Yesterday’s Action
Rather surprisingly in the end, we had a big bunch kick, the result that had looked most unlikely for the whole day’s action. However, Jay McCarthy (Bora-Hansgrohe) won the bunch finish, ahead of neo-pro and Baby Lombardia winner Aleksandr Ryabushenko (UAE Team Emirates) and Michał Kwiatkowski (Team Sky), who had been caught after helping set up a breakaway attempt for David Le La Cruz late in the day.
The break of the day went early, within the first 10 kilometres, and Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal) and Christopher Juul-Jensen (Mitchelton-Scott) were the first two to get away, and there was a lot more interest in behind and they would eventually be joined by Pavel Sivakov (Team Sky), Ion Irisarri (CajaRural-RGA), Aritz Bagües (Euskadi Murias), Ben King (Dimension Data), Willie Smit (Katusha-Alpecin), and Brendan Canty (EF Education First-Drapac).
There were three classified climbs during the early part of the route, with two third category climbs at Errigoiti and Aretxabalgane followed by the second cat La Barrerilla, all of this in the first 100 kilometres, and De Gendt, the winner of the mountains jersey at Paris-Nice, was first over all three peaks in the mountains classification, earning himself the yellow jersey.
The escape worked well in tandem together, with eight strong riders, and they had 5:45 over the main peloton with 85 kilometres left to go. It was at this point that Astana, who had missed the break for the second day in a row, began to amass at the front up the long road to La Barrerilla, and by the time the riders were on the main circuit the latecomers to the break had been jettisoned and just De Gendt and Juul-Jensen were left out in front. They worked well in tandem, and still had a two-minute gap with 35 kilometres left to go
This left a gap for attackers to come forward and Omar Fraile did not need much encouragement to head forward. From this, Team Sky duly took advantage, with Kwiatkowski and David De La Cruz driving through changeable weather to catch the front two and become a quartet. With 12 kilometres to go, De Gendt’s efforts told, with his job done for the day, and slowly Kwiatkowski was swallowed up before Juul-Jensen and De La Cruz.
Today’s Stage
Lodosa/Lodosa (19.4 km ITT)
The Route
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Pan flat around the city of Lodosa. There are a few technical turns where handling will count for a good deal but notice the long straights heading outside and into the city. We’ll see gaps today.
The Favourites
From a general classification perspectival, this is about how much time Lotto’s Primoz Roglic can take out of Julian Alaphlippe of Quick-Step, and then the rest of the field. Alaphilippe has an eight second advantage over Roglic but the Slovenian, runner-up at the World Championships last year, should feel confident of overturning that with little fuss and the rest of the field could well be out of it by today given the nature of the course, which is pan flat and exposed to some wind too. Alaphilippe is no slouch against the clock – he was third in the Paris-Nice time trial, albeit over a course that was a little tougher, and he will hope not to be too far behind.
Roglic could well take the stage although Spanish time trial champion Jonathan Castroviejo, third in the closing time trial at Tirreno, will surely have his eyes on the top prize today and will appreciate the pan flat route too. Sky are packing heat in this division and David De La Cruz took the closing time trial at the Vuelta a Andalucia to boot when he beat a similar field of climbers. Vasil Kiryienka prefers to have longer to win up by he was tenth at Tirreno over half the distance so ought to go well too and a top 10 at least will be his aim.
The Izaguirre brothers went well against the clock at Paris-Nice, finishing with the same time in fifth and sixth, and they will hope to put time into the pure climbers here.
Steven Cummings (Dimension-Data) is the British National TT Champion so clearly has a big effort in him over such a distance whilst it would be unwise to discount Patrick Bevin of BMC who have had a dire week.
