BinckBank Tour (st. 2)
Briton 11th at Voorburg time trial -with Sütterlin in 16th place- under intense rain; Küng (BMC) takes stage and leader's jersey
Getting to the finish in one piece was already a success for every rider at Tuesday's stage two in the 2017 BinckBank Tour, a 9km ITT in and around Voorburg, near The Hague in the Netherlands. All big specialists, alerted by the growing chance of intense rain in the late part of today's contest, were starting early as they dropped back to the bottom of the peloton at Monday's sprint finish in Venray.
Alex Dowsett, the first of the Movistar Team's chances for today, was third of all participants at the start and took 11th place at the finish, 18" down on winner and new race leader Stefan Küng (BMC). "Tricky TT to pace, stuck to my plan but got it fairly wrong today, live and learn," was the Essex rider's comment shortly after the finish. In turn, Jasha Sütterlin, who did contest Monday's sprint (18th) and avoided any splits, was the best from those starting late on the sheet: 16th place, 24" down on the Swiss rider and fully in contention for the GC. Imanol Erviti (+32") and Gorka Izagirre (+36") were just over half a minute down.
The BinckBank Tour will now be tackling two predictable sprint finishes on Wednesday -185km from Blankenberge to Ardooie, in Flanders- and Thursday, before the hills set to decide the GC outcome come on the weekend.
Image (c): SWPix