Another day, that's meant to be for the puncheurs, but we've seen two rather surprising races so far. Will we see the chasing bunch failing once again?
Karnulin (Belarusbank) and Siskevicius (airBaltic) took advantage of breakaway-appearances so far, both looked strong.
Kunitski (Belarusbank), Bugge (Aker), Pakthusov (Metinvest), Hudecek (Adria), Rake (Risa) or local hero Puusepp (unitymarathon), who did well in yesterday's crit, will try to challenge the escaping groups this time!
Breakaways have been a good thing so far in this Series and so 5 riders, who went early today, will of course hope for the same success:
Vasyluk (Metinvest)
Matt (airBaltic)
Rusu (Romania)
Bystrom (Eidsberg)
Hagen (Risa)
So definitely some notable names here!
Two riders repeat a move, that we've seen before: with 33km remaining, the duo starts to chase the breakaway..
Breznik (Loborika)
Golovash (Privatbank)
Only one lap later, we see another attack out of the pack, and we have a well-known name here:
Karnulin (Belarusbank)
Nordhaug (Aker-MOT)
try to join the attacking duo, which is now only 1 minute behind the early escapees! Karnulin, winner of yesterday's crit, keeps his aggressive tactic, but the top-favorites should know by now!
And so a group of 5 top-favorites attacks rather early this time:
attack with 12km to go! They face a 45"-gap on the leading group (which consists of the early break and the two chasing duos, 8 riders in total)!
Kurnitski (Belarusbank)
Hudecek (Adria Mobil) and
Bugge (Aker-MOT)
joined this group of favorites and it looked quite good for this strong group when they entered the bell lap!
But the leading group (where Breznik was dropped) keeps fighting! With now only 3km to go, they launch another attack up the final ascent and hold on to a 33"-gap..
And this seems to be the crucial acceleration! The chasing group of top-favorites couldn't narrow the gap and the escapees now already kick off the sprint under the kite!
Rusu, Nordhaug, Bystrom and also Karnulin, who hoped for this group surviving, look in best position..
Rusu couldn't hold on to his leading position as he sees Bystrom flying away..
..and taking the win! A dominating sprint by the Norwegian!
Rusu 2nd, Vasyluk 3rd and Karnulin scores more valuable points as 4th today! He definitely got how to score points in this Baltic Crits Series!
Matt and Nordhaug also held off the chasing group, so Hagen, Grygorenko, Bugge and Bochman just score minor points.. Kunitski missed points once again, so he couldn't benefit from his points in the flat crit.
And as series-leader Siskevicius (18 points) also didn't score today, Karnulin takes the lead with 23 points! No sprinter is within reach for the overall win, but tomorrow's flat crit in Kaunas features a challenging profile anyway.