Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the BinckBank Tour. It's stage 2 today, and an individual time trial - a largely flat 12.7km course around Venray in the Netherlands.
As we pick up the action, plenty of riders have already taken to the course, the first rider having started at 13:35. The last rider is the overall leader, Fabio Jakobsen, and he'll be off at 16:29.
Alex Dowsett (Katusha-Alpecin) currently occupies the hotseat with the fastest time so far. The British rider clocked 14:30, beating Luke Durbridge (Mitchelton-Scott) by a second and Miles Scotson (BMC) by three seconds).
There are some really strong contenders out on the course at the moment, giving Dowsett some nerves in the hotseat. Ryan Mullen (Trek-Segafredo), Dylan Van Baarle (Team Sky), Jos Van Emden (LottoNL-Jumbo), and Niki Terpstra (Quick-Step) are all out there.
Mullen stops the clock on 14:38. That's eight seconds off Dowsett.
Wow. One name I forgot to mention there as out on the course was Michael Matthews, and the Australian has just taken the lead.
Matthews is a strong prologue rider and this course and distance have suited him well. He clocks 14:26 to beat Dowsett's time by four seconds.
14:41 for Van Baarle. That's the 11th fastest time so far.
The quality keeps rolling down the ramp. Next up is Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Soudal), who is the European champion.
Her comes Terpstra, and he clocks 14:42. That's 12th quickest.
14:39 for Van Emden, which just puts him into the top 10.
This is the top 10 as it stands
Michael Matthews (Sunweb) - 14:26
Alex Dowsett (Katusha-Alpecin) - 14:30
Luke Durbridge (Mitchelton-Scott) - 14:31
Miles Scotson (BMC) - 14:33
Maciej Bodnar (Bora-Hansgrohe) - 14:34
Yves Lampaert (Quick-Step Floors) - 14:34
Tom Scully (Wanty Groupe Gobert) - 14:35
Ryan Mullen (Trek-Segafredo) - 14:38
Owain Doull (Team Sky) - 14:39
Jos Van Emden (LottoNL-Jumbo) - 14:39
The BinckBank Tour got underway yesterday in miserable conditions in northern Holland. The race came back for a bunch sprint, where Quick-Step's young sprinter Fabio Jakobsen edged out Marcel Kittel and Caleb Ewan in an exciting bunch sprint. Here's our report page with all the details.
Stefan Kung (BMC) rolls down the ramp. We really have a quality time trialling field here.
14:43 for Swedish champion Tobias Ludviggson.
New best time!
Soren Kragh Andersen, Matthews' Sunweb teammate, throws his bike for the line and beats Matthews by a hair. There's only a few hundredths of a second in it, but Andersen has the lead.
Zdenek Stybar starts his ride now. He's a former winner of this race and joins Terpstra in a two-pronged Quick-Step approach this year.
14:42 puts Wellens, a two-time winner of this race, into 15th provisionally. A solid start to his bid for the triple.
Campenarts takes the lead!
14:25 for the European champion, and he raises his arm in celebration as the time flashes up on the screen.
Wow! Kung comes to the line and smashes Campenaerts' time.
14:11... That's a full 14 seconds quicker than the European champion and the rest. What a ride.
Can anyone beat Kung?
Schachmann, Navardauskas, and Sutterlin are all out there now but the top-tier time triallists have already finished. It looks like the victory will go to the Swiss rider.
Our top story on CN today doesn't concern the BinckBank Tour, but rather Vincenzo Nibali, and his comments on the behaviour of roadside fans. The Italian, of course, broke a vertebra when he was taken down by a spectator on Alpe d'Huez at the recent Tour de France, and he's come out and said 'cycling has become a circus'. Here's the full story
15:20 for Stybar. That's some 20 seconds slower than his teammate Terpstra.
14:30 for Schachmann. That puts him in fifth place.
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In case you wanted to feel any worse about your weekend rides, Kung's average speed was 53.7km/h.
Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo) rolls down the ramp now. He should be able to post a solid time to put himself in a decent position for the overall.
Sutterlin stops the clock on 14:39. That won't trouble the top 10.
Dylan Groenewegen starts his effort now, and we're heading into the sprinters ranks, with the fastmen all up towards the top of the general classification after yesterday's bunch sprint.
Max Walscheid is next up, and then we'll be into the last 10 riders.
Kung speaks from the hotseat
“I was feeling good already at the start and I had a good look at the course before the race so I had a plan coming into today and I was able to execute that plan perfectly and put in a good performance."
Küng just gave us all in education in short tt’s.
Here is the top 10 overall and the last 10 riders to take to the course (in reverse order starting now with Halvorsen).
