The Tour de Suisse has reached the Ticino, one of the Italian speaking cantons of Switzerland. Today in Bellinzona, two battles are fought, one for the stage win and one for the overall classification, but they might well overlap.
While Mullen is billed as the top favorite for today, bookies list the likes of Bernal, Geoghegan Hart and Cattaneo among the stage contenders and pure time trialists may have a tougher time recovering from yesterday's tough mountain finish. Meanwhile, weaker time trialists among the GC riders are looking to simply limit their losses.
There are no intermediate time checks on this stage, which makes it tough for riders to pace their efforts but somewhat easier for this reporter to bring you a coherent chronology of events – we’ll simply check in on the most interesting riders as they cross the finish line. Just 4 riders into the race, Frison sets the first benchmark with a time of 37’52. A few minutes later, French Champion and one of the top favorites for today, Viennet, improves that to 37’29, overtaking not one but two riders on his way.
We often see many of the top time trialists very early in stages like this and it’s no different today. Scotson comes in 7 seconds slower than Frison in provisional third, but immediately gets dropped one spot as Tanfield comes through. The Brit actually sets a new best time at 37’22, dashing Viennet’s hopes for stage glory quickly.
Atkins finishes provisional third, 16 seconds off the leading time. Viviani and Cheyne both enter the Top 10 shortly afterwards.
Third place changes hands quickly as it’s then Thomas who takes it by 7 seconds over Atkins.
And then we have a new best time again! Norsgaard has a very good day, he’s 4 seconds faster than Tanfield, 37’18!
Next, Polar’s TT army keeps on rolling, with Krul (37’31) and Cheung (37’37) both entering the provisional Top 10, and so do Turek (37’44) and Pelikan (37’32).
A new rider on the provisional podium: Erdenebat claims third place after a strong ride that sees him finish 9 seconds slower than Norsgaard.
After 50 riders have completed the stage, this is the current Top 20.
Then it’s time for the top favorite, Polar’s penultimate bullet for today: Irish Champion Mullen. And he delivers, even if it’s very very close. With a time of 37’15, he takes the lead!
Next, KoM hopeful Hansen just about gets into the provisional Top 10 (37’36), but more notably, Hepburn falls just a single second short of Mullen’s time!
Two more riders with very good times: First, Cosnefroy falls just 7 seconds short of the best time, and then Sterobo comes through another 2 seconds faster. Provisional 6th and 4th place, respectively.
Next up, Lithuanian Champ Beniusis. On paper, he should be able to compete for the stage win here, and … he does! New best time by two seconds at 37’13!
Bjerg has the same ambitions … and he delivers, too! Beniusis’ time on the hot seat is very short, as the Dane beats him with a time of 37’09!
There is virtually no wind today, by the way, so a later start time should have no advantage in that regard. Perhaps this string of top times is simply an indication that the better climbers among the time trialists – as indicated by a better GC position after yesterday – have indeed recovered better. If that is the case, we should have high expectations for the GC contenders.
And we’ll get to them very soon, as all of the pure time trialists have finished by now. Here’s the leaderboard so far.
The first of the top climbing time trialists is Conci, who had such a surprisingly poor day yesterday. He does better today, barely a second slower than Mullen, enough for provisional 4th place at 37’15.
Two more riders who are decent climbers but can be described as primarily time trialists before we get into the GC fight. First, Munton ties Conci to enter the Top 5, then Fraile, who’s just 12 seconds slower but that’s enough to see him down in 12th place.
Starting today, 15 riders are separated by just 31 seconds between 11th and 25th in the GC. Among the first 7 who stand at + 3’51 behind Haig, Darbellay sets the best time at 37’56. That puts him in the virtual GC lead.
That virtual lead lasts exactly one rider. Girdlestone is 10 seconds slower on the day but the 31 seconds he gained on the Jura rider yesterday are enough to take over. Both riders gain two spot by overtaking Kuss, who was two whole minutes slower, and Sicard, who at 38’33 performs well below his abilities.
Habtemichael then comes to the line and, 4 seconds quicker than Girdlestone, he’s the new provisional leader, cementing his Top 15 in the GC. Kirsch can’t keep up; with a similar time to Sicard he will lose a couple of places.
But then we begin with the true TT powerhouses among the top climbers. First, Foss enters the provisional Top 20 on the stage with a time of 37’36 – 26 seconds faster than Habtemichael …
… then Powless beats that time by another 20 seconds. 7 seconds behind stage leader Bjerg, he’s 7th on the day for now.
