The Tour de France lasts three weeks and covers 3,480km this year, but every second won or lost on the road to Paris is precious, and those won or lost in the team time trial weigh heavier than most as they come early in the race. Any gains that could be made on stage 2 on Sunday would be a huge boost to morale; any losses would weigh heavy under the knowledge that they will have to pulled back, making the rest of the Tour an uphill battle even before the Pyrenees and Alps appear.
Jumbo-Visma smashed the Brussels team time trial and their rivals on the Tour's second day, winning the stage by 20 seconds ahead of Team Ineos, extending Mike Teunissen's lead to 30 seconds and filling the top five overall. As his Jumbo-Visma teammates enjoyed a day of celebration, team leader Steven Kruijswijk can now look down on his overall rivals from third place in the general classification. Below him is the first battlefield of the 2019 Tour de France, with a range of winners and losers.
Some riders, including Geraint Thomas and Egan Bernal of Team Ineos, gained time on many of their overall rivals, even if they lost time to Kruijswijk, while the hopes and ambitions of Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) and Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo) took a beating, and are perhaps already beyond repair.
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In between the winners and losers, the first 'virtual general classification' of the 2019 Grande Boucle – comparing just the overall contenders' times – highlights the better performances and several surprise performances against the clock.
Winners and losers
The time gaps are relatively small for now, and the racing in the mountains will surely make them much wider, but they turn the rest of the Tour into a handicap race.
Jumbo-Visma were the only team to go below the 29-minute barrier as they raced at an average of 57.202kph. As EF Education First road captain Simon Clarke pointed out, the next five teams finished in the space of eight seconds, indicating the stand-out performance of Jumbo-Visma.
A millstone around their necks
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest Interviews and Features http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/tour-de-france-gc-winners-and-losers-after-ttt-analysis
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