The Baltic Cycling Series stays in Estonia for the second event: a hilly "crit" in the deserts of Haanja, with a short and not too steep climb.
The puncheurs will try to take command of the race, especially those, who already scored points in the flat opener:
Kunitski, Karnulin (Belarusbank) or Siskevicius (airBaltic) as well as top-favorites like
Bugge (Aker), Pakthusov (Metinvest), Hudecek (Adria), Rake (Risa) or local hero Puusepp (unitymarathon)!
4 riders try their luck with an early escape:
Bystrom (Eidsberg) Siskevicius (airBaltic) Gomenyuk (Privatbank) Enger (Risa)
So Siskevicius, who finished 3rd in yesterday's crit out of a breakaway, continues to go into early groups! Can he repeat his success?
We're reaching the half of the race and like yesterday, two more riders try to join the break, which leads by 1'40" with 30km to go:
Karnulin (Belarusbank) Grosu (Romania)
Karnulin (7th yesterday) does the same as Siskevicius and gives it a second try in his second race! Or is it just a tactical move to support Kunitski (4th in the opener) later in the race?
The two join the early break with now two laps to go (12km)!
The 6-men-group leads by 55" on the chasing bunch, which neither too less to panic nor too much to start shadowing each other here in the leading group..
The pack struggles to narrow the gap, just like yesterday! The gap is still at a minute with 8.5km remaining and the top-favorites do need to react now:
Bochman (Statoil) is the first to do so and goes for a solo-attempt!
In the meantime, we've also seen some moves in the front group:
Karnulin and Siskevicius managed to drop their companions on the penultimate climb! The two lead by 33" on the chasing group (early break plus Bochman) with only 2.6km to go!
The pack is still 56" behind the new leading duo! Will they fail again?
We don't know by now, at least the top-favorites do not give up like the sprinters did in yesterday's crit:
local hero Puusepp (unitymarathon) attacks the bunch with 1km to go, the gap to the leading duo is down to 32".. a chance?
Puusepp comes fast into the last corner, but Karnulin/Siskevicius ain't looking too slow either.. it's going to be a close finish, at least between the leading duo!
Karnulin takes it! For a couple of moments, Siskevicius looked like the stronger, but thanks to a great finish, Karnulin wins the second crit!
Puusepp couldn't narrow the gap, but he finishes ahead of the (again) disappointing peloton to grab a nice 3rd place. Maybe he should tried to attack earlier..
Grosu secures his 4th ahead of Metinvest's Grygorenko/Prevar, Polkowice's Dabrowski and Bochman, who suffered from his move. Grychenko adds points for Metinvest, Majka another for Polkowice.
Kunitski (who gets 1 point because of his teammate winning) couldn't deliver (43rd), as well as other favorites couldn't..
And so we have a surprising GC-leader after two races: Siskevicius (18 points) and Karnulin (16) benefit from two escapes, as well as 3rd Mihaylov (12), who won the opener thanks to a late attack!
Bystrom (Eidsberg)
Siskevicius (airBaltic)
Gomenyuk (Privatbank)
Grosu (Romania)
Bochman (Statoil) is the first to do so and goes for a solo-attempt!
Puusepp (unitymarathon) attacks the bunch with 1km to go, the gap to the leading duo is down to 32".. a chance?
Jaroslaw Dabrowski
Rafel Majka
Nikolay Mihaylov
Andrei Kunitski
Pavel Potocki
Olli Kulppi
