Former U23 world champion Anton Vorobyev has had a slow start to his professional career but has slown flashes of his great potential as a time triallist. Yesterday he did so again when he finished third in the Bayern Rundfahrt time trial against a field loaded with TT specialists, just 5 seconds behind Geraint Thomas.

Russian rider Anton Vorobyev took a very good result in the 4th stage of the Bayern Rundfahrt. In the individual time trial of 25.5km in Wassertrüdingen, Vorobyev set the third best time, just 5 seconds behind the stage winner Geraint Thomas from Sky. Second place went to Jan Barta from Team NetApp, who lost 4 seconds.

"The first part of the race was pretty speedy, while the second half was hard and more powerful," he said. "I was able to concentrate well and to ride the whole distance confidently. Bayern Rundfahrt is my first race since I recovered after my injury so I am happy to get such a good result in an ITT in the company of a number of really strong riders.

"Yesterday we had a very long and hard stage, so I think the work I did helped me to be on top today. Tomorrow we will have one more stage here in Germany, and after that my next race will be Criterium du Dauphine. I hope to keep improving my shape until that moment."

Geraint Thomas took the lead in the overall classification after today’s stage. Pavel Brutt of Team Katusha is now 20th with +3.03.