Matej Mohoric is no unknown to a solo victory but he's outdone himself to net another one as the breakaway capitalized once again in a flat stage. Mohoric was part of the early break of the day, one that was later caught by a large group of rouleurs and sprinters that attacked from the peloton halfway through the stage, and within the destructive flurry of attacks that came within the final 50 kilometers Mohoric was the only rider who managed to break clear from the surviving group, and clearly was the strongest as he held a gap of around a minute to the closes chasers that came down to the line in small groups, with Christophe Laporte and Casper Pedersen coming in rounding up the podium.
Positive: Mohoric and Bahrain netting another big win.
Negative: Movistar had 3 riders in the decisive attack and they all missed the eventual winning group, aswell as Trek having 3 riders but failing to place any in the Top5.
The Route
The final time-trial, the race has done a good job with the timing and distance of the TT's in my opinion, and in the flat roads of Aquitaine the race's final classification will be settled. It's one for the specialists, although it has a few little bumps they will be rather meaningless as the gradients will never tighten the heavyweight riders, it also has very long sections of straight roads where the riders can really put their power down.
The Weather
Hot temperatures and a moderate northeastern breeze, a long headwind section in the first half of the TT exposed, but there will also be some tail and crosswind throughout it, nothing that is crucial.
The Favourites
The TTists today had a good opportunity to go into and fight for a stage win but they all held back and for good reason, all thinking of tomorrow and of taking a glorious win in the biggest stage race of the year. In the head of affairs you have 4 riders that have in the other TT a big disapointment as they saw Tadej Pogacar taking the win, however with the GC won I doubt the Slovenian will be fighting for every second, and the specialists are sure to have much more motivation to strike big, starting with Wout van Aert who won in Malaucène and has over the race gotten the form he lacked in the first TT to fight for the win, you have Stefan Bissegger who had the bad luck of getting some rain in that day, has a chance here to make it up for that bad day, Kasper Asgreen who's had several attempts to win a stage in the race but has always hit the post aswell, and Stefan Kung who was runner-up in the next one and is hoping things go similar, but without Pogacar in the first places.
These are the main favourites, but other riders will be eyeing the result, surely Mikkel Bjerg will be having his goal on having a good result, like Luke Durbridge, or other rouleurs like Nils Politt and Max Walscheid who have been showing great form, you have some GC guys like Jonas Vingegaard, Mattia Cattaneo and Alexey Lutsenko who have lately shown brilliant performances in these, on paper Wilco Kelderman could also do really well, and you have riders within Ineos who could also do quite well like Geraint Thomas, Michal Kwiatkowski or Jonathan Castroviejo for example.
Within the Top10 fight it's unlikely to see any major change, Pello Bilbao will likely go over Guillaume Martin into 9th, and Wilco Kelderman will surely be attacking Ben O'Connor's 4th place, if he performs much better than on the opening TT that is.
Inside the Bus
This morning I talk to...
#193 Sean Bennett - Take it easy Sean, just make it inside the time limit.
#55 Mark Cavendish - Mark, same thing, of course I expect you to be next to Sean and Reto as I say this, because all that matters today is making it within the time limit.
#35 Reto Hollenstein - Rinse and repeat.
Prediction Time
⭐ Bjerg, Durbridge, Lutsenko, Castroviejo, Kwiatkowski, Cattaneo
Wout van Aert to take what he was targeting on stage 5, by taking advantage of his great form and a suiting route to win the final time-trial of the Tour, right before trying to replicate it in the Olympics.
Make sure to let me in on your opinion, and of course follow me on twitter for the latest updates!
Comments