44km duo time trial in Luxembourg today. Will those small hills have any influence? Due to the long flat sections though should the pure time trial beasts get enough opportunity to take advantage though.
First on the road the Metinvest duo Ignatiev/Ma. Definitely one of the favourite duos as the Russian is known as one of the very best while the Chinese champion jersey proves the value of the less known Ma.
Obviously the first best time in the finish: 1h05'08
Obviously the favourites come early today. Just behind them last years winning duo Rogers/Ford. The time gap between those and the Metinvest riders was always pretty equal, which shows how close it`s going to be.
In the end the Oz duo though is a tiny bit faster! 12s only! Exactly the time that was enough for them last year. 1h04'56
Barth/Nascimento next on the road but quite early it was obvious that they can`t beat them as the Aussie duo was gaining time with every meter.
But in a classic like this everyone gets some points I think, in especially with 11 teams only.
Being 54s behind in the end might be enough for a spot somewhere in the middle. 1h05'50
Team Nordeus being one wildcard team here going for guaranteed points I guess. Kasa/Hasanovic is their selection and surprisingly they beat the previous Karcher duo by a tiny margin. Same time but placed higher. 1h05'50
Swedish duo Larsson/Wetterhall next. A few years ago, Larsson was a real star in Sweden. Since then he regressed quite a lot and so they don`t belong to the best here. This is also seen in their result as they take the provisional last at the moment. 1h05'56
Two Spaniards for CSC with Plaza/Abal. One ageing but still valuable and the 2nd the younger version of him. Both are good time trialists though but they can`t come to the best two teams at the moment but taking the 3rd so far 21s behind. 1h05'17
Two time winner Reus leads the La Vie Claire duo here: Reus/Mazur. Definitely a team that wants a podium today and it does look possible even though Reus won`t get his 3rd win here. 3rd at the moment behind Oz and Metinvest. 1h05'13
Schär/Imhof as next wildcard team. But the Swiss duo can`t really impress today going into the last spot behind Swedbank. 1h06'03
Ligthard/Van Zandbeek came with big ambitions here being both good time trialists. But after some minutes already they had to realize that it`s just not their day. Both must have had a horrible form here as instead of the aimed podium, the outcome is last place! What a huge surprise and awful result for the team. A day to forget. 1h06'03
Kazzinc with Boaro/Nepomnyachsniy also hope for a podium surprise. In the end they performed well but were not able to beat the top3, but they moved ahead of CSC into 4th with the same time. 1h05'17
Last but not least Bacardi with Grabovski/Yatsevich. Just like CSC and Kazzinc they came close to the podium but were not able to make it. Also the same time only 21s behind but placed in 6th only. 1h05'17
So Oz Cycling successfully defends the title here with again a 12s gap to the next. Having 6 teams within 21s though showed a very close fight for the top spots, while all others were also close together but fighting for the lower crown, which was in the end won by Heineken as big surprise.
