cycling: Tour of California stage #6: Dibben wins time trial, Majka loses yellow

Cycling: Jonathan Dibben (Sky) celebrated his first professional victory in a time trial at the Tour of California. The Brit was seven seconds quicker than Brent Bookwalter (BMC) in the battle against the clock on Stage 6 and finished 16 seconds ahead of Andrew Talansky (Cannondale-Drapac). With fourth place, George Bennett (LottoNL-Jumbo) secured the overall lead. Rafal Majka (Bora-hansgrohe) only finished 22nd, losing a whopping 31 seconds to Bennett.

Jonathan Dibben celebrates his first professional win at the Tour of California

The fact that Jonathan Dibben is a good time trialist was already evident to the spectators at last year's U23 World Championships. There the now 23-year-old turned 15. The British talent started his career with Team Wiggins, which was set up by Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins to promote British talent. Jonathan Bidden joined Cannondale-Drapac as a trainee last season. He was finally signed by British team Sky at the beginning of this year. At Big Bear Lake he was able to secure his first professional victory on the WorldTour in his first professional season. He left the two favorite and experienced local heroes Brent Bookwalter and Andrew Talansky behind.

LottoNL-Jumbo's work has paid off

Before the time trial, Rafal Majka was four seconds ahead of George Bennett in the overall standings. It was actually assumed that he would be able to keep the New Zealander at bay. Rather, he had to fear Brent Bookwalter or Andrew Talansky. However, he was able to keep these two top time trialists just behind. The Polish champion was able to save a second from Talansky and even ten from Bookwalter. Instead, however, George Bennett overtook him - and clearly! He is now 35 seconds ahead of Majka. The captain of Team LottoNL-Jumbo is about to win the overall Tour of California. So all the work done by his teammates has paid off. On many stages of this tour we could see the men in yellow at the front of the peloton. Now their captain wears a different shade of yellow.

Strong performance from the Germans and Swiss

After losing significant time on stage 5 , the climb to Mount Baldy , Maximilian Schachmann (Quick-Step Floors) dropped out of the top ten in the general classification. However, he bounced back today with a very strong performance in the time trial. His sixth-place finish was even two seconds faster than Peter Sagan (Bora-hansgrohe). Nils Politt (Katusha-Alpecin) also showed good form, finishing tenth. The Swiss riders Martin Elmiger, Tom Bohli, and Michael Schär from Team BMC finished ninth, twelfth, and sixteenth, respectively.

Morning: bumpy final leg to Pasadena

The seventh and final stage of the 2017 Tour of California takes riders 125 kilometers from Mountain High to Pasadena. The hilly profile should give some breakaways great chances of winning the day. It is unlikely that there will be any major changes in the overall standings. Because the last mountain classification is already taken more than 40 kilometers before the finish. The LottoNL-Jumbo team will normally be able to neutralize all attacks again.

The result of the 6th stage of the Tour of California

Overall ranking of the Tour of California after 6 of 7 stages