Hello and welcome to this year’s ultimate test of the time trial specialists in the Continental Tour. We know who the favourites are, so without further ado, let’s move on to the live coverage.
First rider to start is Cameron Wurf, he’s a decent time triallist, but he’s nowhere near the absolute top. His finish time is: 57’13’’.
After him Phucang Sai-Udomsin started. He’s also a specialist, but he’s weaker than Wurf, atleast on paper he is… But of course, that’s just on paper,which doesn’t count. What does count is his actual time of 57’09’’, beating Wurf.
Merhawi Kudus is Africa’s super talent. He’s not even decent as a time-triallist yet, and his time of 58’39’’ shows that. He’ll have an excellent future tho, keep that in mind!
The man starting behind Kudus is Vassdal, who is known to be a good time triallist. He overtakes Kudus on the lane, setting a provisional best time of 56’40’’.
Kiwi Hayden Roulston is ought to be as strong as Vassdal. Besides being good on this bike he’s also great on cobbles. Today he’s not able to beat the rider who started ahead of him, who clearly profited from Kudus’ slipstream but 56’45’’ still seems like a rock solid time.
Willi Willwohl is the worst time triallist here in Namibia. He should just enjoy the sights here and accept the fact he’ll come in last with a time of 1h0’7’’.
Claudio Imhof told a journalist just before the race he had fallen this morning whilst riding the parcours one last time, therefore his times aren’t as impressive as we expected from him, he loses 24’’ on Vassdal, setting a time of 57’04’’.
Jussi Veikkanen is also a decent time triallist who generally perfoms slightly worse than guys like Imhof and Vassdal. Today he’s riding well, resulting in a provisional third, 21’’ behind.
Saul Raisin is more known for his climbing abilities, but today’s performance in Namibia shows he’s not a pure climber. Provisional first with a time of 56’16’’!
Cornelius van Ooijen is a teammate of one of today’s favourites, Michiel Elijzen. Cornelius isn’t as good as Michiel, but still he’s a strong guy capable of doing well, better than he did today to be honest. A time of 57’19’’ isn’t impressive.
Final rider of this first group is Russell Hampton, teammate of Ian Stannard. Russell is just like van Ooijen a strong guy you would want on your team. He puts in a better time tho, with 57’10’’ he’s seventh in the provisional ranking.
Owain Doull isn’t the strongest rider here, in fact he’s one of the worst. His time of 58’02’’ just shows that.
Mark Galedo should be about as strong as van Ooijen and I’m not sure whether it’s intentional or not but he’clocked at exact the same time: 57’19’’.
In the meantime we can give you the times the favourites set at Checkpoint 1: Clancy: 16’07’’ Oba: 16’05’’ Petrus: 16’03’’ Lindgren: 15’55’’ Sutherland: 15’48’’ Joeaar: 15’55’’ Schär: 15’57’’ Renäng: 15’56’’ Cruz: 15’51’’ Elijzen: 15’48’’ Stannard: 15’41’’
So Stannard appears to be strong, just like Sutherland. No real differences yet, so we’ll wait till at least the second checkpoint to draw any conclusions.
Riadh Ghdamsi isn’t a rider who could be in the mix for a top 10, but the pressure from riding in his own region got to him: 57’10’’ is his time Just as fast as Russell Hampton who should be slower in normal conditions.
Rasmus Sterebo is the next rider to not reach the time of climber Saul Raisin. Rasmus get a provisional third, 27’’ down. That hill on the end might actually hurt Stannard more that he would want!
Or not, as Sam Horgan, who is not a great climber gets really close to Raisin’s time just 5’’ behind, provisional second for this Kiwi.
With a time of 57’05’’ Dane Lasse Norman Hansen reaches a provisional eight place. He prefers shorter time trials and he’ll probably be satisfied with this time.
Reto Hollenstein is strong over short climbs, but still he can’t manage to get close to Raisin who must’ve had a great day. He still get provisional third with a time of 56’35’’.
A rider who doesn’t have a great day is Mateusz Taciak. With a time of 56’53’’ he moves into seventh for now but he could’ve been closer to Hollenstein.
Craig Lewis is a stage race specialist who can limit his losses on time trials. That said he’s not a great rider and will have to settle with seventeenth for now, 1’16’’ behind.
Indulis Bekmanis is also one of the worse time triallists here, he takes eighteenth, 1’25’’ behind.
Losing 1’02’’ is Matthew Brammeier, not the worst time triallist, but certainly not the best either, a provisional fifteenth seems quite okay for him.
