2012 Tour of California May 17 stage 5: Bakersfield ITT 29.6 km

[AntonioRossi]

After 4 consecutive wins by Sagan it is time somebody else wins. His chances of keeping the leader's jersey are close to none. As he profoundly says "I will do bye bye."
Fairly flat course with some hills and an uphill finish.
GC will definitely change after this TT but who will get the leader's jersey? Will it transfer to Sagan's teammate Nibali? Or will Garmin come out on top?

Favorites for stage win: Durbridge, Zirbel, Craddock, Zabriskie

 

[AntonioRossi]

start times

http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/05/news/amgen-tour-of-california-2012-time-trial-start-times_219136

 

[maxmartin]

i am a fan of Nibali, but no way Nibali will win tomorrow, TJ and Andrew are my top two picks. If Nibali can stay 20 seconds with those two, i think he has a decent chance to win ToC.

 

[iZnoGouD]

Tiago Machado could take it i think

 

[Hugo Koblet]

It will be interesting to see how Craddock goes indeed. He has shown himself to be quite the talent this year. I don't think he's a contender for the win today but he will do decent I think.

 

[Gloin22]

Some American wins this. Sagan to do fairly well.

No way Machado wins this, he was crap in all TT's this year.

 

[18-Valve. (pithy)]

Zabriskie will take it. Leipheimer to top 3...

 

[Kwibus]

Tj, Zabriskie or maybe Talansky.

Gesink won't lose a huge amount of time I predict.

 

[Ferminal]

1. Zabriskie
2. Durbridge
3. Grabsch
4. Talansky
5. Van Garderen

 

[will10]

Talansky stage+jersey

 

[theyoungest]

Zabriskie. The stage is tailor made for him, and Leipheimer's form is questionable. Talansky... I don't know, he'll do well, but to win against the pure power riders might be hard.

Also, I think Peter Sagan will beat Nibali today. And maybe even keep the jersey.

 

[Kazistuta]

Power on!

This will be Zabriskies for the taking. Only other contender is Durbridge, Levi is a big question mark.

If Levi doesn't have brilliant form suddenly and smokes the course, the GC contender standing will still be pretty tight after this stage.

Btw. it's gonna be interesting to follow Dumoulin and Cam Meyer as well, they have an outside chance of top10 after saturday.

How much will lightweights Tim Roe and Ian Boswell lose?

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Gesink to top 10

 

[Woody22]

Durbridge to catch and pass his minute man Gesink.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

That's why I say, Gesink to top 10. He can clamp on to Durbridge, finish with 1m deficit and end top 10

 

[maltiv]

Gesink to do surprisingly well in the time trail only to do surprisingly bad on the MTF.

 

[iZnoGouD]

Talansky was in good form in Romandie and nearly beat Wiggins in the TT. I am going with him for the win.

Wiggins had mechanical and still beat Talansky by 1 sec

 

[theyoungest]

Talansky was in good form in Romandie and nearly beat Wiggins in the TT. I am going with him for the win.

That was a totally different TT though. Basically a mountain TT, that's better for a lightweight like Talansky.

 

[El Pistolero]

Peter ****ing Sagan.

 

[Fetisoff]

Please, god, let bottle take this... please

 

[kurtinsc]

That was a totally different TT though. Basically a mountain TT, that's better for a lightweight like Talansky.

Talansky has been solid on many other ITT's too. Not sure if he's a contender for the win, but he's more like Brajkovic in that while he's a lightweight he can still ride solid ITT's of any variety.

 

[BeachBum]

I have no clue who is going to win but they will have to be able to handle the heat. 5 hours from the start and it is already 70F/26C. Salas said he went through 12 water bottles yesterday.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Please, god, don't let bottle take this... please

Fixed that for ya!

 

[Fetisoff]

Fixed that for ya!

Oh come-on. Don't you think that bottle winning this would be the most hilarious thing since.... well ever? Would certainly give me a good enough reason to make fun of this race for at least a year

 

[SantiBotero]

I don't know who wins, but Haussler will finish in second.