18 teams to race, and the first to start were Eurosport - last year's surprise winners. How they would like to repeat that.
But theres no repeat win, immediately Credit Lyonnais beat them, by 16 seconds
Rabobank are next, but are some way back - 1'19 after Credit Lyonnais
American Suzuki are the slowest of all, and on the line they are caught by Virgin Media. Virgin started off fast - 2nd quickest of every team - but a slow middle put them out of the top 10 overall, and they were 15 seconds behind Credit Lyonnais. But as Kovalev, Stannard and Phinney lead them over the finish, they are back to the quick times and into the lead - now 12 seconds faster than Credit Lyonnais.
4th for Warner Brothers, at just over a minute
Soon after finishing is Lipton Ice Tea. Led by Kashechkin, they were slower than Virgin at the first check, quicker at the second, and theres just 4 seconds in it at the finish. But its only 2nd for Lipton.
Rogers is a key part for La Gazetta, but fellow Aussie Michael Ford is another key part of the line up. Theyve been quick, 2nd at the 2nd check, some 26 seconds up on Virgin. Surely they cant mess up? They dont, its a new lead, by 25 seconds.
Festina have a strong line up - no stand out individual performers but consistently strong - and that has showed early in the course. 3rd at the first check, 3rd at the second - only 1 second behind La Gazetta. This could be a close one. But it does feel like a slow finish, theyve faded badly and are only a provisional 3rd at the finish, 27 behind La Gazetta, and also slower than Virgin - the latter beat them by some 30 seconds in the final third of the course.
Accumalux arent the same calibre TTT team as in the past. They go 6th for now, 44 seconds down
Despite the presence of Cancellara, Unicef are slower, 8th. over a minute down.
Philips-Hummel have put in a strong ride so far, and might fancy their chances of beating Virgin at the finish - or at least Festina. But no, not quite, theyre 4 seconds behind Virgin, 2 behind Festina. The bonus? They beat Lipton, by less than a second.
White Bear Wild Horse ride to 9th, just slower than Eurosport
Wikipedia are next to the finish, the favourites for today. Theyve topped the charts at the checkpoints - but La Gazetta have been gaining on them. Wikipedia were 8 ahead of the Italian team at Check 1, but only 5 at Check 2 - what have the likes of Zabriskie, Coppel, Spilak and Uran got in the tank?
Its close, so close. Infact, there is less than a second between them. Its fractional, but its enough - Wikipedia take the lead
Jack Wolfskin are the wildcard team here, led by Cornu, they take a provisional 7th
British Airways next, and they join American Suzuki in being the only teams over 2 minutes slower. They do beat their relegation rivals however
SIC Radical ride to 14th, 1'35 down
The final team, B&O, they could be a threat to the podium. 6th at check 1, 4th at Check 2, but they come in only 7th. If only they could have gone slightly faster - 1 second and it wouldve been 5th - 5 seconds and it wouldve been 3rd
And that is it, Wikipedia have won here in Endhoven.
In terms of ranking points, all those who finish within 10 seconds of the first rider from their team will score the points earned per position the team came.
