Just ten riders are lined up to compete for the flattish Kazakh national road race championships.
Maxim Iglinski is on paper the strongest rider, but the course may be a bit too easy for him. His brother Valentin Iglinski may enjoy it more, as he's far quicker. Assan Bazayev should be the top favourite though, being the best sprinter in the field.
Onto the race now. The early attacks never really stick, so the whole enormous ten-man "peloton" is all together with more than half the race remaining. Some very slow, unexciting kilometres follow, with no pacemaking at all.
The real racing kicks off at last by the time they enter the final lap. Andrey Zeits is the man in charge, attacking up the first of the small hills on the course, dragging no one else than Maxim Iglinski along in the acceleration.
However, for some strange reason, the two just refuse to work together. They distance the rest by almost a minute, but then they just wont help each other out, allowing the other riders to rejoin. This is repeated several times.
Zeits and Iglinski lose out due to their own stupidity, and it's a sprint that will decide who gets the crown. Zeits is forced to lead out, with everyone following him. Best sprinter in the group, Bazayev, is quite far back.
Alexandr Nepomnyachsniy is the first to make a move from behind, flying past a fading Zeits. Valentin Iglinski is the first to react, finding a line on the other side of the road, while Muravjev also tries to go for it.
Iglinski is very fast and builds up a slight advantage over the rest! Muravjev and Nepomnyachsniy are unable to keep up, but Bazayev takes chase from his previous position back in the shadows.
It's Iglinski vs. Bazayev for the title...
Bazayev has a lot left in his tank and easily moves over the top of Iglinski to claim the cyan-yellow Kazakh jersey for next year! Maxim Iglinski was for sure one of the strongest, but has to settle for third place after messing up the attack tactics. Still impressive to beat several stronger sprinters.
In the time trial, a vengeful Maxim Iglinski sets a strong time on the climby course. Even equally strong timetriallist Muravjev is beaten by a pretty big margin.
Unfortunately for Vesuvio, Yevgeni Nepomnyachsniy is even stronger! After losing a bit of time to Iglinski on the way up to the second time check, he recovers well and wins by a solid 14 seconds, increasing it by nine in the finale.