And with only the team leaders to cross the lines here are their second intermediate times: Clancy: 40’43’’ Oba: 40‘39’’ Petrus: 40’32’’ Lindgren: 40’12’’ Sutherland: 39’54’’ Joeaar: 40’10’’ Schär: 40’15’’ Renäng: 40’16’’ Cruz: 40’04’’ Elijzen: 39’54’’ Stannard: 39’38’’
Full overview:
So I guess it’s safe to say Stannard will win unless he made a huge mistake forgetting about that final hill. Sutherland will give Elijzen a run for his money and behind them things are awfully close. Also Horgan and Raisin who started earlier today are fighting for a top 10.
Ed Clancy is the first of the leaders to finish, his intermediate times were quite okay, but not sufficient to get a top 10. Getting a provisional seventh, 36’’ behind doesn’t help either.
Masatoshi Oba also didn’t impress on the time checks, in the end he loses 31’’ to Horgan, moving into fifth.
Lotto Petrus was eleventh on both checkpoints, and at the line he takes a provisional third place losing 21’’.
And finally! Swedish champion Rasmus Lindgren beats the time set by Sam Horgan. The clock stopped at 56’06’’, which could be enough to get a top 5.
And even before Lindgren can finds the hotseat Rory Sutherland steams past, 23’’ faster clocking a time of 55’43’’. Will that be enough to beat Elijzen and perhaps even Stannard if he misjudged the parcours?
It’ll take a few minutes before we know the answer to that. First Gert Joeaar crosses the line, being 19’’ slower that Sutherland he takes a provisional second place.
Michael Schär should do better that he did today. He doesn’t even manage to beat Horgan. 28’’ down he moves into fifth for now.
But it could’ve been worse as Viktor Renäng shows. Viktor is another 2’’ slower moving him into sixth whereas he is considered to be stronger than everyone in front of him.
Freddy Cruz does a better job, he moves into second, but still 14’’ behind Sutherland.
And here’s the shock of the day: Michiel Elijzen can’t beat Sutherland! He finishes in exact the same time but judges say he’s a fraction of a second slower.
And that means only Ian Stannard still has to finish. He was the fastest at both intermediate checks, but he had to fight his way up the final hill, something he doesn’t really like to do… Nonetheless he increased his lead on the last part of the course, extending his lead to 20’’. Just for the records: his time is 55’23’’.
Full results:
1
Ian Stannard
Team ASDA-Savers
55'23
2
Rory Sutherland
Fletcher - Garneau
+ 20
3
Michiel Elijzen
Team TomTom
s.t.
4
Freddy Cruz
Dell - 361° Racing
+ 35
5
Gert Joeaar
Evonik - Signal Iduna
+ 40
6
Johan Lindgren
Risa - Ergon
+ 43
7
Sam Horgan
Fletcher - Garneau
+ 48
8
Michael Schär
Team Vontobel
+ 49
9
Viktor Renäng
Team Live Nation
+ 51
10
Saul Raisin
Dell - 361° Racing
+ 53
11
Lotto Petrus
Team Kenya Airways
+ 1'09
12
Reto Hollenstein
Team Vontobel
+ 1'13
13
Ken Sebastian Vassdål
Risa - Ergon
+ 1'17
14
Masatoshi Oba
Siam Cement - Lenovo
+ 1'19
15
Rasmus Sterobo
Risa - Ergon
+ 1'21
16
Hayden Roulston
Fletcher - Garneau
+ 1'22
17
Ed Clancy
Eddie Stobart Pro Cycling
+ 1'24
18
Mateusz Taciak
Team Live Nation
+ 1'31
19
Jussi Veikkanen
Team Live Nation
+ 1'38
20
Claudio Imhof
Team Vontobel
+ 1'41
21
Lasse Norman Hansen
Evonik - Signal Iduna
+ 1'43
22
Phucong Sai-Udomsin
Siam Cement - Lenovo
+ 1'46
23
Russell Hampton
Team ASDA-Savers
+ 1'47
24
Riadh Ghdamsi
Team Kenya Airways
+ 1'48
25
Cameron Wurf
Eddie Stobart Pro Cycling
+ 1'50
26
Matthew Brammeier
Team ASDA-Savers
s.t.
27
Cornelius Van Ooijen
Team TomTom
+ 1'56
28
Mark Galedo
Siam Cement - Lenovo
s.t.
29
Craig Lewis
Dell - 361° Racing
+ 2'04
30
Indulis Bekmanis
Team TomTom
+ 2'13
31
Owain Doull
Eddie Stobart Pro Cycling
+ 2'39
32
Merhawi Kudus
Team Kenya Airways
+ 3'17
33
Willi Willwohl
Evonik - Signal Iduna
+ 4'44
Manager of Team Popo4Ever p/b Morshynska in the PCM.Daily Man-Game
