Final European Mixed National Championships group and this time, we've a bunch of 3 nations battling for both a road and the TT-champion.
5 Greece, 2 Albanian and 2 Cyprus riders will fight for the glory here and again it's hard to predict how the race will unfold - or at least, who's joining the most probably crucial breakaway.
Greece
Albania
Georgos Tzortzakis (Alstom)
Eugert Zhupa (UPC)
Ioannis Tamouridis (Festina)
Tyron Giogieri (Die Berg)
Panagiotis Vlatos (Festina)
Charalampas Kastrantas (Evian-MIAT)
Cyprus
Perikles Ilias (Magna-Ryanair)
Vassilis Adamou (PFG-Armavia)
Marios Athanasiades (Privatbank)
Up for the road race, facing a 110km hilly parcours and a hilltop-finish.
4 riders managed to build the break of the day, but it's at least an interesting mix with 3 riders from Greece in here:
So the two Cyprus riders will face a tough time staying in the time limit and definitely missed a huge opportunity - at least for now.
It ain't a surprise to announce that this breakaway will hold off the 5-men-group behind, which at least managed to limit the gap to less than 20 minutes thanks to a few empty-handed attacks raising the pace.
4.5km to go and the race for the Greece road-title is on: Kastrantas and Vlatos try to escape from the leading group!
They couldn't really drop the other two, but at least Kastrantas holds on to a small gap on the finishing climb!
Vlatos though suffers from his attempt and is kinda dropped by both Tzortzakis, who tries to hang on, and also future Albanian champion Zhupa..
Kastrantas did it! He easily holds off Tzortzakis to take the road title. Congrats!
14 minutes later, the two Cyprians have their own little fight for their national title.. and the winner is Adamou (PFG), who did just enough to slip into the NC-shirt next year.
A 50km flat ITT will show who's the strongest against the clock in Greece, Cyprus and Albania..
Albania/ Eugert Zhupa takes the NC-double in a rather close fight against Giogieri, who finishes just 13" behind.
Cyprus/ The TT between the two Cyprians, who already had a close road race decision, was expected to be the most thrilling here, as both Adamou and Athanasiades are actually quite decent TTlers.
The latter would take the title and revenge for his lost road-title though: Athanasiades puts up a really strong performance and holds off Adamou by 26"!
Greece/ He even challenges today's clear favorite Panagiotis Vlatos (Festina), who easily wins the Greek title, but wins the overall competition just by a small margin of less then a second!
Greece
Albania
Cyprus
