Join us for live streaming online coverage of the Tour de France 2012 Stage 9 below.
Stage 9 is the second individual time trial, and after the prologue, is the first full time trial stage.
The 41.5 km time trial course goes from Arc-et-Senans to Besancon and features some short hills and technical descents.
The favorites to win the stage are time trial specialists like Fabian Cancellera (RadioShack) and Tony Martin (Omega).
However, the intriguing storyline behind today's time trial will be the time gaps between the GC contenders.
Current yellow-jersey holder Bradley Wiggins (Sky) has been dominating time trials of late, beating rival Cadel Evans (BMC) by 10 seconds in the prologue and by an astounding 1:43 at a time trial last month at Dauphine on a mostly flat course.
However, this hilly, technical course favors Evans who won the Tour last year on the final individual time trial.
Other GC contenders who will want to limit their losses include Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas) who sits 16 seconds back in third, and Denis Menchov (Katusha) who sits 54 seconds back in fourth.
Speculation before the Tour was that the 3 individual time trials would determine the race. Today will the second time the GC contenders will be able to prove themselves as favorites to win.
*** Stage 9 has ended, please click here for the latest live coverage of the Tour de France: /world-others/
