Ruta Del Sol 2015 – Stage 1b Preview

By David Hunter

Coria del Rio – Coria del Rio 8.2km

The TT takes place just outside Seville. The route is technical with 14 tight corners. The short distance, means that time gaps will be low, and they won’t be decisive in terms of the GC battle.

Unusually, we don’t have many TT specialists in the field. There is every chance of a surprise victory.

The profile might look lumpy, but these lumps are barely 4%, so nothing for any of the riders to worry about. We do have a long list of contenders for the stage: Intxausti, Froome, Kiryienka, Contador, Van Den Broeck, Wellens, Ludvigsson, Peraud, Jungels, Sergent, Chavanel and Cummings.

Bob Jungels has already won a TT this season, in Besseges. Word from Trek is that he’s flying and posted very quick times in their training camp. Teammate Jesse Sergent, looks like being a serious competitor for this race. He almost took out a Grand Tour TT win in the Vuelta, but lost out to Malori by 8 seconds. He’s a big threat on this course.

Sylvain Chavanel has been looking forward to this stage. The French TT champion, recorded good times in 2014 and started the season well in Almeria, finishing 12th. The technical course is good for Chava, but his TT form can be inconsistent.

Stephen Cummings is fast and in form. He was very consistent in 2014, winning the TT in the Tour de Med, along with other impressive results: 2nd in Dubai, 3rd in Poland, 6th in Eneco, 4th in Poitou-Charentes and 3rd in the Tour of Britain. Also a fast starter to the season, he has a great chance of winning.

Vasil Kiryienka is a beast! He showed good TT form in 2014: 4th in the Worlds, 4th in the Vuelta, 7th in the Dauphine, 4th in Bayern-Rundfahrt and 4th in the prologue here. He is a very capable rider and if motivated can take the win.

The big two GC riders Froome and Contador, will also want to impress. Froome ended the season with some horrible TT performances in the Vuelta. He was all over the place! That being said, he did win the Dauphine TT over 10.4km earlier in the season. What Froome will we get here?

Contador’s TT performances got back to normal in 2014 after a couple of poor years. At his best, he can go close but with big days in the mountains ahead, I don’t see him taking any risks in the corners. The same should go for Chris Froome.

Prediction Time

This is going to be tight. I don’t see the GC boys going full gas, so it should be between Jungels, Sergent, Chavanel, Cummings and Kiryienka. When these guys compete against each other it’s usually very tight. I’m going to go with form and choose Stephen Cummings as my man. In form and always dominant at the start of the year, a good performance here will also set him up nicely for the GC.

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