Hello and welcome to live coverage of stage 5 of the 2018 Tour of Britain. Today we have a first for the modern race – a team time trial.
Today's stage is 14km long and finishes with a climb up Whinlatter Pass, which will feature twice on tomorrow's stage, the second time as a summit finish.
Stage 5 will tackle the longer, easier side of the climb, which is 6km long with an average of around 4%.
Here are today's start times (UK time):
13:05 – JLT-Condor
13:08 – Canyon-Eisberg
13:11 – Madison-Genesis
13:14 – Great Britain
13:17 – One Pro Cycling
13:20 – Bardiani-CSF
13:23 – Team Sunweb
13:26 – Team Wiggins
13:29 – Direct Énergie
13:32 – Education First-Drapac
13:35 – Dimension Data
13:38 – Lotto-Soudal
13:41 – Team Sky
13:44 – Mitchelton-Scott
13:47 – Katusha-Alpecin
13:50 – Wanty-Groupe Gobert
13:53 – Quick Step Floors
13:56 – LottoNL-Jumbo
13:59 – Movistar
14:02 – BMC
And here are the GC standings and jersey wearers at the start of today's stage. We're expecting a GC shakeup, though race leader Patrick Bevin's BMC team is among the favourite to take the TTT win.
1. Patrick Bevin (BMC) 15:25:11
2. Cameron Meyer (Mitchelton-Scott) +00:04
3. Julian Alaphilippe (Quick Step Floors) +00:06
4. Jasha Sütterlin (Movistar) +00:16
5. Wout Poels (Team Sky)
6. Chris Hamilton (Team Sunweb)
7. Bob Jungels (Quick Step Floors)
8. Primož Roglič (LottoNL-Jumbo)
9. Hugh Carthy (EF-Drapac) +00:23
10. Scott Davies (Dimension Data) +00:26
Yesterday we saw André Greipel (Lotto-Soudal) take his second victory of the race. The German got a great run out of the final corner in Leamington Spa before sprinting out of the wheel of Patrick Bevin (BMC) to win with Sacha Modolo (EF-Drapac) in his wake. Bevin also extended his GC lead thanks to the bonus seconds he picked up by finishing third.
Just a couple of minutes remain until JLT-Condor leave the starting ramp.
And they're off. JLT-Condor are out on course now.
All but one of the JLT-Condor men are on TT bikes. Graham Briggs is the sole exception. A curious choice.
Each squad sets off at three-minute intervals today. All but five teams have their full complement of riders.
Lucas Hamilton (Mitchelton-Scott) abandoned on stage 3, Joey Walker (Team Wiggins), Jelle Vanendert (Lotto-Soudal) and Edward Theuns (Team Sunweb) left the race on stage 2, and Odd Christian Eiking (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) abandoned on stage 1.
And now Canyon-Eisberg are off. Once again, they're on a mixture of TT and road bikes. It'll be interesting to see what bikes the big favourites for the win will be riding.
Madison-Genesis are off now. Their rider Matthew Holmes is the leader of the intermediate sprints competition, having dominated the breakaway during yesterday's stage.
Each team's time will be taken at the fourth rider to cross the finish line, by the way.
Meanwhile, Canyon-Eisberg have lost a rider after six minutes of racing. Alex Paton, who was in the break yesterday, dropped back on a rise in the road.
One Pro Cycling are just rolling down the ramp now. Their rider Hayden McCormick was in the break yesterday, and the entire team are on time trial bikes.
Bardiani-CSF are the next team off. Alessandro Tonelli was in the break of the day on stage two, finishing second to Cameron Meyer (Mitchelton-Scott) and taking the leader's green jersey for a day.
There is an intermediate checkpoint at 7km, but we haven't seen any times come through on tv, Twitter or the race website, so that seems pretty pointless.
Team Wiggins follow Team Sunweb down the start ramp. Both teams have five riders remaining and both teams are running full time trial rigs.
JLT-Condor are the first team through the finish. Their time is 21:50.9.
Some news from Team Sky as Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas, both racing here in Britain at the moment, will miss the World Championships due to fatigue.
Great Britain are the fastest at the intermediate checkpoint, with a time of 8:58, nine seconds faster than the fastest team so far, Canyon-Eisberg.
Gaps are emerging in the Great Britain train as they head into the final 400 metres. Their third and fourth men are falling back.
Ethan Hayter powers across the line, seemingly not noticing what has happened behind. Still, they go fastest by 25 seconds with a time of 20:55.4.
The 11th team of the day set off. Dimension Data are underway.
Team Sunweb have now set the fastest time at the checkpoint, six seconds faster than Great Britain.
One Pro Cycling cross the line in second. Team Wiggins are the final British domestic team out on course.
Bardiani-CSF and Team Sunweb will be next across the line.
Here's a look at the 7km checkpoint at the moment.
Team Sky set off. They're among the favourites for victory today.
Bardiani-CSF cross the line. Their time is 21:40.4.
20:42.4 for Team Sunweb, the new fastest time.
A fractured Team Wiggins finish with a time of 21:01.7.
Direct Énergie and EF-Drapac will be the next teams to cross the line.
At the other end of the course Quick Step Floors are just about to depart. The last team off will be BMC in around ten minutes.
Both Quick Step Floors and BMC are among the favourites for the stage win today. The other big favourite, Team Sky, are out on course, while LottoNL-Jumbo will be off soon.
EF-Drapac put in a poor time of 21:20.7.
