Live coverage

Tour de Suisse 2017: Stage 9

By SadhbhO'Shea
published

January 1 - June 18, Schaffhausen, Switzerland, Road - WorldTour

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Welcome to live coverage of the final time trial at the Tour de Suisse.

Tour de Suisse hub 

The final stage of the Tour de Suisse has arrived. Riders are on their way, we've had 10 riders start so far. You can find a full list of start times here. 

The time trial is taking place in the same area as yesterday's 100km stage. Simon Spilak maintained his lead and goes into today's stage with a comfortable lead. 

Lasse Norman Hansen is out on the road. He's a potential contender for victory today but he's already got a mountains classification jersey to go home with. He secured that yesterday, taking full points on all of the climbs yesterday. He beat Nick van der Lijke by nine points. 

It has been a very good week for the Aqua Blue Sport team, who won a stage earlier in the race courtesy of Larry Warbasse. 

Jon Dibben currently has the fastest time at the first of two checks today. He stopped the clock at 12:59. 

Away from the racing and we spoke to Carmen Small this weekend. The American rider has been out with concussion since March and is still suffering headaches. She told us about her recovery so far and the challenges she's faced not being able to race. You can ready what she had to say here. 

Mullen goes through the first check quicker than Dibben with a time of 12:33. Gedeminas Bagdonas matches the time of the Irish rider. It's a fight between the two to see who gets to keep the hot seat warm.

Almost 40 riders out on the road now. Gregory Rast is the first local rider. His compatriot Mathias Frank has got the Swiss rider competition all but wrapped up. 

Dibben has gone through the second time check. He's putting in a decent effort and he clocks up a 33:48 at the second check. 

Rohan Dennis is out on course now, he's three minutes into his effort. Dennis won the opening time trial and is the big favourite for today's. 

Dibben finishes the course in a time of 39:40. According to the race website, the winning time should be about 37:18 so his time is likely to fall soon. 

That didn't take long! Dibben's time has been crushed by Ryan Mullen with a 38:29. But we've got Rohan Dennis out on course setting very fast times. We don't expect Mullen's time to hold out.

Magnus Cort Nielsen (Orica - Scott) is the next rider to head to the hot seat, setting a 38:35

Correction, that is not the fastest time, it's 14 seconds short.

Clearly the coffee hasn't kicked in, that's six seconds shy not 14.

At the moment, Rohan Dennis is 30 seconds quicker than the next rider, Yves Lampaert at the first check. The Australian is showing fine form.

This is what the top 10 looks like at the moment. It will surely change when Dennis gets in. 

While Mullen sits in the hot seat, another of Cannondale-Drapac's team is tasting victory. Tom Scully won the final stage of the Route du Sud, while Silvan Dillier took the overall win after a gutsy ride in the mountains yesterday. 

Rohan Dennis smashes the fastest time. He stops the clock at 31:01 so that is significantly quicker than the organisers predicted as the winning time. 

Apologies, that was the second intermediate check. Dennis has just completed the course with a time of 36:30. That's still considerably quicker than previously predicted and it's going to take a strong ride to get him off the top spot. 

He was almost two minutes faster than Mullen on the line. That was superb riding by the Australian. He has well and truly bounced back from the crash he had at the Giro d'Italia and he will be a favourite for the opening time trial if he does ride the Tour de France. 

Tim Wellens is going well and he posts the third fastest time at the first check. 

Stefan Kung is out on course. The BMC rider could be a threat to his teammate Dennis. Here he was concentrating before he took to the start ramp. 

A good time of 38:14 from Yves Lampaert. That puts him into second place although he's still a long way back from Dennis. 

There are some fast riders coming through but none of them is getting near Dennis for now. Nikias Arndt is 21 seconds down, which moves him into second place. His teammate Michael Matthews is 30 seconds down, on the same time as Lampaert. 

Rohan Dennis chilling in the hot seat at the moment. I hope it's comfy because he could be there for a while. 

Stefan Kung has gone through the first intermediate check. He is just nine seconds down on Dennis at the moment. 

Kung was the race leader for a day after taking the lead on stage 2. He crashed in the final of stage 3 and gave the race lead over to Michael Matthews, who also only had it for a day. 

Sylvain Chavanel is only 13 seconds down at the second check. A good ride so far from the Frenchman, but can he hold it?

Salvatore Puccio crosses the line to take second place. He is still well over a minute behind Dennis though. 

After a strong start, Matthews is slipping back. He's fourth at 1:29 behind Dennis. Still, a good ride from the Australian. 

It won't be long until we get to the pointy end of proceedings today. Simon Spilak will be on his way in just over 30 minutes' time. 

Matthews claws back a bit of time to go provisional third in this time trial while his teammate Arndt is in second at 1:13 back. The gap is closing but Dennis is still quite comfortable in the hot seat. 

Tejay van Garderen has a steady start to his ride. He's 29 seconds back on his teammate at the first time check. 

The gap closes again as Chavanel comes over the line. He goes second at 1:10, but he is quickly bumped off when Kung crosses the line. He's the first rider to get within a minute of Dennis. He's just 29 seconds back. 

This is the top 3 at the moment

The weather has been, thankfully, very good today. The riders had to endure a torrential downpour earlier in the week but the riders have all had dry conditions for their time trials and it should remain that way until the last rider is through. 

We're into the final 10 rider. Marc Soler is just getting going and Simon Spilak will be off in s16 minutes. 

A good ride from Hugo Houle to get into the top 10. He's 1:38 down on Dennis. 

