A relatively easy course will crown new national champions from Latvia, Estonia and Finland. Although the circuit race includes a little climb, it's still classified as a flat race.
Jukka Vastaranta is the huge favourite for the Finnish title, but will face a tough opposition from the nine Finnair riders and Jussi Veikkanen.
Rein Taaramae should be seen as Estonia's strongest rider. He'll also face a tough task though, as he's all on his own against, for example, the likes of Tanel Kangert. Normally, those two should be a cut above their compatriots.
Lastly, also the Latvians. Trilux duo Aleksejs Saramotins and Gatis Smukulis should on paper be the ones battling for it, but it's hard to know what they've decided inside the team.
Needless to say, it's a very open race with mostly, apart from the huge Finnair squad, lineups with just one or two riders.
After two very slow opening laps, Toms Skujins attacks and drags Pekka Jääskeläinen and Geert Rajala with him. Quite interesting move, with one rider from each country represented.
Everyone seems perfectly content with having the three up the road however. Perhaps due to lack of domestiques, no one decides to chase.
This has disastrous consequences for them. Whilst they continue not to organize any chase, the leaders work together - ballooning their lead out to a massive 15 minutes in the last 100 kilometres!
The gap continues to grow, and with a little more than fifty kilometres remaining, the leading trio laps the main group, leading by around 19 minutes! If it wasn't certain already some time ago, it is now. The three new national champs are the three escapees.
Up front, it's the Rajala who leads out the sprint for the race victory. Not that it really matters who wins, but a little prestige in it obviously.
Skujins pounces past in the slight uphill finish to take the race along with the Latvian title. Jääskeläinen is the new Finnish champ thanks to his second place, while Rajala finishes a few seconds back, claiming Estonia's crown.
A long time later, the big group approaches the finish. Smukulis and Mandri's long escape is brought to an end with just four kilometres left, leaving a sprint to decide a pointless fourth place.
Ansons takes it on the line, pipping Kananen and a very disappointed Vastaranta. They're an enourmous 19 minutes down on the successful breakaway!
Olegs Melehs breaks off a little surprise in the battle for the Latvian title. In the end the Finnair rider takes it by just five seconds over pre-race favourite Gatis Smukulis. Surely a bit of a disappointment for Trilux.
Far less surprising was the fact that Jussi Veikkanen came out on top among the Finns. Still a nice success for Volkswagen-Siemens!
However, the most interesting battle was held between the two last starters. In the end, Rein Taaramae wasn't able to match Tanel Kangert's strong ride. Just four seconds in favour of the Pearl man!
Toms Skujins
Pekka Jääskeläinen
Gert Rajala
