We have 44 Russians on the line for their national championships over this hilly circuit...
Russian cycling has been put on the map by the exploits of Yuriy Trofimov (Sony Ericsson) and the returning Russian power squad Tinkoff Credit Systems. Tinkoff have 24 riders here for the start of this one, which they will no doubt hope translates into national success, their best hopes are probably Kritskiy, Kolobnev and Petrov
Two other Russian riders have been excellent in the continental tour as well and should be contenders today. First you have stage race TT man Mikhail Ignatiev, who has five stage race victories to his name. Second and surely a second favourite for today behind Trofimov is Milka’s improving punchaer Alex Efimkin. Finally Denis Menchov has not really had a season to remember but should be considered as a reasonable bet for a high result here.
In the early stages 11 riders (25% of the whole group of riders) went clear on a very windy day.
Serebriakov (Philips), Timofeev (Wikipedia), Medvedev (Vesuvio), Voruntsov (UBS), Korzh (Lafarge) and Mironov (Lafarge) are here with 5 Tinkoffs Toporishchev, Nivikov, Markov, Mindlin and Kuperasov. It is a slight reduction in odds for Tinkoff you would think, but with no Trofimov, Efimkin or Ignatiev here they feel compelled to work it.
With the weather being windy and no-one other that Tinkoff willing to chase, it becomes clear our Russian champion will be from this group as they have 13.38 with 50km to go.
The best climbers from this group of 11 are Vorentsov and Medvedev with Tinkoff probably banking on Mindlin.
The first two riders to be eliminated are Korzh and Timofeev, which leaves the five Tinkoffs and four others in front.
Seeing the numbers against them Medvedev and Vorontsev strike out as we enter the last lap.
Seeing that his teammates are bushed Mindlin bridges with Serebriakov who is showing good resilience.
But Vesuvio’s Medvedev who has done a lot of good work for his team in the Grand Tours this year is not done yet and he attacks again.
With 10km to go he has 20 seconds, on the last climb this increased as Mindlin and Voruntsov just cannot work together to close the gap.
As he pulls out to a minute it becomes clear that he will take the win and deny the Tinkoff team. He can ease down and celebate early, we may see the Russian national champion shirt in the Vesuvio camp next year.
Serebriakov manages to claw his way back and sprint for second ahead of Voruntsov and Mindlin.
The time trial for the Russians and this should be a fairly quality field with a number of the bronze medallists from the World Team Time Trial championships in action.
Tinkoff Credit Systems doiminate the startlist, though in truth do not contain the two absolute favourites.
Still they will be the early pace setters with Ovechkin and Kritskiy both part of that previously mentioned team having a close battle for the provisional lead.
As we get towards our later starters Protour riders such as Wikipedia's Kovalev and Lafarge's soon to be free agent again Denis Menchov take to the course.
So the Wikipedia rider takes the lead, however most of the bookies had this as a race between CTours TT dominator Ignatiev and the star of Russian cycling Trofimov.
Ignatiev winner of six CTour races this season is out first:
He sets a first check of 17.29.
Then comes Trofimov, who sets a slightly faster first check of 17.28.
However by the second check Ignatiev has turned the tables
Ignatiev 43.35
Trofimov 43.50
and by the end of the test Ignatiev extends his advantage by a further 10 seconds.