Chris Froome drops off the back of the Team Sky paceline. They're on the climb now, 14 minutes into their ride.
Direct Énergie have already finished but we don't have their time yet, unfortunately.
Dimension Data cross the line with four men together. Their time is 20:58.8.
Iljo Keisse is the first man to drop from Quick Step Floors. He has put in a few huge rides so far, slogging away for hours at the front of the peloton on a number of stages.
Fernando Gaviria also seems to be struggling to stay in contact.
Łukasz Wiśniowski drops off the Sky train. They have four men left – Stannard, Poels, Thomas and Kiryienka.
Lotto-Soudal put in a time of 20:56.0, good for third so far.
Sky ride into the final kilometre. Kiryienka is hanging on by a thread.
Movistar are off, the penultimate team to start the stage. They are, shockingly enough, leading the team classification and are wearing the gree
Team Sky cross the line, setting the fastest time of the day by some margin. Their time is 20:03.0.
Mitchelton-Scott have had a good ride. They cross the line second-quickest so far with a time of 20:31.3.
It looks like Quick Step Floors and BMC will be the only teams to have a chance of beating that time from Team Sky. The Belgian will find it tough going though, with two riders dropping back early on.
Wow, Katusha-Alpecin have beaten Team Sky! 19:57.0 for Martin, Dowsett, Strakhov and Würtz Schmidt.
Wanty-Groupe Gobert cross the line with three men. Their fourth man crosses the line in 20:58
Quick Step Floors are coming up to the line now. The remaining four are splitting up as Schachmann and Jungels power onwards. Alaphilippe is trying to bring Richeze back.
And Quick Step go fastest! Despite losing two men pretty early on they set a time of 19:53.2.
Primož Roglič is driving LottoNL-Jumbo in the final killometre.
Looks like it'll be close at the top the way LottoNL-Jumbo are going.
Or maybe not that close... The Dutch team go fastest by a wide margin, setting a time of 19:36.7.
BMC are down to four men. They're 15 minutes into their ride, so they'll be crossing the line in 4-5 minutes.
Movistar will finish before them though, and they're also down to four riders.
Movistar cross the line with a time of 20:12.9, fifth fastest so far. Just BMC left now.
BMC have race leader Patrick Bevin, Stefan Küng, Jürgen Roelandts and Tejay Van Garderen left as they head into the final kilometre. Küng is really struggling and is distanced by his teammates.
Bevin, Roelandts and Van Garderen slow up so Küng can catch back on. They need all four men together at the finish.
They aren't going to win the TTT though.
LottoNL-Jumbo have won stage 5 of the Tour of Britain!
Surprisingly poor ride from BMC. They cross the line with a time of 20:17.2.
Time to get the calculators out to work out the new GC standings, then.
Stage 5 result:
LottoNL-Jumbo: 19:37
Quick Step Floors: +00:16
Katusha-Alpecin: +00:20
Team Sky: +00:26
Movistar: +00:36
BMC: +00:38
Mitchelton-Scott: +00:54
Team Sunweb: +01:06
Direct Énergie: +01:10
Great Britain: +01:18
Lotto-Soudal: +01:20
Wanty-Groupe Gobert: +01:22
Dimension Data: +01:23
Team Wiggins: +01:26
One Pro Cycling: +01:34
Canyon-Eisberg: +01:44
EF-Drapac: +01:45
Madison-Genesis: +01:51
Bardiani-CSF: +02:04
JLT-Condor: +02:14
GC after stage 5:
1. Primož Roglič (LottoNL-Jumbo) 15:45.04
2. Jullian Alaphilippe (Quick Step Floors) +00:06
3. Bob Jungels (Quick Step Floors) +00:16
4. Patrick Bevin (BMC) +00:24
5. Wout Poels (Team Sky) +00:26
6. Pascal Eenkhoorn (LottoNL-Jumbo) +00:34
7. Jasha Sütterlin (Movistar) +00:36
8. Jos Van Emden (LottoNL-Jumbo) +00:37
9. Neilson Powless (LottoNL-Jumbo) +00:37
10. Cameron Meyer (Mitchelton-Scott) +00:42
New race leader Primož Roglič speaks after the stage:
Yeah of course we are all really really happy. It's somehow crazy that we won. It's a really special moment and we're all really happy.
It's been an amazing year for Roglič, who only started cycling six years ago. July saw him finish fourth at the Tour de France. while earlier in the year he has won Itzulia, the Tour de Romandie and his home race the Tour of Slovenia.
Tomorrow's stage, finishing once again on the Whinlatter Pass (but up the tougher side – 3km at 7%) looks to be the last big GC test of the race. Quick Step Floors men Alaphilippe and Jungels are his biggest threats, while Team Sky's Wout Poels lies close enough to strike too.
Lying second overall, Julian Alaphilippe has also enjoyed an annus mirabilis this year, winning La Flèche Wallonne, two Tour de France stages, the polka dot jersey and Clásica San Sebastián, among others.
At April's Itzulia, the Frenchman led the race before losing the jersey to Roglič in the stage four time trial before cracking on the final stage and falling out of contention altogether. Tomorrow we'll see if the Quick Step man can avenge that early season defeat.
Here's a look at tomorrow's stage. It's the queen stage of the race, taking in 168.3km around the Lake District. Four first category climbs dot the route, along with several more tough uncategorised hills.
And that's it from me for today. Come back tomorrow for live coverage of stage 6!
