One day after his surprise stage win, Daryl Impey put in another great performance to finish 9th in the Bayern Rundfahrt time trial. The South African wanted to improve his TT skills and was pleased with the outcome of the test.

Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) won the stage four time trial to move into the overall lead at Bayern Rundfahrt. He stopped the clock at 30’48 over the rolling 25.5 kilometre course. ORICA-GreenEDGE’s Daryl Impey proved ninth quickest, finishing 45” back on Thomas. The time afforded Impey a seven spot jump on the overall from 14th place to seventh before Sunday’s final stage.

“Daryl wanted to use today as an opportunity to improve his time trialing,” said Sport Director Dave McPartland. “We know he has good form. That’s a given after his win yesterday. The plan was for him to start out at full race speed, and keep going hard if he had good legs. He was feeling good, so he went full gas all the way to the finish.”

An early starter, Jens Mouris put in a solid effort. Although Mouris was quickest when he crossed the line with a time of exactly 32 minutes, he dropped back to 17th place by stage end. Simon Gerrans was one spot further back in 18th place.

“Jens went out really hard and did a pretty good ride,” said McPartland. “The wind conditions died down in the second half, and his time wasn’t quite as competitive as we thought it might be.”

“Gerro went out there with a focus on technique,” McPartland added. “He’s exactly where we want him to be at the moment. He rode not quite at 100 percent and still came away with a very respectable time.”

The Australian outfit started the five day German Tour targeting stage results. With several of the riders returning to racing after a long break, the goal was to win one stage and fine tune form ahead of larger objectives over the next several weeks.  

“We came here looking to give Daryl and Gerro a hit out,” said McPartland. “We said we were going to take it day by day. There has never been any pressure for the overall.”

“Christian still has the KOM [King of the Mountain] jersey,” McPartland added. “That’s a priority for tomorrow much more than moving Daryl up on the overall.”