Norway National Championships 2014 - the land of the new world road champion Edvald Boasson Hagen! A 170km hilly road race (without Hagen as the world champion he is) in Lillehammer is followed by a flat timetrial (with Hagen).
So with EBH missing in the road race, it's most probably up to the two Norwegian teams (Aker, Risa) to fullfil the high expectations. Bugge/Nordhaug (Aker) or Rake (Risa) will be amongst the top-favorites.
9 more teams with mostly just one rider each will try to take advantage of the field being so small (26) and maybe hard to control.
The ever dangerous breakaway in such a small race consists of 4 riders today - and no rider from Aker or Risa made it into this group:
So it's definitely a constellation, in which the two big Norwegian teams are expected to try controlling the race.
Let's keep it short though: both Risa and Aker did show their colors at the front of the peloton, but both failed to limit the gap, which is still at 9 minutes with 15km remaining..
..so it's a race between the four escapees and Haugard (definitely not the best puncheur) tries to jump away now!
It's a short-lived attempt though and he's pulled back quickly.
8.5km remaining, just the finishing ascent ahead and now climber Holm (Cisco) makes his move!
He's looking stronger than Haugard and creates a 30"-gap quickly.. with just 3km to go, the duo Stenersen/Hushovd desperately tries to bridge the gap..
But they fail and Holm takes out the road race by 42" on runner-up Stenersen and 53" on veteran Hushovd!
Two favorites (Nordhaug/Rake) attacked the "chasing" bunch too late and finish more than 6 minutes as 5th and 6th. A missed chance.
Up to the 39km flat timetrial and we can definitely hope for a close race with the favorites being rated more or less equally strong.
And it will be a thrilling race indeed: the split times tell the whole story - all riders have reached the intermediate in the meantime.
Top-favorite Stenersen (B&O) with a narrow lead ahead of Hagen (Risa) and Haugard (VW).. also Laengen (Aker) and EBH (Aker) ain't too far behind with half of the 39km completed..
Laengen is the first of those names to cross the finish and sets a new BT: 56'14" could be a time to beat here.
Krister Hagen may be the biggest surprise so far as 2nd at the split with only 3" behind Stenersen.. can he hold on?
He crosses the line and at least takes the new BT - beating Laengen by 11"!
Edvald Boasson Hagen wasn't too far behind at the split.. he looks strong as well.. but comes short: + 7" for provisional 2nd!
Haugard was 4" behind Krister Hagen at the split and needs a better second half, obviously.. he puts up a great fight and..
New BT! He's one second faster than Hagen! Will he even gain back seconds on Stenersen?
He won't! It's that simple sometimes: Sten Stenersen takes out the timetrial thanks to a very strong second half of the race, eventually beating Haugard by 15"! But it was fun to follow this close battle.
Norway National Championships 2014 - the land of the new world road champion Edvald Boasson Hagen! A 170km hilly road race (without Hagen as the world champion he is) in Lillehammer is followed by a flat timetrial (with Hagen).