Van Garderen making up time at the second check. He goes into third at 59 seconds down. We could well see a BMC 1-2-3 at the end of the day. 

Van Garderen has had a pretty quiet Tour de Suisse after winning a stage at the Giro d'Italia last month. He's coming to an end of this block of racing and has been playing a team role instead. 

Mathias Frank out on course. He's only three seconds ahead of Mikel Nieve in the overall classification. It could be a tight contest for his sixth place. 

Van Garderen crosses the line 1:02 slower than Dennis and locks out the podium places for BMC. Can someone get into the middle of that party and spoil it?

Patrick Bevin crosses the line to take fourth place and this is what his time has done to the top 10.

Fabio Felline gets into the top 10 with his time of 37:36. He slots into fifth place as Damiano Caruso gets underway. Just Spilak to come. 

Ion Izagirre going well. He was just 16 seconds down on Dennis at the first check. Can he get into the mix of this BMC podium party?

Simon Spilak starts and he's just 28.6km away from overall victory. He's not the greatest time triallist, but he should be able to stay ahead of Caruso with a 52-second advantage going into today. 

A reminder of what the GC top 10 looks like at the moment. 

We wait now to see how the time checks look at the first intermediate. That will give us an indication how riders are going. The climb can change things drastically if riders go out too quickly though. 

Pozzovivo just 14 seconds down at the opening check. A surprisingly good start for the Italian. He was the race leader at one point slipped down to fourth on stage 7.

Pozzovivo is two seconds quicker than Izagirre, which is quite the surprise. Izagirre is considered to be quite a good time triallist. 

Caruso comes through 20 seconds down. We'll have to wait about two minutes to see how Spilak is going. Caruso would have to do a stunning time to overhaul the gap to the race lead. 

Wow, what a ride from Spilak. He's second fastest at the 9km mark just seven seconds down. Has he gone out too fast or can he hold this? Only time will tell. 

If the times were taking at the first check Spilak would win by 1:05, Caruso would keep second place over Kruijswijk, but only just. 

Spilak has obviously done some work on his time trialling. He looks very smooth out there. 

Marc Soler moving up the stage standings. He's third fastest at 58 seconds at the second time check with that climb helping him out a bit. 

Izagirre pushes in ahead of Soler at the second check point. He's just 40 seconds down and in the hunt for a good result. 

Some changes in the top 10, this is how it looks now. 

That climb really has an impact on the final times. The better climbers are able to make up a lot of time in comparison to some others. 

Marc Soler comes home in third place and spoils the BMC Racing podium lock-out. He's just 58 seconds down. 

Not a great day for Frank as he struggles through the second intermediate check. Meanwhile, Izagirre crosses the line and bumps Soler out of the top 3. He is third at 51 seconds. 

Just seven riders to finish their time trials and then we will know the exact make-up of the top 10. 

Pozzovivo still going well and is 50 seconds down on Dennis. This is a really good ride from Pozzovivo. 

Mikel Nieve finishes 2:44 down and it looks like Izagirre has jumped him in the overall classification. 

Frank comes home two minutes down and Izagirre might just have jumped him too. He started a minute behind the Swiss in the GC. 

Caruso 48 seconds down in fifth place at the second check and he's heading onto the descent towards the line. 

Pozzovivo finishes provisional fifth at a minute down. He beats Van Garderen in a TT. Let that sink in. 

Spilak dropping back a bit at that second check but he's still two seconds ahead of Caruso. Something drastic would need to happen to stop Spilak from winning overall. 

That will be a relief for Dennis, who now also looks certain of the win today. 

Caruso 47 seconds down and he slots into third place, making it a top 3 for BMC once again. 

Spilak loses time to Caruso in that last section but he had plenty of time to keep himself ahead in the overall classification. Spilak wins overall and Dennis takes the stage win. 

A collected effort from Spilak in that TT. He went out really quickly and lost time in the finish but had so much time in the bank it wasn't a worry. That is his second overall victory at the Tour de Suisse after winning it in 2015. 

This is how it finished on the stage today. 

Rohan Dennis spoke after the stage:

Rohan Dennis on the podium for his stage win.

While Spilak is in great form, it's unlikely we'll see him at the Tour de France next month. He's not ridden a Grand Tour since 2014 as he doesn't like riding them. 

Your top three at the 2017 Tour de Suisse.

It has been an interesting week of racing. Both Peter Sagan and Rohan Dennis come away with two stage wins. Philippe Gilbert, Larry Warbasse, Domenico Pozzovivo and Michael Matthews all took one each. Simon Spilak also took a stage win, which set him up for the eventual overall victory. 

While there were plenty sprinters missing, we can take some interesting notes from the performances this week. Peter Sagan is certainly on form and looks dead-set to take yet another green jersey. Michael Matthews is also going well, but still has work to do on his climbing. John Degenkolb will be very disappointed to go home without a victory and has plenty to do in the two weeks leading up to the Tour de France. 

Here is confirmation of the top 10 in the GC. 

You can get full results, a gallery and a recap of today's action in our report here. 

 

It has been a busy day of racing all over the world so why not head over to our race section where you can find results from all the races, including Route du Sud, ZLM Toer,Tour de Slovenie and Giro del Trentino Alto Aldige.

That is it from our live coverage of the Tour de Suisse. We will be back soon for the Tour de France, which starts in just under two weeks. Next week will see most of the riders head off to their respective countries for the national championships. We will keep you up to date with the results, so make sure you tune in. Of course, we will have all the latest news for you too. Goodbye for now and see you very soon. 

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