Ukrainian NCs - time for the Metinvest sponsored festival of cycling! A challenging, hilly rated, parcours in and around L'Viv awaits 25 riders from across Ukraine.
And Metinvest even got two teams to start here (11 riders in total), while of course the second Ukrainian team Privatbank (7) will be under pressure to do something special.
Premium stage-racers like Popovych (Metinvest) or Ratiy (all alone for VolksWagen) may hope for a lucky shot - and the timetrial of course.
Let's start with some bad news for Privatbank (and maybe the whole race itself) first - Metinvest won't help chasing the breakaway, which consists of 4 riders:
So two quite decent riders like Karnulin and PT-participant Topchanyuk!
With the Metinvest squad(s) refusing to help in a possible pursuit, this break was always going to set the agenda of the race. Leading by 13 minutes with 15km to go.. job done - so far.
Karnulin gives it a go and tries to solo away from his breakaway companions!
He looked strong for a while, but 3km before finish, two of the escapees (Topchanyuk, Bratashcuk) are soon to catch up to him..
They did and so it's going to be a 3-men-sprint for the victory!
Bratashcuk kicks off as first with 1km remaining, maybe his only chance against the two stronger rated riders..
He did well, but it will be a head-to-head finish between him and Topchanyuk! Karnulin seems to be a bit too far behind with the line approaching..
Perfect timing by Artem Topchanyuk - he's the new Ukrainian road champion! Runner-up Bratashcuk could hold off Karnulin, who completes the podium.
50km flat timetrial and with no rider being too "overpowered", this could be a nice little event. Grabovski (B&O) should be mentioned as the favorite though.
Veteran Jaroslav Popovych (Metinvest) is one of those, who can hope for the win - given he has a good day.
And he has, setting a notable BT ahead of teammates Lagkuti and Zmorka!
Vadim Ratiy (VW) had a quiet (disastrous) road race, too, and just like Popo, he will do everything to win this TT..
..no luck though, as Popovych remains in the lead with both Ratiy (+ 0.11) and Popo's teammate Popkov (+ 0.10) finishing close behind!
The pressure is on Dmitri Grabovski (B&O) to deliver.. it looks like a close one with him leading by 12" at the split..
..but he's quite impressive in the second half of the parcours and takes out the TT-champs by 37" on Popo! Congrats!
Ukrainian NCs - time for the Metinvest sponsored festival of cycling! A challenging, hilly rated, parcours in and around L'Viv awaits 25 riders from across Ukraine.
