Immanuel Erviti is the first rider to leave the start house. His time won't last long, but it gives a first impression on how long the riders are going to be out here today.
1h08'06
A few other riders came next with similar, though mostly better, times ...
Spoiler
Niki Terpstra
1h07'57
Bradley Wiggins
1h07'39
Samuel Pökälä
1h08'34
Nelson Oliveira
1h07'32
Artem Ovechkin
1h07'19
... until Irish Champion Martyn Irvine sets an impressive best time that would last quite a while.
1h07'01
Spoiler
Phan Age Haugard
1h07'03
Niels Scheunemann
1h07'45
Silvain Dilier
1h07'39
Panagiotis Vlatos
1h07'24
Andre Steensen
1h07'05
Andrei Nechita
1h08'23
Mattia Cattaneo
1h08'11
The rider expected to challenge and beat Irvines time was Hugues Mottin. And the French delivered, however not as strong as he was maybe expected. Or are his 13 seconds of advance only a sign of how good Irvine's time really was?
1h06'48
Again, this new best time lasted some time ...
Spoiler
Marlen Zmorka
1h07'00
Jakub Novak
1h08'14
Richie Porte
1h07'51
Rick Flens
1h07'05
... until Lucas Schädlich came to the finish line. And he crushed Mottin's time, narrowly missing the 1h06'00 mark but still being a lot faster than anybody else so far.
1h06'08
Spoiler
Stelly Roberts
1h07'01
Aggrey Sebright
1h07'57
However, not long after Schädlich, it was time for Captain America: David Zabriskie arrived, and as expected, the previous best time didn't stand for long. Being almost half a minute faster, the US champion overtook the lead.
1h05'41
After every team has one rider in the finish, the leaderboard looks like this:
Zmorka and especially Irvine can be very happy with their performances, while Rick Flens can dismiss his hopes on a potential Top 10 already after a disappointing ride.
After Zabriskie's ride, some time passed without any notable times ...
Spoiler
Aberlardo Ablenado
1h09'44
Mads Christensen
1h08'33
Matthieu Ladagnous
1h08'16
Vegard Stake Langen
1h08'13
Domingos Goncalves
1h08'39
Pavel Brutt
1h08'05
Jack Bauer
1h08'04
Matthias Brändle
1h07'35
Michel Valgren Andersen
1h09'11
Dimitri Champion
1h07'55
Tim Dees
1h07'54
Michael F. Christensen
1h07'42
Koen De Koert
1h07'43
Steven Burke
1h08'14
... until it's another Bouygues rider that puts in a really good time: Morgan Kneisky, anything but a favorite here, leaves many better riders behind and closely misses out on the Top 10.
1h07'22
Rather disappointing are two national champions:
Spoiler
Haijun Ma
1h08'23
Roman Kreuziger
1h07'38
And after another rider ...
Spoiler
Bob Jungels
1h08'11
... the final five riders of the second heat come in:
William Bonnet is first, but he doesn't look too good. Provisional 11th for him:
1h07'20
Next up is Lars Boom. And while his team mate still sits in second position, he fails to enter the Top 10 by quite a margin.
1h07'33
And so does Luke Durbridge. Two seconds slower than Bonnet, twelfth place for now.
1h07'22
But now comes the first contender for the win today: Swiss and defending champion Fabian Cancellara! Can he break the spell of favorites failing?
Not quite! While putting in a good time, he falls short of Zabriskie's time and only finishes provisional second.
1h06'01
And as the last rider of the second heat, it's Dennis Van Winden who approaches the finish. With a final dash, he sprints over the line and makes it a 1-2 for ING at the moment! 11 seconds behind his team mate Zabriskie, but 9 seconds faster than Cancellara.
1h05'52
And this is the intermediate result after two of three riders of each team:
Only Cancellara and Van Winden jumped into the Top 10, and both couldn't beat Zabriskie. Could an early start here be the decisive advantage?
Before we can conclusively answer that question, let's have a look at the third, and usually best, riders of the teams:
Spoiler
Mario Gonzales Salas
1h07'40
Ion Izagirre
1h08'15
Sean Downey
1h08'07
Damien Howson
1h07'52
Alfredo Balloni
1h07'41
Anton Vorobyev
1h07'57
Jan Ghyselinck
1h07'26
Ivan Kovalev was the first rider to offer anything notable. And comparing to some others who were expected on that level, he did really well. Provisional 8th for the Russian.
1h07'01
And Emilien Viennet even topped that, being ten seconds faster and finishing provisional sixth!
1h06'51
A few other riders then went on to join the Top 10 ...
Spoiler
Jose Goncalves
1h06'55
Matthieu Bernaudeau
1h06'47
Zachary Dempster
1h06'18
Joost Posthuma
1h06'03
... which leaves the scoreboard like this before the last ten riders arrive:
The first of these last ten riders is Adrian Malori. And he is in the mix for a Top 10 here, scoring a provisional fifth rank.
1h06'06
Then comes Tony Martin. He'll have a hard time staying in the Top 10, ranking 7th currently, only seconds behind his compatriot Schädlich.
1h06'20
And then comes the big sensation! Mikhail Ignatiev, from wild card team Metinvest, almost catches up with Martin and rides everyone else into the ground. A spectacular time, more than a minute faster than Zabriski, taking the lead by storm!
1h04'25
And it seems to be that these rouleur skills might make the difference today, as Jesse Sergent takes provisional second, 10 seconds faster than Zabriskie, though still more than a minute behind Ignatiev.
1h05'31
Or isn't it the later starting time after all? Marcel Kittel jumps to second place by a large margin to Sergent.
1h04'44
The wind has certainly picked up and it's coming mostly from behind on the second part of the course, so this might be a reason for these incredible times here. It may be interesting to note that Ignatiev's time is already more than half a minute faster than Cancellara's winning time from last year.
But let's get back to the race: Dominique Cornu presents his marvellous Belgian Champion jersey, and he sets a good time as well, finding himself in third position at the moment.
1h05'05
Martijn Keizer is next, and with Schädlich being the next to fall out of the Top 10, it's the Dutch's task to save the day for Rothaus. He does well, four seconds behind Cornu.
1h05'09
Let's take one last look at the intermediate results before the big three are coming in:
And the way it seems now, Fabian Cancellara is actually looking set to not even finish within the Top 10! What a crazy race. But there's still Jerome Coppel for Simply Red Bull underway, so we'll have to see.
But first, it's World Champion Taylor Phinney who makes his final sprint. But as he crosses the line, the surprise is there: He comes two seconds short of Ignatiev, who has a podium spot safe now!
1h04'27
Another champion, the French one this time: Jerome Coppel really needs to perform for Simply Red Bull not to make this race not a complete failure. And he does. But oh is this close: One single second makes the difference and he takes the lead!
1h04'24
With the Top 3 all within three seconds, Jacob Fiedler needs a perfect ride to top the rankings. But the German champion doesn't look too good, and indeed he fails to deliver. Eight seconds off already means the fourth place, his second in a row, and while they have three riders in the Top 10, this certainly isn't a happy day for ING.
