Key moments

17:06 - Vinokourov 14th

Alexandre Vinokourov finished 14th and Bradley Wiggins took over from him with 1.11 advantage over Cadel Evans. Brajkovic is 3rd at 1.21, Vinokourov 4th at 1.56 and Rui Costa 5th at 2.12.

17:01 - Top 5

1. Tony Martin, 55.27

2. Bradley Wiggins, at 0.10

3. Edvald Boasson Hagen, at 0.43

4. David Zabriskie, at 0.58

5. Janez Brajkovic, at 1.17

16:54 - Wiggins second

Bradley Wiggins can’t beat Tony Martin: he’s second at ten seconds but he’ll take the yellow-blue jersey.

16:53 - Virtual GC at km 27.5

1. Wiggins; 2. Evans, at 1.22; 3. Brajkovic, at 1.27; 4. Vinokourov, at 2.00; 5. Costa, at 2.11.

16:47 - Vinokourov 18th at km 27.5

Race leader Alexandre Vinokourov has the 18th best time at km 27.5. He’s 2.11 down on Bradley Wiggins.

16:39 - Wiggins has the best second time check

Bradley Wiggins has the best second intermediate time check at km 27.5, meaning that he has climbed very fast. He is actually in the same second as Tony Martin, both with 39.29. But Wiggins has now to ride on a wet descent, where Martin rode on the dry.

16:37 - Wiggins virtual leader at km 15

At the first intermediate time check, Bradley Wiggins is virtually the race leader with 42 seconds advantage over Cadel Evans and 49 seconds over Alexandre Vinokourov, who only scored the 36th best time after 15km with a deficit of 1.21 from the fastest man Tony Martin.

16:27 - Wiggins at 21 seconds

At the first time check, Bradley Wiggins is 21 seconds behind Tony Martin. He hasn’t hit the wet roads yet.

15:58 - Gesink on good form

Robert Gesink had a quiet start of the Dauphiné but his form looks pretty good as he clocks the time trial in 58.16, which is the eighth best time so far. So we should see him at his advantage in the mountain stages that will conclude the last three days of the race.

15:56 - Brajkovic on the start line

Dauphiné defending champion Janez Brajkovic is starting now, so the last ten riders are entering in action.

15:38 - Jérémy Roy explains how hard it is

Jérémy Roy set the provisional fifth best time behind time trial super specialists Tony Martin, Edvald Boasson Hagen, David Zabriskie and Adriano Malori. He explained to letour.fr how hard the race was: “Since the beginning of the climb, I experienced a pouring rain that made the downhill complicated. There was a head wind and quite a lot of speed bumps in the last five kilometers, plus some gusts of wind in town towards the finish. There are 600 meters of difference in altitude and the use of a gear of 39x21 isn’t something common in a time trial, so it makes the course very unique for a race against the clock.”

15:34 - Luis Leon Sanchez talks

Spanish time trial champion Luis Leon Sanchez set a time of 59.05. He wasn’t very happy at the end. “I didn’t find my rhythm”, he told letour.fr. “But for me, the most important is to get out of the Dauphiné in good condition. I lack race rhythm really. I was more or less at my ease in the first two stages. Yesterday, it’s only because of a flat tyre that I was off the back. I’m not worried about my condition though. By the end of this, I’m confident I’ll be on the right track.”

15:30 - The score at half time

More than half of the riders have completed their time trial by now. Tony Martin (HTC-Highroad) is by far the best of this contingent. He precedes Edvald Boasson Hagen (Sky) by 43 seconds, David Zabriskie (Garmin-Cervélo) by 58 seconds and Adriano Malori (Lampre-ISD) by 1.04.

14:56 - Boasson Hagen comments

Norwegian champion Edvald Boasson Hagen was satisfied with the time that put him provisionally on second position 43 seconds behind Tony Martin. "I rode a good time trial”, the rider from Team Sky told letour.fr. “It’s a good course. I enjoyed the tailwind in the first climb but the long downhill was wet and slippery for me, so I probably lost some time there compared to Tony Martin. It shows that what happened yesterday was just an accident. Shit happens… I had a flat tyre at the wrong moment when there was a split in the bunch, but the most important is that Bradley Wiggins got back on. I’m here to help him. Today I wanted to ride at the max and I think the test is positive.”

14:50 - Tony Martin’s quotes

Tony Martin commented right after he completed the course: “I think I have done a good time. I’m very satisfied with the way I rode. The weather conditions I got were really good. The two climbs are pretty hard but I was lucky to have a tailwind. I also rode a good downhill at the end. I hope my time will stay the best till the end. 58 seconds faster than Zabriskie, wow, that’s good! I liked the course, it’s a course for everybody and I came to the Dauphiné because this will be the course of the time trial at the Tour de France as well. I had a long break, so it’s normal that I wasn’t doing very well in the first two stages of the Dauphiné. I’m here to getting better step by step.”

14:49 - Martin’s average: 45.98km/h

The average speed of Tony Martin is 45.98km/h.

14:32 - Martin has 58 seconds lead over Zabriskie

Tony Martin provisionally leads the race, and maybe for a long time: he has ridden the course 58 seconds faster than David Zabriskie!

14:16 - Tony Martin expected to finish soon

Tony Martin also has the best second check time at km 27.5. He’s expected to finish in Grenoble pretty soon.

14:09 - Malori takes the command

On the finishing line, Adriano Malori has the new best time: 57.31.

