Ahh, the team time trial, when we are treated to the spectacle of a whole team working away in formation, riding a collection of bikes worth a very large amount of money. The sight must surely be one of the finest in the world of pro cycling, second only to a nicely turned-out podium girl.
Garmin-Baracuda are well known for their collective speed against the clock, and their Cervelo bikes are very expensive indeed, so it makes sense that they did the best ride of the day. The pace was a bit too high for their best placed rider at the start of the day, Alex Rasmussen. He was shelled-out along the route, but sacrifices have to be made, and Garmin now have the top four places on GC, with Ramunas Navarduaskas in the Pink Jersey.
Bad luck for Taylor Phinney then. BMC came in 31 seconds down on Garmin and he lost the race lead. He looked to be struggling at times, and nearly crashed. That ankle of his probably still smarts a bit, what with him having four stitches in it. Also finishing in about the same time were Sky, with their crash casualty from Monday, Mark Cavendish. Cav hasn’t got any stitches, but his arse does look like a side of bacon.
If Garmin’s win wasn’t a surprise, then Katusha’s second place probably was. They were only 5 seconds off Garmin’s time, and they did a good job for team leader J-Rod, getting him in the top ten. It must be their new and very expensive Canyon time trial bikes.
As far as the rest of the teamswent there were no big surprises. As expected Euskaltel came last, and the rest of the teams came somewhere in between. So, Kreuziger and Basso are still within a few seconds of each other, F Schleck is a bit further back, with Scarponi and Cunego further back still.
No scores as I write, but I know that the Bile Beans won't be topping the table after today.Should be a sprint tomorrow I'm hoping that Cav can ride through the pain to take another stage, and that some of my other boys can get up there too.
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