Almeida is obviously no match for that. He limits his losses fairly well, but will lose a few places. Before heading into the Top 10, this is the provisional GC (the rank indicates the lowest possible GC position after the stage):
11.
Powless
23h23’50
12.
Foss
+ 20
13.
Habtemichael
+ 46
14.
Girdlestone
+ 50
15.
Almeida
+ 54
Madrazo had gained 47 seconds on Powless yesterday, but that wasn’t enough of a buffer. He’s 53 seconds slower today.
10.
Powless
23h23’50
11.
Madrazo
+ 7
12.
Foss
+ 20
13.
Habtemichael
+ 46
14.
Girdlestone
+ 50
Shikai does much better. Coming in at 37’34, he’s 18th on the day for now and easily retains his GC place.
9.
Shikai
23h23’14
10.
Powless
+ 36
11.
Madrazo
+ 43
12.
Foss
+ 56
13.
Habtemichael
+ 1’22
In his beautiful Italian Champion’s jersey, Cattaneo doesn’t only want to improve in the GC but has his eyes on a strong stage result, too. But he ends up 8 seconds slower than teammate Bjerg, which is only enough for 9th for the moment. Still, he easily takes the provisional GC lead.
8.
Cattaneo
23h22’49
9.
Shikai
+ 26
10.
Powless
+ 1’02
11.
Madrazo
+ 1’09
12.
Foss
+ 1’22
Geoghegan Hart has similar ambitions … and the exact same time. Thanks to yesterday's good ride, he’s in the provisional GC lead.
7.
Geoghegan Hart
23h22’21
8.
Cattaneo
+ 28
9.
Shikai
+ 54
10.
Powless
+ 1’30
11.
Madrazo
+ 1’37
Stüssi won’t be able to compete with that, but he had a 28 second lead on Cattaneo and on paper the TT skills to defend that. Unfortunately, he doesn’t quite reach his potential here, losing 49 seconds on the stage leader and 41 on the Italian.
6.
Geoghegan Hart
23h22’21
7.
Cattaneo
+ 28
8.
Stüssi
+ 41
9.
Shikai
+ 54
10.
Powless
+ 1’30
With Reis, we enter the fight for the podium. His time is okay-ish, faster than Stüssi but still 26 seconds slower than Geoghegan Hart and Cattaneo. That’s easily good enough to take the provisional GC lead, but his eyes are now on McNulty and Oomen.
5.
Reis
23h21’54
6.
Geoghegan Hart
+ 27
7.
Cattaneo
+ 53
8.
Stüssi
+ 1’06
9.
Shikai
+ 1’19
White jersey McNulty is up first, he beats Reis by 7 seconds.
4.
McNulty
23h21’47
5.
Reis
+ 7
6.
Geoghegan Hart
+ 34
7.
Cattaneo
+ 1’02
8.
Stüssi
+ 1’13
Oomen gained 8 bonus seconds on the previous two yesterday, but that’s not enough to stay ahead of them, not by a long shot. Losing 28 seconds to McNulty, he drops to 5th overall but manages to remain ahead of Geoghegan Hart.
3.
McNulty
23h21’47
4.
Reis
+ 7
5.
Oomen
+ 20
6.
Geoghegan Hart
+ 34
7.
Cattaneo
+ 1’02
Bernal is the last rider who conceivably could dislodge Bjerg. But he falls well short, 14 seconds off the pace. His primary goal, of course, is to put pressure on Haig, who he trailed by 8 seconds coming into the stage.
2.
Bernal
23h20’45
3.
McNulty
+ 1’02
4.
Reis
+ 1’09
5.
Oomen
+ 1’22
6.
Geoghegan Hart
+ 1’34
So now the big question is: Can Haig remain in the GC lead? The yellow jersey could give him a boost here … and that might have been crucial! He is just 4 seconds slower than Bernal remains and in first place!
1.
Haig
23h20’41
2.
Bernal
+ 4
3.
McNulty
+ 1’06
4.
Reis
+ 1’13
5.
Oomen
+ 1’26
So, ultimately the GC riders couldn’t compete for the stage win. Conci somewhat redeems himself as the best of them in 5th place, with Powless, Cattaneo and Geoghegan Hart also in the Top 10.
The stage winner is nonetheless a small surprise, although it’s not a shock that Bjerg would have this in him. A strong Beniusis leaves top favorite Mullen “only” in third place.
Tour de Suisse 
