Dan Martin and Nicolas Roche have moved up the general classification – Martin into the top 10 – at the Tour of Britain after today’s stage 3 TTT in Carmarthenshire.
Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation) is up 13 places to 8th overall and is now 49 seconds off the race leader’s jersey. Nicolas Roche (Team DSM) is up 10 places to 16th, now 1:15 off the leader.
The 18.2km team test today was won by Ineos Grenadiers
and one of its rising young British riders, Ethan Hayter, has now taken the
race lead.
Hayter, the 22-year-old who won silver in the madison at the Olympics, was 2nd on yesterday’s stage and went into today’s team TT 3rd overall. He was 22 seconds down on yesterday's winner, and race leader, Robin Carpenter (Rally Cycling) and four seconds down on stage 1 winner Wout van Aert (Jumbo Visma).
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Today, Jumbo Visma might have won the stage - and certainly would have gotten much closer to Ineos Grenadiers - but for Pascal Eenkhoorn puncturing with 1.5km to go, when they were down to four riders. That forced the others to ride slowly into the finish, as the time of the fourth rider over the line was the one that counted.
In the end, Ineos Grenadiers clocked a time of 20:22, in an average speed of 53.617km per hour, to win. Deceuninck-QuickStep placed 2nd at 17 seconds, with Jumbo Visma 3rd at 20 seconds. Dan Martin’s Israel Start-Up Nation was 4th at 43 seconds while Nicolas Roche’s Team DSM placed 5th at 57 seconds.
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Irish international Rory Townsend, who sprinted to 5th and 6th on the opening two stages and was 6th overall this morning, slipped down the standings today. His Canyon dhb SunGod team was 13th of the 18 teams in the TTT, losing 2:02 to the winners; Townsend slipping to 31st overall.
Trinity Racing – the Continental team owned by Irish cycling agent Andrew McQuaid – put in a solid ride in the test. Irish champion Ben Healy is in that line-up and he put in some huge turns on the front today. Trinity placed 9th at 1:24. They were only beaten by one of the other British Continental teams in the race; Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling finishing one place and 15 seconds ahead of Trinity.
In the overall, with five stages remaining, Hayter now leads overall by six seconds from his team mate Rohan Dennis. Van Aert is 3rd at 16 seconds while the Deceuninck-QuickStep duo of Julian Alaphilippe and Mikkel Honoré are 4th and 5th, both at 23 seconds.
With tomorrow’s 210km stage into Great
Orme, Llandudno, set to end on a 1.2km climb, the general classification may
change again. It could be a chance for Martin or Roche to gain time or Townsend
and Healy to try for a result.
However, Hayter has the ability to hold the race lead all the way. And if Van Aert, Alaphilippe or Ireland’s Martin want to take the jersey from him, they must attack and go all in.
Stage 3: Carmarthenshire TTT (18.2km)
- Ineos Grenadiers 0:20:22
- Deceuninck-QuickStep at 0:17secs
- Team Jumbo-Visma 0:20
- Israel Start-up Nation 0:43
- Team DSM 0:57
- Alpecin-Fenix 0:57
- Movistar Team 1:08
- Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling 1:09
- Trinity Racing 1:24
- Team Arkea-Samsic 1:28
- Rally Cycling 1:32
- Team Great Britain 1:57
- Canyon dhb SunGod 2:02
- Qhubeka NextHash 2:20
- Caja Rural-Seguros RGA 2:25
- Saint Piran 2:32
- SwiftCarbon Pro Cycling 2:38
- Global 6 Cycling 2:56
General Classification
- Ethan Hayter Ineos Grenadiers 9:40:21
- Rohan Dennis Ineos Grenadiers 6secs
- Wout Van Aert Jumbo Visma 16
- Julian Alaphilippe Deceuninck-QuickStep 23
- Mikkel Honoré Deceuninck-QuickStep
- Pascal Eenkhoorn Jumbo Visma 38
- Michael Woods Israel Start-up Nation 49
- Daniel Martin Israel Start-up Nation 49
- Kristian Sbaragli Alpecin Fenix 1:03
- Xandro Meurisse Alpecin Fenix 1:03
- Mark Donovan Team DSM 1:03
- Robin Carpenter Rally Cycling 1:06
- Gonzalo Serrano Rodriguez Movistar 1:10
- Matteo Jorgenson Movistar 1:14
- James Shaw Ribble Weldtite Pro 1:15
- Nicolas Roche Team DSM 1:15
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