1 Fabio Jakobsen (Ned) Quick-Step Floors 4:00:50 2 Marcel Kittel (Ger) Katusha-Alpecin 0:00:04 3 Elmar Reinders (Ned) Roompot-Nederlandse Loterij 0:00:05 4 Dries De Bondt (Bel) Veranda's Willems Crelan 5 Caleb Ewan (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott 0:00:06 6 Manuele Boaro (Ita) Bahrain-Merida 0:00:07 7 Dimitri Peyskens (Bel) WB Aqua Protect Veranclassic 8 Matej Mohoric (Slo) Bahrain-Merida 0:00:09 9 Thomas Sprengers (Bel) Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise 10 Kristoffer Halvorsen (Nor) Team Sky 0:00:10
14:50 for Jempy Drucker (BMC).
The hotseat
Stuyven comes to the line and stops the clock on 14:52. That's the 32nd best time.
Groenewegen passes his minute-man Matteo Pelucchi and comes into the finish. 15:28 is his time.
Caleb Ewan and Dries De Bondt start their rides. Just three riders left to go.
15:30 for Halvorsen.
Kittel rolls down the ramp now. The German is actually a very good time triallist over short distances. It used to be his speciality before he became a pure sprinter.
Fabio Jakobsen, stage 1 winner and overall leader, sets off now, and that's it, all the riders are out.
Jakobsen picked up 10 bonus seconds for his win yesterday, but even so it's difficult to see him keeping the green leader's jersey, which looks destined for the shoulders of Stefan Kung.
15:17 for Manuele Boaro.
Caleb Ewan gets out of the saddle and sprints to the finish. 15:52 for the young Australian, a fair way off the pace, as expected.
15:33 for De Bondt, who creeps into the top 100 on the stage.
Just three riders left out on course.
Elmar Reinders clocks 15:24. Just Kittel and Jakobsen to come.
Here comes Kittel. With a couple more sprint opportunities coming up, how much has he put into today?
Kittel clocks 14:55. That's a respectable time from the German, who sits in 36th place provisionally.
Here comes Jakobsen into the final kilometre. He's not going to worry Kung but we wait for him to cross the line for the result to be officially confirmed.
15:35 for Jakobsen
Stefan Kung (BMC) wins stage 2 of the BinckBank Tour
Kung is also the new overall leader.
Top 10 on stage 2
1 Stefan Kung (Swi) BMC Racing Team 00:14:11 2 Victor Campenaerts (Bel) Lotto Soudal 00:00:14 3 Soren Kragh Andersen (Den) Team Sunweb 00:00:15 4 Michael Matthews (Aus) Team Sunweb 5 Maximilian Schachmann (Ger) Quick-Step Floors 00:00:19 6 Alex Dowsett (GBr) Katusha-Alpecin 7 Luke Durbridge (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott 00:00:20 8 Miles Scotson (Aus) BMC Racing Team 00:00:22 9 Maciej Bodnar (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe 00:00:23 10 Yves Lampaert (Bel) Quick-Step Floors
Here's Kung
"It was a really good TT from my side. I had a plan in mind of how to approach it and how to execute it and I was completely on it from the first metre. Compared to Glasgow, where Victor won, I don't know, my head, I just wasn't mentally ready for it. Today I tried to do better, and it worked out, and I'm really happy."
More from Kung, who explains the reference to last week's European Championships defeat in Glasgow.
"In the end you also need the power in the legs, but really it was the mental approach there. [In Glasgow] it felt afterwards kind of like I'd done a training ride - I was pushing hard on the straights but on the corners I was really cautious. Here, I had a really good look at it, I had a strategy of how to approach each corner and instead of just riding it I was really attacking the course. I think that made the difference today."
General Classification after stage 2
1 Stefan Kung (Swi) BMC Racing Team 04:15:11 2 Victor Campenaerts (Bel) Lotto Soudal 00:00:14 3 Soren Kragh Andersen (Den) Team Sunweb 00:00:15 4 Michael Matthews (Aus) Team Sunweb 5 Maximilian Schachmann (Ger) Quick-Step Floors 00:00:19 6 Alex Dowsett (GBr) Katusha-Alpecin 7 Luke Durbridge (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott 00:00:20 8 Miles Scotson (Aus) BMC Racing Team 00:00:22 9 Maciej Bodnar (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe 00:00:23 10 Yves Lampaert (Bel) Quick-Step Floors
Kung pulls on the leader's jersey on the podium, and intends to keep it...
"There are not many opportunities for my type of rider to go for GC in stage races," he says. "This course looks pretty good. For sure there will be some hard days, like in Limburg and then Geraardsbergen, but the goal is to defend this jersey for as long as possible."
Kung pulls on the leader's jersey on the podium, and intends to keep it...
"There are not many opportunities for my type of rider to go for GC in stage races," he says. "This course looks pretty good. For sure there will be some hard days, like in Limburg and then Geraardsbergen, but the goal is to defend this jersey for as long as possible."
That's it from us today. We'll be back again tomorrow right here for live coverage of stage 3, where the race crosses the Belgian border for a probable sprint finish in Antwerp.
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