Tour of Britain 2016: Stage 7a
Hello and welcome to stage 7a of the Tour of Britain, a 14.2km time trial in Bristol.
The first rider will be out the starting gate on the in around 20 minutes at 10.01. That's AN Post's Emiel Wastyn.
The riders face wet roads on what is a tricky-in-places route. There's a fast descent down Rownham Hill just after the riders cross the Clifton Suspension Bridge, before a flat blast around the harbour-side of south and central Bristol, before returning back toward Clifton. Just after the 3km to go marker, the riders swing onto the climb of Bridge Valley Road, which is just 600m but has an average gradient of 9 per cent according to Strava. At the top, it's a flat 2km to the finish, so riders will have to dose their effort just so to avoid fading.
Among the early interest, before we get to the GC battle, Bradley Wiggins is off at 10:16am. Movistar's Alex Dowsett, another Briton who could lay down an early marker, starts at 10:24am.
This TT course will be turned into this afternoon's circuit race so it's a useful sighter for the riders. There's some novel road obstacles for them to contend with including the toll booths on the Clifton Suspension Bridge.
Wiggins is on his road bike today. A measure of the technicality of the course and perhaps a suggestion that we shouldn't look to him for the early marker, but let's see.
The top 10 starts at 11:49, with Guillaume Martin. The Wanty- Group Gobert climber was the best French amateur a couple of years ago and he's a smart cookie too, he was a philosophy student who took a strong interest in Nietzsche's work.
It's going to be a great GC battle later. This is what the top 10 looks like. There's going to be a real tussle between Dumoulin and Dennis.
1 Stephen Cummings (GBr) Dimension Data 27:04:11
2 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Giant-Alpecin 0:00:49
3 Rohan Dennis (Aus) BMC Racing Team 0:00:51
4 Tony Gallopin (Fra) Lotto Soudal 0:00:53
5 Dylan Van Baarle (Ned) Cannondale-Drapac 0:00:57
6 Xandro Meurisse (Bel) Wanty - Groupe Gobert 0:00:58
7 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Team Sky 0:01:06
8 Ben Swift (GBr) Team Sky 0:01:14
9 Jacopo Mosca (Ita) Trek-Segafredo 0:01:20
10 Guillaume Martin (Fra) Wanty - Groupe Gobert 0:01:24
20:31 for Bradley Wiggins. The only rider allowed to take his hands off the bars when he crosses the line in celebration. He's clearly enjoying communing with his people.
Dowsett smashes the current fastest time: 18:41. That'll last a while we reckon...unless Taylor Phinney who's off in a few minutes goes better.
The last time the Tour of Britain was in Bristol was 2014 when Michal Kwiatkowski won the stage and took the yellow jersey.
There's some good crowds out along the Coronation Road, which, incidentally, is home to a great Indian restaurant, the Coronation Curry House.
So far the top three is
1 Dowsett (Movistar) 18:41
2 Mullen (Cannondale Drapac) 18:42
3 Edmondson (Orica-Bike Exchange) 19:32
Cavendish comes home in 21:40. Saving himself for the work this afternoon on behalf of Stephen Cummings
BMC's young stagiaire Taylor Eisenhart has gone third fastest in 18:56. Three riders are under 19:00 now.
I count six National TT champions in this field today
- Nicolas Roche (Ire)
- Taylor Phinney (USA)
- Alex Dowsett (GBr)
- Tom Dumoulin (Ned)
- Rohan Dennis (Aus)
- Tony Martin (Ger)
And one of them, Etixx-Quick Step's Tony Martin, is probably negotiating the Rownham Hill descent as we speak.
Taylor Phinney crashed on the course while he was fastest at the halfway point. He's finished now and still clocked 18.46, five seconds off Dowsett's pace. That's hard, hard luck for Phinney.
It looks like the roundabout at the furthest point of the course is causing havoc. There's been a few crashes there. At least five says @oddbydefault on Twitter.
Movistar's Gorka Izaguirre is off in a few minutes. He's a handy time triallist when he wants to be and was second in the Spanish national championships TT in 2015.
Wout Poels of Sky will be coming home soon. As he told Cyclingnews's top dog Daniel Benson, he wants Grand Tour leadership opportunities.
“This winter we have to look with the team as to what my programme will be and what they want to do, and with Chris," he said. "Maybe it will be the Vuelta or the Giro but we have to look at it.
“I think the Vuelta might be better but I’ve done the Giro one time and I also really liked it there. We have to see.”
We're almost in the top 10 now. and a quick recap. Tony Martin has set the benchmark of 18:06, which is 35 seconds faster than Alex Dowsett. With Rohan Dennis and Tom Dumoulin riding, Martin's time could be under threat and it shows what a challenge the current leader Cummings faces to hang onto his leader's jersey.
Cummings can time trial, there's no doubt about that - he's a been a regular top 10 finisher in grand tour TTs in the past, but he's still going to have to put it all out there.
Cummings can time trial, there's no doubt about that - he's a been a regular top 10 finisher in grand tour TTs in the past, but he's still going to have to put it all out there.
We're in the heart of the top 10 now. Irish national champ roche is out on course, as is Sky team-mate Ben Swift. there's a two minute gap between top 10 riders's start times.
Dumoulin is third fastest at 18:11
Superb jersey defence there by Cummings as he finishes fourth. He lost just 16 seconds to Martin who was on a great day.
That's Tony Martin's first international TT win since the Tour of Romandie last year. (He's picked up both national TT titles in the intervening period though.)
Tony Martin will be happy with that as it ends a bit of a win drought and he got one over on Dennis and Dumoulin.
Taylor Phinney will be rueing what might have been after crashing just after he set the fastest time at the halfway point.
Just to confirm the top 5 on the stage
1 Martin 18:06
2 Dennis +03
3 Dumoulin +05
4 Cummings +16
5 Gallopin +25
And how that left the GC Top 10
1. Cummings
2. Dumoulin +38
3. Dennis +st
4. Gallopin +1:02
5. van Baarle +1:21
Join us at 14:30 for this afternoon's circuit stage which is on the same course as this morning's TT.
And don't forget to keep up with all the action from the crucial penultimate stage of the Vuelta here: live.cyclingnews.com/
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