The Russian Championships will be held in Voronezh, featuring a flat 190km road race, which may suit both sprinters and roleurs (thanks to a short ascending sector and the total length). So some big names will aim for the title..
Let's start with the local team Tinkoff, which even got three teams at the start (22 of 36 riders in total)! Sprinters like Krasnov or Galimzyanov definitely will have the needed support, but also the pressure to control the race.
There's no other (of 9) team(s) with more than two riders participating, so Tinkoff's squads will most likely "decide" over how the race will unfold.. Big favorites should be Maksimov (Privatbank), Trofimov (Koenigsegg) or may a roleur like Ignatiev (Wiggle) or Gusev (Pendleton's).
The race kicks off with a "bang", as two Tinkoff-riders decided to go for a breakaway attempt:
So most probably two of the three Tinkoff-teams out for a possible pursuit and the question is, wether the remaining team with no rider in that break will even try to chase..
The answer is "no"... so bad news for the more or less supportless favorites and biggest Russian cyclists..
With only 18km remaining, the breakaway built an 8-minute-gap, so unless anything special happens, this may be it for the peloton. Anyway, Chernetskiy and Yatsevich try to jump away from their breakaway companions!
And now at least some action in the bunch as well: Gusev (Pendle) and Ignatiev (Wiggle) attacked with 10km remaining, facing a 7'30"-gap on the escapees.. this is most probably too much to close up to..
Indeed: it's up to the four early escapees, who are alltogether again with only 4km to go! The chasing duo is still 7 minutes in arrears..
Firsanov in the leading position now that the two other escapees managed to catch up to the attacking duo..
Here goes the sprint and Firsanov made his move from the leading position!
Chernetskiy is at his wheel, trying to move forward and Yatsevich is a bike length behind..
Still the same situation with the line approaching: Firsanov holds on to a small advantage on Chernetskiy and (even though he's coming closer) Yatsevich may be too far behind now..
He did it: Sergey Firsanov appears to be the strongest in this group, maintaining a small gap on runner-up Chernetskiy and third placed Yatsevich!
An impressive sprint by Firsanov, as he kicked it off out of the worst position. The peloton finishes about 4 minutes later, with Trofimov completing the Top-5. A rather dissapointing race with too less action and Tinkoff's tactics not paying off.
The challenging 40km timetrial should be a good chance for some of the big guns bouncing back from the road race-fail: Ignatiev as the top-favorite faces some tough competition in TT-specialist Kovalev, premium stage-racer Kritskiy, "jack-of-all-trades" Trofimov or maybe Gusev.
Yuri Trofimov (Koenigsegg) may hope for the challenging parcours (with some climbs) to suit a puncheur more than a pure TT-specialist. He's the first of possible favorites to hit the road and he crushes the competition:
new BT! Leaving 2nd placed Ovechkin 53" behind! Also Gusev a minute slower, so this is a statement by Trofimov!
Ivan Kovalev (Festina) is next in line and - other than Trofimov - he's not the best puncheur, to say so. This may be one of a few reasons, why he won't finish amongst the best today:
+ 1'05" on Trofimov at the finish, this is quite a dissapointing result for Kovalev, who would have preferred a more flat profile, obviously.
So maybe Timofey Kristkiy (Tinkoff) will do better, as those climbs won't be a big problem for him.. he's also the final hope for Tinkoff to grab a national title:
new 2nd! Finishing 14" behind Trofimov, it's no national honours for Tinkoff in 2013! Still a good ride by Kritskiy, to be fair.
Still one man on the road and it's no other than top-favorite Ignatiev.. he won't crush the competition though and looking at the second and final split, it will be a thrilling battle:
Ignatiev just 1" ahead of an obivously super-strong Trofimov! Still about 8km tricky kilometres to go for Ignatiev..
It's hard to judge from the screens, who had the better final kilometres.. Ignatiev certainly gave all he had to give..
..and the winner is... Yuri Trofimov! What a thrilling battle. Ignatiev lost 4 seconds eventually and finishes 3" behind Trofimov! A huge win.
Russian Championships will be held in Voronezh, featuring a flat 190km road race, which may suit both sprinters and roleurs (thanks to a short ascending sector and the total length). So some big names will aim for the title..
