The time trial is known for being the 'race of truth,' as there is nowhere to hide when you're all by youself with no team-mates to pace you up the climbs and protect you from the wind. To be a true GC contender, it therefore helps to be a decent time trialist. Stage eleven would show who was still in with a shot of taking the yellow jersey and who would end up having to target stage wins. There were no surprises to see Rodriguez and Schleck struggle, whilst Dan Martin also had a hard day in the saddle, as did Quintana who ended up conceding his young rider's jersey to Kwiatowski who put in an incredible performance to finish the time trial in fifth position.
Ultimately, the GC riders were looking to limit their losses to Chris Froome, as the expectation was he would outperform them, which turned out to be the case. Cadel Evans, Alessandro Valverde and Alberto Contador all lost time. Being the last man to leave the start line, Froome had the benefit of knowing how all his rivals were doing and from the first time check it was looking good for him. Indeed, he clocked in with an even faster time than Tony Martin, the world time trial champion and fastest man in the stage up to that point. He looked on with trepidation as Froome came across the second time check a couple of seconds faster than him, believing his chances of a stage victory were slipping away.
However, when Froome finally crossed the line, he was actually 12 seconds down on Martin's time, but this didn't bother him, as his main objective was to put time into his rivals which he did. He now leads the GC by 3:25 ahead of Valverde, 3:37 ahead of Mollema, and 3:54 ahead of Contador. The race isn't over yet, as stage nine showed that it is possible to isolate Froome and that Sky are not invincible. It's just for the other riders to get their act together and think tactically, instead of waiting for Froome to have a bad day, as this may never happen!
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