Bayern Rundfahrt: The fourth part of the day's stage trip through the Free State was all about chasing seconds. The Brit Geraint Thomas (Sky) presented himself as the strongest on the 25-kilometer individual time trial course around Wassertrüdingen. He also took over the yellow jersey from the overall leader.
The first best time of the day, which should last for some time, was burned by the Russian Anton Vorobyev (Katusha) with 30:53 minutes on the Bavarian asphalt. His time was long. It was only when the top ten in the overall ranking started that she was in danger.
The Czech time trial champion Jan Barta (NetApp-Endura) set a new interim best time of 19:27 minutes. And he was able to keep up the speed he was given to the finish – albeit just barely. He relegated Vorobyev to second place by just one second.
But even his time should not be enough in the end. Thomas, who knew all the times from the start, was 12 seconds faster than Barta when measuring the intermediate time. At the finish, the clock stopped at 30:48 minutes.
However, this time was not only enough to win the day, but also to take the lead in the overall standings before the final stage. Mathias Frank (IAM), who had been leading up to that point, rode a strong time trial. However, his time of 31:21 minutes should not be enough to maintain this lead.
The best German was Bayer Jan-Niklas Droste in eighth place.