Tour de Suisse 2019: Stage 8

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of stage 8 of the Tour de Suisse.

Race hub
Stage 7: Bernal wins on San Gottardo
Tour de Suisse stage 8 time trial start times
Bernal extends GC lead ahead of Tour de Suisse time trial
Podcast: Has Bernal done enough to lead at the Tour de France?

The first rider of the day, Enzo Wouters (Lotto Soudal) sets off in 15 minutes.

Each rider sets off at one-minute intervals today, save for the top ten, who start off with two-minute gaps.

Yellow jersey Egan Bernal will set off in around two and a half hours.

Eight minutes until Wouters sets off.

Here's a look at some of the big favourites for today's stage and their start times. Obviously Dennis is the main man, but the other riders should all finish towards the top of the standings today. (all times are CEST)

Tom Bohli (UAE Team Emirates) 2:37

Maciej Bodnar (Bora-Hansgrohe) 2:55

Yves Lampaert (Deceuninck-QuickStep) 3:31

Søren Kragh Andersen (Team Sunweb) 3:34

Kasper Asgreen (Deceuninck-QuickStep) 3:39

Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) 3:43

Patrick Bevin (CCC Team) 4:04

Lawson Craddock (EF Education First) 4:17

Jonathan Castroviejo (Team Ineos) 4:26

Rohan Dennis (Bahrain-Merida) 4:56

And Wouters is off. The time trial is underway.

Tom Bohli is off now. He should set the fastest time early on.

Hopefully we'll get some time checks from the organisation early on today. The opening time trial was something of an ordeal in that regard.

A time of around 22 minutes is expected for the fastest riders today.

Double stage winner Elia Viviani is about to set off.

Well Wouters set off 25 minutes ago and we have had no time checks so this might be a long day...

Maciej Bodnar sets off. He's in with a good chance of a result today, having finished second in the opening TT.

Bohli is the fastest through the 11km time check. His time was 13:15.

Alex Edmondson was second at the checkpoint, six seconds down on Bohli.

EF's Tom Scully, who finished tenth on stage 1, goes fastest now. His time at the checkpoint is 12:52.

Quite impressive by Scully, but he might've gone out too fast there.

Tom Bohli goes 23:02 at the finish, with an average speed of 50.014kph.

Not the best time for Bohli, if 22 minutes is the expected best time.

Ex-mountain jersey wearer Claudio Imhof is going out fast. He passes Fabien Grellier on the road.

Scully goes fastest! 22:11 for the EF man. He blew away Bohli's time.

Imhof goes through the checkpoint second fastest at 13:06.

Bohli was actually slower than Edmondson at the finish. He's third fastest so far.

Scully averaged 51.931kph today.

French time trial champion Pierre Latour is out on course now.

Bodnar went 13:13 at the check, 21 seconds down on Scully.

Imhof finishes with a time of 22:47, second fastest so far. Scully really flew around the course.

Benjamin Thomas (Groupama-FDJ) is second-fastest at the checkpoint with a time of 13:00.

Bodnar finishes with a time of 22:53, third fastest.

22:30 for Benjamin Thomas. Second-fastest at the finish too.

Black jersey Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) sets off.

Søren Kragh Andersen's (Team Sunweb) time to start his effort.

Check the full list of start times here.

13:04 at the time check for Nikias Arndt (Team Sunweb).

Three-time winner Rui Costa (UAE Team Emirates) sets off. He was strong at the Tour de Romandie, finishing second, but has struggled this week.

Costa lies just 67th at this point in the race. Stefan Küng, the Swiss TT champion, sets off next.

Lampaert and Kragh Andersen have gone first- and second-fastest at the checkpoint. Their times are 12:36 and 12:44, quite a bit faster than Scully's 12:52.

Arndt is third-fastest at the finish. His time was 22:32.

Lampaert passes his two-minute man Sagan in the final metres. He breaks the 22-minute barrier to go faster. 21:58 for him.

