 1:21 back on Viennet after blasting into the top 15 at checkpoint 1. While Goldstein faded at the end, the battle for GC places begins now. Gunnlaugsson also manages to slide in front of Viennet by 3 seconds in the GC.
It’s a new GC leader for Turek. Turek was 1 second ahead of Goldstein to start the day and finished 1:10 back of Viennet. He now sets the mark to contest for top GC placings. Still, no one has altered the top 20 stage results.
With little to be excited for a long period, Ioannidis is the first rider to challenge the intermediate splits. Ioannidis sits 3rd at checkpoint 1 (behind early leaders Zakarin and Dal Col) and 10th at checkpoint 2. He finally changes up the top 20 to sit into 14th place - 52 seconds behind Viennet! That’s an 18 second GC lead on Turek as both started the day on same time.
EA Vesuvio tricks everyone again with their great pacing. Onodera crosses the line in provisional 10th place - 43 seconds behind Viennet. A new GC leader and now 4 teammates in the top 10 at this point with some superstars still to come.
Ferreyra started the day 4 seconds up on Onodera and is setting fantastic times. After checkpoint 1, he’s 17 seconds back of the leading split. Heading out of checkpoint 2, he’s just 6 seconds back on the best time. Almost no one has been able to cut time from the best intermediates without continuing that trend at the finish. He struggles to the finish though.. 48 seconds back of Viennet which means he just misses the GC lead by 1 second!
Mano appears with 1km to go after a stealthy ride so far. He cut 1 minute off the splits from 1st checkpoint to 2nd checkpoint and looks incredibly strong in the final. He can’t quite take the stage win but he takes 2nd place - just 1 second back! That means he holds a GC lead of over 45 seconds with just 26 riders left with a chance to overtake.
Mullen held a 2 second advantage over Mano at the day’s start and has likewise been crushing the splits. He went from 1:21 back to 0:20 back of the fastest times between checkpoints and this has led to strong results. And Mullen does take the new lead with 1:09:43! What a race for Mullen.
Goldstein crosses the line in 11th overall provisionally, 51 seconds back of Mullen who remains best time.
At this point, everyone has left the starting gate, so with 18 riders remaining, we check the status of the preliminary results and the important riders left on course (prologue specialists left out).
Rider
GC Deficit to start
Split 1
Split 2
Lammertink
0:19
-1:15 (97th)
-0:27 (27th)
Yatsevich
0:19
-1:15 (96th)
-0:13 (12th)
Razumov
0:19
-0:15 (22nd)
-0:19 (22nd)
Vlatos
0:19
-1:17 (99th)
-0:37 (40th)
Wirtgen
0:19
-1:04 (78th)
-0:05 (4th)
Cataford
0:18
-0:15 (21st)
-0:02 (2nd)
Groselj
0:18
-0:16 (23rd)
-0:33 (36th)
Howson
0:17
-1:14 (95th)
-0:35 (38th)
Oliveira
0:17
-1:19 (103rd)
-0:45 (44th)
Würtz
0:17
-1:12 (91st)
47:42 (1st)
Durbridge
0:16
-1:04 (77th)
Not Reached
Ganna
0:14
-1:09 (83rd)
Not Reached
Coquard
GC Leader
-1:38 (129th)
Not Reached
Lammertink is the next to cross the line in the hopes for a strong finish. He maintains a good trajectory and finishes 16seconds down of Mullen! 4th for the time being.
Yatsevich follows Lammertink into a good position and matches his time exactly. The fractions give him the edge over Lammertink for 4th.
Razumov tried to maintain the strong time checks across the whole race and it backfires. He ends up 56 seconds behind at the finish in 16th provisional.
Vlatos looks to be closer to Razumov than most have been on their proceeding riders which should spell a good time. 6th overall - 24seconds back!
Wirtgen is even closer to Vlatos at the finish than Vlatos was for Razumov and he will only be happy with a provisional best time. He crushes Mullen! 1:09:27 is the new best time! That’s a 16 second lead over the rest of the field with only 12 left to contest and only 7 of those true time trialists.
Cataford had 3 seconds on Wirtgen at time check 2 and 1 second GC advantage ahead of the day’s stage. If he can hold even within those, it could be yellow for Cataford but he appears to have a long way from the line. Cataford fades toward the finish for 14th place a whopping 1:07 behind Wirtgen. Still, Cataford clearly attempted to go for the win which is a great strategy for the Lidl Cycling star.
The remaining GC hopefuls have now crossed checkpoint 2. We’ll see who has been pacing correctly.
Howson can see his teammate Groselj in front of him as he pushes to the line. Groselj struggles to 50th place but Howson should still have a shot at a top time. 7th for Howson! 41 seconds back of Wirtgen.
While most of the focus is on Würtz behind him, Oliveira reminds us not to forget about him. He slots in 59 seconds back in 11th place for the time being.
Würtz has set up a fantastic time as he’s already under the 1km to go banner with Oliveira finishing. It looks like he’s time this to perfection! NEW BEST TIME - 1:09:14! That’s a 13 second improvement and the likely stage and GC win.
Durbridge needs to pick up 8 of the remaining seconds within the final section to gain the GC lead, but it is tough to gauge since 3 riders started between Würtz and Durbridge (all of whom he has passed). Durbridge doesn’t have enough and gives up 0:28 to Würtz at the line. It’s still good enough for 3rd overall with just Ganna left to battle for a top spot.
Wearing the green jersey on behalf of Coquard, Ganna is the last chance to change up the GC placings. He is fading toward the line as Chavanne who was passed tries to battle back in front. Ganna still holds on for a respectable 5th place - 37 seconds back of Würtz who is now guaranteed the win. Ganna should gain the rightful ownership of the green jersey after the stage though.
Coquard struggled to maintain any chance at GC which was to be expected. He closes out the day’s proceedings and asked not to display his time in his post stage interview. He can be found in 140th in the stage results and fighting to take back his green jersey in the final sprint stage.
Würtz wins a fantastic time trial and takes over the GC lead as well!
Ganna gains the green jersey to hold for the final stage after a strong time trial!
Hulgaard now leads the youth classification.
EA Vesuvio showed their fantastic strategy on this stage and take the team classification.
