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.
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
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.
Maciej Bodnar sets off. He's in with a good chance of a result today, having finished second in the opening TT.
EF's Tom Scully, who finished tenth on stage 1, goes fastest now. His time at the checkpoint is 12:52.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
Sergio Henao (UAE Team Emirates) sets off, so it's just the top ten left to go now – each at two-minute intervals.
Simon Spilak sets off. Roche, Aru, Mas, Benoot, Hirt, Pozzovivo, Konrad, Dennis and Bernal still to go!
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.
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.
Rohan Dennis (Bahrain-Merida) is off! He needs 41 seconds on Bernal to take the race lead, remember.
It's not really the most picturesque route of the week. Dennis is racing through a building site at the moment, for example.
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..
Pozzovivo crosses the line. Not a great time trial for the Bahrain man. He finishes in 96th place, over two minutes down.
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.
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!
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