Norsgaard is the first to be able to set a real reference: it’s 30’08. Goldstein was on set to do better on the first half of the stage, but then he finishes 4 seconds off. There’s a small but sharp hill in the last kilometers, so that could play.

Howson doesn’t really care: he’s 7 seconds faster and sets a new best time of 30’01. Zakarin and Rikunov can’t really profit from their climbing skills and lose around 16 seconds.

Van Moer (+13’’) struggles a bit, but Paillot (+7’’) has a nice ride.

Rodriguez finishes well (+12’’) and might make a nice climb in the GC and young rider classification ahead of the climbing day tomorrow.

Bjerg is in this group and in the fight at the time check (+2’’). He finishes provisional 2nd, one second short of Howson who stays on the hot seat.

Some climbers like Carretero Millan (+7’’) or Martinez (+12’’) do fairly well in the 2nd part.

But it’s Fernandes who takes the provisional lead, and by a big margin! 29’26 is 35 seconds faster than Howson! Not the same story for Natarov, who loses 1’41.

Cabrera is another doing surprisingly well, finishing only 2 seconds behind Fernandes. Meanwhile Potocki passes De Plus and finishes 40 seconds slower than the leading time.

Herregodts will be very disappointed, losing 48 seconds, while Arensman does well to be provisional 3rd at 19 seconds.

We enter the top 20. Skjelmose Jensen ends provisional 4th at +20 seconds, which is quite good. Misbah is five seconds slower.

It’s an unexpected bad result for Reis, who finishes at +1’25. Was the hill to sharp for him? Almeida could have been overtaken by Ranaweera, but he manages to keep a small advantage. He finishes at +1’36, when the Ekoi rider makes the most of his skill to be at +20’’.

Darbellay is in this range, at +25’’.

Plapp has quite the skillset for the day. He finishes provisional 5th. Leknessund does well too: he overtakes Pidcock (+2’) and takes the hot seat: 29’07.

But there’s no beating Evenepoel today. He’ll win the stage and take the GC lead: 28’53. Question will be whether he’s able to keep that tomorrow.

Kennett had a good time in yellow but is no time-trialist and finishes anonymously at 4 minutes.