Lampaert's teammate Kasper Asgreen puts in a strong time at the checkpoint – 12:53 to go fourth-fastest there.

Küng passes the checkpoint with a time of 12:51, 15 seconds down on Lampaert. He went out too fast in the opening TT, so maybe he'll have something in reserve now.

Søren Kragh Andersen goes second-fastest at the finish with a time of 22:08.

Stage 6 winner Antwan Tolhoek (Jumbo-Visma) gets underway.

Asgreen's turn to take second place at the finish. His time is 22:03.

Küng catches two-minute man Michael Albasini as he nears the finish.

New Zealand TT champion Patrick Bevin sets off.

22:18 for Küng. He slots in at fifth-fastest so far.

Greg Van Avermaet (CCC Team) is out on course now, a minute behind Bevin.

Today's stage will be all about the Dennis vs Bernal's battle, but Bernal's teammate and presumptive Team Ineos Tour de France leader Geraint Thomas is back in training. He crashed out of the Tour de Suisse a few days ago. Read the full story here.

Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb) finishes with a time of 22:40, eighth fastest.

Bevin goes through the time check with a time of 12:56, 20 seconds down on Lampaert's time.

Van Avermaet goes through in 13:33.

Lawson Craddock (EF Education First) left the start a few minutes ago. He'll be one to watch.

Mathias Fränk (AG2R La Mondiale) sets off. Obviously a bit of favouritism towards the home riders from the tv producer here as they cut between Fränk, Hirschi out on course and then Steve Morabito (Groupama-FDJ) starting.

World TT champion Rohan Dennis is warming up. He'll be expected to take the race lead from Egan Bernal today, especially with such large gaps between current leader Lampaert and a great time trialist such as Bodnar (almost a minute).

Marc Hirschi (Team Sunweb) crosses the line with a time of 23:12.

Spanish TT champion Jonathan Castroviejo sets off.

22:11 for Bevin, just fractions behind Scully's time.

Craddock is 11th at the checkpoint with a time of 13:06.

There's almost a minute between Lampaert and Bodnar at the finish. You'd imagine Dennis goes fastest, but it seems a big ask for Bernal to beat Bodnar. It might not be very close between the top two.

13 riders left to start. Carlos Betancur (Movistar) is next.

Sergio Henao (UAE Team Emirates) sets off, so it's just the top ten left to go now – each at two-minute intervals.

22:34 for Trentin – ninth fastest at the finish.

Simon Spilak sets off. Roche, Aru, Mas, Benoot, Hirt, Pozzovivo, Konrad, Dennis and Bernal still to go!

Craddock takes tenth at the finish – 22:37.

Dennis gets his warmup done and is getting ready to set off in ten minutes.

Just looking through some of Bernal's previous TT efforts. It's hard to find a flat one, but at last year's Tour of California he averaged 49.375kph over the 35km course.

It's a rough and ready comparison method, but extrapolate that performance to today and he'd be sitting at around 30th, 1:20 down on Lampaert.

Of course, form, weather, tiredness, practise and many more factors affect time trial performance. So making any definitive prediction about how he'll go is a bit silly.

Tiesj Benoot (Lotto Soudal) sets off. Just the top five left now.

Castroviejo has mailed it in today, saving it for Bernal tomorrow. He finishes 1:50 down on Lampaert.

None of the riders out on course are making any real headway at the intermediate check. Lennard Kämna (Team Sunweb) was 13th, but there hasn't been much to write home about as we await the big guns.

Hirt and Pozzovivo leave the start ramp. Just Konrad and the big two remain.

Spilak goes through the checkpoint, 46 seconds down.

Patrick Konrad (Bora-Hansgrohe) sets off.

22:40 for Marc Soler (Movistar). That's a nice time to go 11th.

Rohan Dennis (Bahrain-Merida) is off! He needs 41 seconds on Bernal to take the race lead, remember.

Kämna finishes with a time of 22:39, passing Frankiny in the final metres. He moves into 11th.

