Here we are for the Chrono des Herbiers, and the five favouites will surprise nobody,
Phinney,
Coppel,
Rogers,
Fiedler and
Cancellara.
Unfortunately there are no time checks en route, so I won't be able to give you much detail on how the race is going for individual riders.
Van Goolen sets the first respectable time of 1h08'49"
Vandborg passes Tirloni on his way to beating Van Goolen by 11 seconds
Faiers is 37 seconds short of the lead in forth, unable to even beat Dillier ( who is at +31"
Kneisky takes second at +7"
Mazur now goes fastest six seconds quicker than Vandborg
Kovalev crushes everyone else's time, he now leads by 39"
Van Zandbeek slots into third place at +39"
Malori goes one better, taking second at +29"
Vaugrenard is provisionally in third, +36"
Renang disappoints slightly with 7th at +47"
Olman is leading the Wild card charge, and he gets the same time as Kovalev, however takes the lead on the 100ths of seconds.
Olman doesn't hold the lead for long as Sergent comes though to take the lead by 23 seconds.
So the top ten after every team has sent one rider through is as follows:
The Norwegian Champion is next to set a good time, and Stenersen comes in 4th at +42"
The broad shoulders of Jason Donald are next, and he comes in 5th at +51"
A Kiwi is leading this race, but the New Zeeland National Champion, Jack Bauer, can only manage 10th at +1'02"
Intxausti is here, hoping not to waste race days, but he can only manage a provisional 4th, at +36"
De Kort manages 6th, forty three seconds behind Sergent
Ford drives towards the line, and gives the wild card team a 1-3 with Rogers still to come. Sergent is now four seconds behind.
Kreuziger does well to take 3rd, 10 seconds off the pace.
So now every team has sent two riders and Oz and Milka are clearly on top with a 1-4 and a 2-3 respectively.
Now lets look at the leaders.
Kittel is currently at 23.4km, with Feidler at 24.7, so 1.3km behind.
When Feidler hits the 24.3km mark, Rogers is at 25.0km to go. As such we know Rogers is faster than Kittel at the half way mark.
Phinney is only at the 25.8 km mark when Rogers hits the check point. It's hard to know whether tis means that Phineny is way down on Rogers, or Rogers is way up on Feidler.
Coppel is at 25.6km when Phinney is at 24.3. As such Phinney is slower than either Coppel of Rogers, although if it's tight between them then Feidler is a long way back.
As Coppel goes through the check point Cancellara is at 25.7km to go. I think they best way to read these numbers is that Rogers, Coppel and Cancellara are all very close, with Phinney slightly behind.
Now lets jump to the finish, where Bodnar has just come through in 6th place at +37"
Steensen can only come in tenth place at +48". He hasn't really justified his leadership of B&O today.
Kangert now takes 7th spot, 39 seconds behind Ford.
Bonnet breaks up the Mila-Oz duopoly by coming in 4th at +15"
Bernadeau slips between Bonnet and Olman into 5th place. +23" for him.
Koren beats Bernaudeau though as he now takes 5th with a +21"
Ignatiev is the first of the real big guns, and he takes the lead, 28 seconds faster than Ford, and we go under the 1h07' mark.
The gap between Schadlich and Ignatiev is just 1 second, but it's the German who has the edge, and we have a new leader.
It's the Dutch champions turn now, but he's not quite up to the pace as he takes 4th, 14 seconds back.
Kittel is the first man we had a check on, and he hasn't had a good day, only managing third at +7"
Fiedler has not had a bad day though, and he crushes Schadlich's time taking the lead by 47 seconds
The world time trial champion is aiming to become only the second ever continental rider to win on the pro tour. And he takes the lead from Feidler by just 12 seconds. If that's the gap between Rogers and Feidler then the others will all be very close.
Phinney is looking up at the time as he crosses the line, and he hasn't done enough. Phinney falls 17 seconds short of Rogers and into third place.
Coppel has the home crowd support, and man has he utilised it in the second half of this race. He takes the lead by all of 31 seconds.
Only Cancellara left, Coppel has turned round to see Spartacus bearing down on the finish line, has he done enough?
Yes, Cancellara takes the win by twenty seconds. What a result for him and for Red Bull.
Results:
Rank
Name
Team
Time
1
Fabian Cancellara
Simply Red Bull
1h05'01
2
Jerome Coppel
Milka - AVG
+ 21
3
Michael Rogers
Oz Cycling Project
+ 53
4
Jacob Fiedler
Koenigsegg
+ 1'06
5
Taylor Phinney
Wikipedia
+ 1'11
6
Lucas Schädlich
Team Bacardi
+ 1'54
7
Mikhail Ignatiev
Wiggle Professional Cycling Team
+ 1'55
8
Marcel Kittel
Vesuvio - Accumalux
+ 2'02
9
Joost Posthuma
Project 1t4i
+ 2'09
10
Michael Ford
Oz Cycling Project
+ 2'23
11
Jesse Sergent
Milka - AVG
+ 2'27
12
Roman Kreuziger
Milka - AVG
+ 2'34
13
William Bonnet
Lotto - Cervelo
+ 2'39
14
Kristjan Koren
Heineken presented by California Giant Berry Farms
