The initial stage of the tour is a 14 km Individual Time Trial that travels along, over, and back over the Rhein river before looping through the city center and back along the Rhein to the finish. The course is flat, save for the two bridge sections, but there are a few technical turns which will favor a TT specialist with high acceleration power who can corner and get back up to speed and in aero position quickly. Any loss of momentum into the first technical turn could prove to be the undoing of some athletes stage hopes as it immediately kicks uphill towards the bridge. A difference of just a few km/h in speed out of the exit would cost athletes significant power and energy to get back up to speed.
| Stage Type | Individual Time Trial |
|---|---|
| Stage Distance | 13.91 km |
| Estimated Time | 00:16:21 |
| Avg. Peloton Speed | 51.05 km/h |
| Avg. Pulling Power | 439.84 watts |
| Avg. Pulling Yaw | 2.64 ° |
Weather conditions are forecasted to be fairly consistent throughout the day. The wind will be out of the northwest and may drop a bit for the later riders. Much of the course is well sheltered in the city, however with the direction riders will feel a head wind over the first bridge and a cross/head wind coming into the finish. There may be some scattered light rain throughout the day which might make a couple of sharper technical turns even more tricky.
This stage will obviously not make the tour, but it will be a very good indication of where the General Classification (GC) contenders are form-wise going into the race. Richie Porte of the BMC Racing Team has been putting in very good times on the TT bike, so a nice early statement to his rivals might be in order. For Movistar's Nairo Quintana, it will be a test of how well he has recovered from the Giro, where he lost out to Team Sunweb's Tom Dumoulin on the final stage TT. With fewer mountain stages, Quintana cannot afford to lose much (if any) time to his rivals before the final week. The more interesting story will be who wears the yellow jersey after the first day. Team Katusha-Alpecin rider and German Tony Martin is no doubt extra motivated to pull on the maillot jaune on home soil, but the motivation is high for all the TT specialists on a fast flat course.
Analysis was performed by modeling the peloton as a single rider using front of the pack drag characteristics and pulling power targets. Take a look at the entire race plan that was used for this analysis, which includes additional features, metrics and downloadable files.
Stage 1 Race Plan: https://www.bestbikesplit.com/client/70928