The third major individual time trial of the year and this one is for Protour points.
Each protour team barring of course the bust Warner Brothers have sent three riders along with our wildcards VolksWagen. The German team are not makeweights, though most pundits know it is the big time trialling five we have to keep our eye on.
The battle behind is for top ten positions and in our first of three sections of riders we have riders with chances of that.
The Sony Ericsson rider going through the second check with 53 minutes flat, the other two nearly twenty seconds slower despite having similar first check times.
Michael Schär is probably soon to be courted by prospecting teams and he like adds a few thousand to his wage by roaring through with new fastest times.
Not that he can match the form of one of CTour's finest Kai Reus
It's another one of those all conquering Dutch team triallists who manages to be the first to break 52 minutes at the second check at 38km. His teammate back at the worlds Dennis Van Winden manages to follow Reus's wake and sets new second bests behind him.
Our first glimpse at the times of the early finishers then:
First
Second
Finish
Kai
Reus
14.48
51.54
67.35
Dennis
Van Winden
14.52
52.04
67.42
Michael
Schär
14.55
52.16
68.02
Viktor
Renäng
15.07
53.00
68.55
Niels
Scheunemann
15.06
53.18
69.23
That first check after a fairly up and down (for this course) first 10km is giving us a rough idea how things are going. Reus didn't really finish that fast as becomes evident when Marcel Kittel sets times.
The 24 year old is an exiting chrono man and is looking to try and moving into that fab five bracket. It looks as though he will set the early markers setting 14.45 at the first check and 51.42 at the second. He comes home a massive 19 seconds faster than Reus by the finish.
It was a well measured ride as the likes of Dmitri Grabovski
and Roman Kreuziger
fade in the second half after setting competative first splits to finish 58 and 47 seconds slower than Kittel by the finish.
However two riders from this first wave manage to go through the first check quicker than Kittel. They are Bradley Wiggins
There does seem to be a small change in conditions for the riders and Wiggins who had a good time of it at the worlds in Belgium looks to be having good fortune again as he set the fastest first check.
However things turn in that longs section between the 1st and 2nd checks as both Wiggins and Ivars fall behin Kittel and Reus eventually finishing either side of Van Winden.
So going into our final wave of riders we have a slightly surprising leader in Abal over Kittel and Reus. The first check isn't everything but in this likely scramble behin the worlds top five chrono men a first check of close to 14.40 is important. The first four to manage this are Michael Faerk Christensen (unpictured), Timofey Kritskiy,
Mathieu Bernaudeau
and another one of these German young chrono stars Jacob Fiedler
It's proving tight but still Wiggins holds the first check lead...
Lets have a look how they get on, the course is perhaps too flat for Taylor Phinney (Excuse the world colours!)
or maybe not technical enough for Fabian Cancellara
Both riders got medals at the world in that Belgian course with the Muur. Both show their class by the first check setting 14.30 and 14.29 respectively. However it is Frenchman Jerome Coppel who is in determined mood.
It should be remembered that he managed to defeat both Phinney and Cancellara to bronze at the Olympics. Here he sets 14.27 at the first check.
Meanwhile David Zabriskie had a disappointing worlds individual time trial. It seems as if father time is catching up with him as he sets 14.29 unable to match his Olympic ride yet.
World champion and defending Herbiers champion Michael Rogers was outstanding just a short time ago but he is just behind Zabriskie with 14.30 at the first check.
Could the French celebrate a mild upset here? Meanwhile Cornu fancies a big five scalp he is really motoring through the second check.
The second check leading times before the big five:
First
Second
Dominique
Cornu
14.34
51.24
Martijn
Keizer
14.40
51.27
Lucas
Schädlich
14.39
51.41
Marcel
Kittel
14.45
51.42
David
Abal
14.41
51.48
Michael
Ford
14.43
51.51
Mathieu
Bernaudeau
14.43
51.54
Kai
Reus
14.48
51.54
Jacob
Fiedler
14.42
51.56
Timofey
Kritskiy
14.42
51.57
Keizer has really come back into it, but neither will kid themselves those big five will have to underperform in that second section. The first check is what all French eyes are looking at and dreaming just maybe.
The large distance between the first and second check is agonising. Here we go then as Phinney comes through first ..... 51.04 ... new best by 20 seconds.
Next it's Cancellara and again a new best 50.54.
Coppel.
50.44, we are going up in tens and running out of superlatives.
Zabriskie then.... 50.48 four seconds slower than Coppel.
World champion Rogers .... 50.50. Can Coppel hold it together in the last 10km he really has no room to breathe, but what a chance - the times at the second check:
Back to the finish and Cornu has just finished setting a new best of 66.49 ahead of the Germans Schladlich 67.08 and Kittel 67.16 along with Abal at 67.11.
Keizer was close to Cornu at the second check.
But just slips by into provisional second, a decent rider from the Dutch rider who is the best from that country today. Here is the top ten before the funky five come along:
First
Second
Finish
Dominique
Cornu
14.34
51.24
66.49
Martijn
Keizer
14.40
51.27
66.53
Lucas
Schädlich
14.39
51.41
67.08
David
Abal
14.41
51.48
67.11
Marcel
Kittel
14.45
51.42
67.16
Mathieu
Bernaudeau
14.43
51.54
67.19
Michael
Ford
14.43
51.51
67.23
Timofey
Kritskiy
14.42
51.57
67.23
Jacob
Fiedler
14.42
51.56
67.25
Michael Faerk
Christensen
14.44
52.01
67.28
Phinney romps home and puts in a time of 66.27, so he has added two seconds to his twenty over Cornu. It is still a bridge to climb for those second string TTers. Today though was not Phinney's best as Cancellara comes down the straight looking likely to destroy Phinney's best.
66.12 - he took five more seconds out of Phinney in the last ten kms. It's a message to French fans that Rogers and Zabriskie could nick this. They roar Coppel on....
66 minutes flat... it's a fast time but will it be enough.
Here is Zabriskie...
66.04. Cheers at the finish.
But hang on what about World champion Michael Rogers?
66.06. COPPEL WINS! A brilliant performance by the Frenchman he is delighted to have dethroned the cream of the crop today.
