With Paris just over the horizon, we are in for some TT action today.

The 20th stage of the Tour de France sees the second and final time trial of the race. The route is 31 kilometres long and takes place in the rolling vineyards near Bordeaux.

Saint-Émilion hosted the Tour de France once before. In 1996, the medieval wine town was used as finish in a 63.5 kilometer ITT from Bordeaux. Jan Ullrich took the spoils, but it was not enough to win the GC the next day in Paris. The German finished second behind Bjarne Ris, while Richard Virenque rounded out that year’s podium.

The vineyard setting of the race from Libourne to Saint-Émilion also reminds of the 2010 Tour de France. The Bordeaux-Pauillac ITT of that year was won by Fabian Cancellara.

Obviously, last year’s ITT to La Planche des Belles Filles on the penultimate day of action came to a dramatic conclusion with Tadej Pogacar winning the GC ahead of Primoz Roglic, who had been imperious during three weeks of racing. Is the final battle going to be as exciting on the roads to Saint-Émilion?

Who to look out for?

The Contenders: Tadej Pogačar (UAE) won in Laval but the hilly course helped him over the specialists and he had a dry run when others went in the wet, so he should be close today but it’s advantage to the bigger TT specialists, his team mate Mikkel Bjerg could be close but seems a lighter rider than the past and has been working. Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) has been targetting today and it’s both a big goal and a pre-Tokyo test. Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) has been hauling himself around France with today’s stage on his mind after being narrowly beaten in Laval. Stefan Bissegger (EF-Nippo) was off the pace in Laval but rode in wet and lost control on a corner, today should give him more of a shot. Kasper Asgreen (Deceuincnk-Quickstep) has a great chance too. Ineos will have a harder time on a flatter course but Richie Porte has been quiet, has been saving something for today?

Among the GC riders the top-10 isn’t set yet. Wilco Kelderman has had a very consistent Tour, except for a bad TT in Laval but can hope to overhaul Ben O’Connor if he has good day for fourth place; while Alexey Lutsenko can hope to take sixth place from Enric Mas and Pello Bilbao eighth from Guillaume Martin.

Is there a time limit in TT’s?

Cav to do it on a custom painted ladies shopper with 34 lion toys in the front basket, and dare Prudhomme to DQ him.

there is a time limit

I think this will be an anticlimax. The specialists Will want the stage win but with the pointy end of the race settled who else will put a full effort in

I would quite like to see a team admit they’re not interested in the TT and just turn up with road bikes.

I would quite like to see a team admit they’re not interested in the TT and just turn up with road bikes.

I’ve thought this in the past but apparently it’s still quite hard to make time cut in TTs. I’ve heard interviews with riders who’ve done them on their road bike due to injury and really regretted the amount of effort it took.

IIRC GCN did some wind tunnel testing road vs aero vs tt, the biggest difference was adding aero bars to the aero bike and there was very little difference between that set up and the full on tt bike.

I’ve thought this in the past but apparently it’s still quite hard to make time cut in TTs.

Cut off is best time + 25%

WvA absolutely monstering it – final shakedown for the Olympic TT?

very little difference between that set up and the full on tt bike.

position trumps absolutely everything on a TT bike

Wout:

Wout van Aert…. @SportsOrla pic.twitter.com/9ckv1l55SF

— Proper Cycling Magazine (@CyclingProper) July 17, 2021

So was that an intentional segway in the ITV4 highlights?….Daniel Freibe talking about the biggest dopers of the tour straight to Pogacar on the ramp…..

Annoyingly the ITV highlights were ‘cut short’ at the end (we recorded them), missing the all important summary, grrrr.