Egan Bernal (Team Ineos) is away! He's the last man to start, obviously. Let's see what he can do.

Here's Bernal just before he rolled down the ramp.

Benoot crosses the checkpoint with a time of 13:26, 50 seconds down.

Spilak finishes 1:50 down on Lampaert.

It's not really the most picturesque route of the week. Dennis is racing through a building site at the moment, for example.

Pozzovivo passes the checkpoint 1:02 down on Lampaert.

Lampaert waits in the hot seat.

Dennis passes the checkpoint in third place, with a time of 12:48. He's 12 seconds down on Lampaert.

Bernal now, and a great ride so far! He's 14th at the checkpoint, 19 seconds down on Dennis, and 31 down on Lampaert.

Bernal is not a terrible time trialist by any stretch, but you’d have expected him to lose a bit more against the world champion..

Mas, Benoot and Hirt all came in around 30th place, 1:13-1:14 down on Lampaert.

3km left to go for Dennis now.

Pozzovivo crosses the line. Not a great time trial for the Bahrain man. He finishes in 96th place, over two minutes down.

Peter Sagan chats to Lampaert as they watch the action out on course.

Bernal hits the 3km mark now. A replay shows Bernal almost lose his back wheel on the outside of a corner! He saved it though.

Dennis crosses the line in sixth. 22:17 for him, so Lampaert wins the stage!

22:58 is Bernal's target time.

It seems that Dennis has suffered for his efforts in the mountains here. You'd expect him to put in a better ride than that, but the context of this stage race is important.

A great ride from Bernal though. He finishes with a time of 22:34, 37 seconds down on Lampaert! He only lost 17 seconds to Dennis, wow..

Stage result

1 Yves Lampaert (Bel) Deceuninck-QuickStep 0:21:58
2 Kasper Asgreen (Den) Deceuninck-QuickStep 0:00:05
3 Søren Kragh Andersen (Den) Team Sunweb 0:00:10
4 Tom Scully (NZl) EF Education First 0:00:13
5 Patrick Bevin (NZl) CCC Team
6 Rohan Dennis (Aus) Bahrain-Merida 0:00:19
7 Stefan Küng (Swi) Groupama-FDJ 0:00:20
8 Benjamin Thomas (Fra) Groupama-FDJ 0:00:32
9 Nikias Arndt (Ger) Team Sunweb 0:00:34
10 Matteo Trentin (Ita) Mitchelton-Scott 0:00:36
11 Egan Bernal (Col) Team Ineos

General classification after stage 8

1 Egan Bernal (Col) Team Ineos 24:40:24
2 Rohan Dennis (Aus) Bahrain-Merida 0:00:22
3 Patrick Konrad (Aut) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:01:46
4 Tiesj Benoot (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:01:54
5 Jan Hirt (Cze) Astana Pro Team 0:01:55
6 Enric Mas (Spa) Deceuninck-Quickstep 0:02:43
7 Simon Spilak (Slo) Katusha-Alpecin 0:02:53
8 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) Bahrain-Merida 0:0:2:56
9 Carlos Betancur (Col) Movistar 0:03:17
10 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Team Sunweb

On to the podium ceremonies.

Bernal still in yellow by 22 seconds and the overwhelming favourite to carry it through tomorrow's stage, given that he is easily the strongest climber in the race.

Sagan comes out for another day in black as the points classification leader. 

Bernal leads the youth classification, of course, and also leads the mountain classification.

Here's tomorrow's stage. With Bernal in the race lead there shouldn't be any real challenge to the yellow jersey, but minor placings will certainly be up for grabs.

The Sustenpass, originally the second climb of the day, has been taken out for safety reasons. It's replaced by the Passo San Gottardo – the same, cobbled side – which the riders raced up yesterday. Still 3 HC climbs on the menu, so a tough day to end the race.

Anyway, that's all for our live coverage of stage 8. Be sure to join us again tomorrow afternoon for the final stage of the 2019 Tour de Suisse!