Tour de Pologne 2013: Stage 7

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January 1 - August 3, Wieliczka, POL, Road - WorldTour

The Tour of Poland ends today with a 37 kilometer individual time trial.

Today's closing time trial covers a rolling 37 km from Wieliczka to Krakow. No ranked climbs, but no real flats, either.

As always, it is a bit hard to get information on this race, but we will do the best we can. We hear that Taylor Phinney of BMC currently has the best time of 47:50. His teammate Marco Pinotti is second, six seconds down. But Bradley Wiggins is underway and is of course a threat.
 

Cheng Ji of Argos-Shimano was the first to go today, at 15:40. The last will be race leader Christophe Riblon (AG2R), who takes off at 17:43.

We have a new leader and it is no suprise: Fabian Cancellara (RadioShack-Leopard), with a time of 47,32, which is 18 seconds faster than Phinney.

There are only 113 riders here today. They take off at two minutes intervals, until the top ten, who have a two minute interval.
 

Wiggins was second fastest at the intermediate time check, two seconds behind the time set by Pinotti.

Danny Pate of Sky had a chain problem, during his time trial, and had to get help. That didn't stop him from putting in what the team calls “a strong time of 50:11”, which puts him in 8th place at the moment.

There was at least one non-starter today. Belkin reports that Steven Kruijswijk got ill during the night, and will not ride today.

Vincenzo Nibali has crossed the finish line with a time of 49:53, putting him in 8th place at the moment.

We think that Wiggins will be coming in shortly. It will be interesting to see if he can top Cancellara.

And does he ever! Wiggins beats the Swiss rider's time by nearly a full minute: 46.36!

Talk about coming back with a bang -- what a great ride by Wiggins. Hard to believe that anyone will top that time.

The leader's jersey changed hands again yesterday, and now belongs to Christophe Riblon (AG2R). Will he still lead GC after this time trial?

1     Christophe Riblon (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale     31:09:20      
2     Jon Izaguirre Insausti (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi     0:00:19      
3     Rafal Majka (Pol) Team Saxo-Tinkoff     0:00:20      
4     Sergio Luis Henao Montoya (Col) Sky Procycling     0:00:24      
5     Pieter Weening (Ned) Orica-GreenEdge     0:00:27    

Riblon also leads the points classification.

1     Christophe Riblon (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale     58      pts
2     Rafal Majka (Pol) Team Saxo-Tinkoff     57      
3     Thor Hushovd (Nor) BMC Racing Team     55      
4     Jon Izaguirre Insausti (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi     52      
5     Sergio Luis Henao Montoya (Col) Sky Procycling     52     

Riblon should be taking off around this time, and he is the last rider of the day.

Here is the top ten as of this moment:

1.Bradley Wiggins (Sky)   46.36
2.Fabian Cancellara (RadioShack)  +0.56
3.Taylor Phinney (BMC)   +1.14
4.Marco Pinotti (BMC)    +1.20
5.Jesse Sergent (Radioshack-Leopard)  +2.19
6.Nikolay Mihaylov (CCC)   +2.26
7.Giovanni Visconti (Movistar)   +3.02
8.Stef Clement (Belkin)   +3.08
9.Thomas Dekker (Garmin-Sharp)  +3.13
10.Vincenzo Nibali (Astana)   +3.49

 

Kristof Vandewalle of OPQS has pushed himself into fifth place, with a time of 48.16.

It is another bright sunny day today!

Bartosz Huzarski of NetApp-Endura has led the sprint classification for the entire race.

1    Bartosz Huzarski (Pol) Team NetApp-Endura     13      pts
2     Angel Madrazo Ruiz (Spa) Movistar Team     7      
3     Bartlomiej Matysiak (Pol) CCC Polsat Polkowice     6      
4     Mathias Frank (Swi) BMC Racing Team     3      
5     Pawel Cieslik (Pol) Poland     3    

Orica-GreenEdge's Peter Weening  is underway. He came in only 27 seconds down on GC, and is entertaining hopes of doing well enough today to snatch the overall lead.

Weening was fifth at the intermediate time. Rafal Majka, the Saxo-Tinkoff rider who wore the leader's jersey early on, was 24 seconds slower than Weening.

Former yellow jersey Jon Izaguirre charges up to the intermediate time check, but crosses it only as 16th.

Riblon even slower at the time check, about 26th.

Tomasz Marczynski (Vacansoleil) has claimed the mountain title, as there are no ranked climbs today.

1     Tomasz Marczynski (Pol) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team     86      pts
2     Darwin Atapuma Hurtado (Col) Colombia     64      
3     Bartosz Huzarski (Pol) Team NetApp-Endura     58      
4     Thomas Rohregger (Aut) RadioShack Leopard     37      
5     Sylvester Szmyd (Pol) Movistar Team     23      

 

Ivan Basso crosses the line with the 14th best time on the day.

Eros Capecchi has caught his two minute man in teh last kilometer, and takes 11th place.

Here comes Weening. Will he have picked up enougt time to take the GC lead?

He crossed the line with a time of 48.20. Remember, he was 24 seconds down on the race leader.

Henao (Sky) is the next to come in, and puts in a time of 49.14. So Weening leapfrogs over him into fourth place.

Looks like this will be a great time for Majka. He is really going all out!

But not good enough. Weening jumps up another spot....

48.53 was Maijka's time.

Second place in GC is Jon Izaguirre, not particulalry known for his time trial skills. But he too is going well.

He too is too slow, so Weening is now second. And when we look at Riblon, we can believe tht Weening might just take the GC....

It's all or nothing for Riblon here, and he knows it.

No! It is over! Weening has won!

Riblon crosses the line in a time of 49.03.

Weening finished sixth on the stage, which was enough to give him the overall win.

A come-from-behind victory for Weening, and a comeback win for Wiggins. Congratulations to both!

Riblon in fact tumbled to third overall. Weening wins, with Izaguirre second by 13 seconds, and Rilbon third at 16 seconds.

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