The first of two mixed European nationals will decide the destinies of six nations. The full list of professional riders competing are:
Croatia Matea Kvasina Tomislav Danculovic Robert Kiserlovski
Liechtenstein Nico Gauer Dimitri Jiriakov
Serbia Gabor Kasa Goran Smelcerovic Ivan Stevic Dragan Spasic Drazen Krneta Filip Rada Borislav Puric
Austria Christian Pfannberger Georg Preidler Daniel Schorn Andreas Matzbacher Bernhard Kohl Thomas Rohregger
San Marino Paolo Scarponi
Hungary Tamás Lengyel
For the last two nations it is a bit of a procession really but they are still going to have to complete this fairly short course with three 42km loops going over quite a long climb.
So plenty to decide on the start line.
VolksWagen's tactics are pretty clear, to get a rider in the early break. They do so with Schorn, 16 year old Gauer goes with this along with one of the Serbian youngsters Kasa.
It becomes clear by the middle of the second lap that this ploy has landed all three young riders their respected national jerseys. This gives Gauer and Schorn perhaps a decent shot at resigning their contracts and just may put Kasa in the shop window. His team sadly departing professional cycling after one year in division two.
The camara's miss the three riders arriving at the finish (I was caught out sorry!) suffice to say Schorn wins the three man battle for the win over Kasa with Gauer dropped before the finale but finishing a good 20 minutes before the others.
Back in the pack we see Lengyal taking it easy with the others on the climb, he too doesn't currently have a trade team for next year and will be pleased that he can sell that he has national colours. At the age of 33 it isn't so easy to find willing new teams.
There is still the small matter of the Croatian national champion to decide and Kiserlowski lights things up towards the bottom of the climb on the last lap.
Kohl and Scarponi go with this looking to prove they have the match for the Croatian climber. More importantly for Kiserlowski both his Croat rivals Dancolovic and Kvasina graft their way back with Rohregger.
Kiserlowski simply waits for another steep section and accelerates again. He wants this national jersey!
Scarponi though stuns Kiserlowski by moving past him and attacking away on the descent. The Wiggle rider putting on a show despite being the only rider from San Marino here.
Kisewlowski's move gets him 30 or so seconds clear and despite some good work from his S-Telecom teammates Dancolovic cannot get back up to him. So Kiserlowski wins the Croatian title the other titles going to some youngsters Schorn (Austria), Gauer (Liechtenstein), Kasa (Serbia), Scarponi (San Marino) and the veteran Lengyel (Hungary)
Against the clock again it is Croatia that see's the closest battle.
Kiserlowski and Kvasina end up being seperated by 25 seconds, with Kiserlowski showing his key weakness really against the clock. Kvasina meanwhile takes his national colours in the time trial.
Of course Scarponi (San Marino) and Lengyel (Hungary) take their national colours by default. A Serbian Telecom rider is guarenteed to take the Serbian national time trial crown and Stevic proves up to the task.
The fastst overall time of the day is ridden by Thomas Rohregger, another of the powerful Milka chrono camp.
Meanwhile in Liechtenstein Jirakov comfortably beats the young pretender Gauer to take that small nations time trial title.
Croatia
Liechtenstein
Serbia
Austria
San Marino
Hungary
