“It was close to perfection,” Valter said afterwards, “we wanted to prepare for the Vuelta TTT by using this day's race, and we did it really well.”
“I enjoyed it out there with the guys, I’ve done a lot of individual time trials but here as a team, it’s different, you have the support of the others, but they make you suffer too, and guys like Eduardo Affini and Primož put us on the limit too. Overall, though, we did really well.”
On a course that mixed smooth roads early on and then much rougher, more technical ones, in its last part, Spanish Pro Conti squad Kern Pharma set the benchmark early time of 15:25, and which would net them a notable seventh place in the final results sheet.
Bahrain Victorious were the first squad to overtake Kern Pharma at the top of the provisional results table with a time of 15:08. But the sight of the Jumbo-Visma squad powering along an early segment of the course on a broad well-surfaced highway at a speed nearly touching 70kph did not auger well for their chances of taking a definitive lead.
Despite losing one rider, Gijs Leemreize, to a possible mechanical before the midway time checkpoint after 6.8km, Jumbo-Visma were already 12 seconds faster than Bahrain by that point. In the end, only UAE Emirates, two seconds quicker, secured a better mid-race split.
Despite losing veteran climber Robert Gesink and then sprinter Eduardo Affini after the checkpoint, Roglič’s long turns at the front kept the pace of the remaining quartet of yellow-and-black clad riders at a sustained high. With times being taken on the fourth rider home, there was a moment of suspense when Koen Bouwman visibly struggled on the difficult ascent to the finish, but Roglič dropped back in person to give Bouwman the support he needed to remain with his teammates, and for Jumbo to secure the best time of the day.
While Movistar reached the final 2km ascent with all seven riders and then rapidly burned through the weaker elements to clock the closest time to Jumbo, Bora Hansgrohe veered perilously close to losing their key fourth rider, Anton Palzer on the last, crucial climb. Palzer hung on like grim death to ensure the German squad still retained the third spot, but the opposite proved true for UAE’s George Bennett.
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UAE were the fastest mid-race, but the New Zealander struggled badly on the last climb. Dropped twice in the last two kilometres, Bennett’s teammates were all but sitting up as they approached the line and simultaneously to keep him in touch. But the result of their near disintegration at the finish meant UAE finally slumped to fifth on the stage.
As for Jumbo and the new race leader, when asked about his chances of staying in the top spot, Valter was pragmatic, saying “I think that’ll be really hard, we have one strong rider here called Primož and it’ll be hard to keep him away.
“I’m proud to have the jersey and it’s the first time I’ve been leading a race this year, but I’m happy to help him win here overall. My role in the team is unchanged: I’d hope to finish the race with Primož winning it.”
Alasdair Fotheringham has been reporting on cycling since 1991. He has covered every Tour de France since 1992 bar one, as well as numerous other bike races of all shapes and sizes, ranging from the Olympic Games in 2008 to the now sadly defunct Subida a Urkiola hill climb in Spain. As well as working for Cyclingnews, he has also written for The Independent, The Guardian, ProCycling, The Express and Reuters.
