Einsiedeln > Einsiedeln 12.6km ITT
The race begins with a relatively flat ITT.
There’s a little rise at the start and the finish, but nothing that should hurt the best riders. The circuit is a loop of a lake, get ready for some art shots! We have four of the biggest TT riders in the world here, it should be a brilliant battle, hopefully with only a handful of seconds between the best.
Weather
There’s a threat of rain throughout the early afternoon, forecasts suggest it should be dry for the later starters.
Contenders
Remco Evenepoel – the opening TT in the Giro was utterly magnificent, if he’s near that level, no one will get close to him. I have no idea how someone so small and thin can produce the watts he can, it’s one of the things that makes him so special. Only those close to him will know what shape he’s currently in, but the team wouldn’t send him to this race if he wasn’t ready. He’s becoming very hard to beat in this discipline, but his record against Van Aert isn’t great. They’ve come up against each other on three occasions in TTs, Remco hasn’t managed to beat him yet.
Wout Van Aert – he’s got a new position and a fancy new skinsuit. He’s only ridden one TT this year, that was in Tirreno, and he took it easy that day, but he’s been working hard on it in training recently. Wout is due to ride his national TT championship, and he’s also doing the worlds in Glasgow, he has a big focus on TTs over the next couple of months. Van Aert versus Evenepoel will be a big feature in these races, this stage should be the first of many great battles between them.
Stefan Bissegger – this is a good distance for the Swiss TT star. This season hasn’t been great, but his recent training period would have allowed him to hit the reset button and get ready for the big part of the season. Bad luck has seemed to follow him recently, thankfully, this route is nice and easy, fingers crossed he gets through without misfortune and can show what he’s got.
Stefan Küng – just like Bissegger, he’s got the extra motivation of riding in his home country. As expected, he’s been very strong in this discipline in 2023, winning in Algarve and going close in both Giro TTs. I think the distance is a good one for him, he’ll be hoping to fly round the lake and take a win in front of his fans.
Juan Ayuso – needs to stay as close as he can to Evenepoel. The Spaniard is a climber who time trials very well, I expect him to post a good time.
Magnus Sheffield – not yet at the level required to win a time trial against those already mentioned, a top 5 in this stage would be a huge result for the American.
Matteo Sobrero – top 10 would be good, I’m not sure the flat route is a good one for him.
Prediction Time
Can the Swiss upset the Belgians on home roads?
No, I’ll take a win for Wout Van Aert.
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