14:06 - Race leaders are...

The leaders’ skinsuit wearers for today are:
- Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) is in yellow-blue, as he leads the overall classification. Interestingly, thanks to a split in the bunch that favored the first 14 riders on the line, the Kazakh rider has increased his lead by six seconds, over most of his rivals for the overall win, except Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha), Nicolas Roche (Ag2r-La Mondiale) and Bradley Wiggins (Sky). Vinokourov has now 11 sec. advantage over the winner of the stage 1 Jurgen Van den Broeck (Omega Pharma-Lotto) and Wiggins, 13 sec. over Cadel Evans (BMC), 17 sec. over Roche, 23 sec. over Rodriguez and 26 sec. over defending champion Janez Brajkovic (Radio Shack).
- Jurgen Van den Broeck (Omega Pharma-Lotto) has the polka dot jersey, as he leads the king of the mountains classification since he scored ten points at the uphill finish of Saint-Pierre-de-Chartreuse yesterday. Leonardo Duque (Cofidis) is equal on points with ten as well. Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) follows with nine points. There won’t be any change today, as no point is awarded for the KOM in the time trial.
- Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) wears the green jersey, as he leads the points classification with 38 points, ahead of Vinokourov (37) and yesterday’s stage winner John Degenkolb (33).
- Rob Ruijgh (Vacansoleil) is in white, as he is the best young rider and eighth on GC, Rui Costa (Movistar) is at 5 sec. and time trial specialist Ben Hermans (RadioShack) is at 11 sec.
- Sky leads the team classification, with 6 sec. advantage over Ag2r-La Mondiale and 27 sec. over Europcar.

14:04 - Westra leads the classification

Lieuwe Westra has scored the best time of the first ten riders on the finishing line: 58.28.

13:58 - Tony Martin is motivated

Tony Martin seems more motivated by today’s time trial than the first two stages of the Dauphiné in which he lost a lot of time. The winner of Paris-Nice has set a better time than Malori at km 15 (19.25). Newly crowned American champion David Zabriskie has the second best time so far in 19.42.

13:54 - First rider on the line

The first rider to have crossed the finishing line is Balint Szeghalmi, in 1.01.51.

13:41 - Same course at the Tour de France next month

For many riders, today is a day to reconnoitre the course that will be used for stage 20 of the Tour de France on July 24. At the difference of 100 meters, for logistic reasons, it’s the exact same course scheduled for the Grande Boucle. This stage has attracted at the Dauphiné some stars who want to experience today’s course before the Tour.

13:34 - Malori sets a time

The first interesting intermediate time check to note is the one of Adriano Malori, in 20.03 at km 15. The Italian from Lampre-ISD is a former U23 world champion for time trial. He’s probably gearing up for the Italian championship. He’ll be a favourite in the absence of five times champion Marco Pinotti who is sidelined for a couple of months after a big crash at the Tour of Italy.

13:14 - Saur and FDJ know the course

Not many riders have seen the course of today’s time trial before the Dauphiné started in Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne on Sunday. The first team to have done so was Saur-Sojasun. According to Le Dauphiné newspaper, Jérôme Coppel was seduced by the course. The FDJ team did it as well and current race leader Alexandre Vinokourov had a look on his way to Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne on Friday.

13:02 - Jacky Durand describes the course

Eurosport’s commentator and former champion Jacky Durand who lives in Grenoble has detailed the course of today’s stage for the Le Dauphiné newspaper. “Had I been in charge of chosing the route, I wouldn’t have done a better course than this one”, the winner of the 1992 Tour of Flanders noted. He selected the crucial points:
- Km 9, Brié et Angonne: on the way to Eybens, after the velodrome, it goes up. It’s pretty hard for a time trial. It will be important not to go in the red from the start. It’s possible to lose a lot of time on the false flat after the roundabout of Tavernolles, after which a bigger gear can be used.
- Km 15, Vizille: there are five minutes of downhill, favorable for recovery. The few curves at the entrance of Vizille are tricky, with one hairpin to the left hand side.
- Km 20, Vaulnaveys-le-Bas: it’s a false flat of eight kilometers, probably very windy. This is where the differences will be made. It’s important for the riders to change gears quite often, looking at the best compromises.
- Km 23, golf d’Uriage: after a roundabout, there’s a change of direction to the right to begin the climb to Chamrousse up to Belmont (approximately 1.7km). This is climbing effort on a small gear.
- Km 27.5, Saint-Martin-d’Uriage: turning left at Belmont, there’s a very small road where it’ll be hard to recover until a swimming pool and before starting the long downhill. The final classification will be set at the top.
- Km 42.5, Grenoble: after Uriage, it’s all on the biggest gear with a few curves to take with no mistake and come back to town.

12:57 - Riders on their way

The riders take off in the opposite order of the general classification, separated by one minute each. For the last twenty cyclists in action, it will be every two minutes. The last one, Alexandre Vinokourov, will start at 4.09pm.

12:55 - 2 intermediate time checks

There will be two intermediate time checks: at Vizille, km 15, and at Saint-Martin-d’Uriage, km 27.5.

12:51 - Welcome to the coverage of the time trial

It’s all in place for the 42.5km individual time trial from Grenoble to Grenoble. It’s cloudy and very windy around the capital of the Alps. The first starter at 12.55 is Hungary’s Balint Szeghalmi from Lampre-ISD.

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