55km of partly hilly, mostly flat roads.. 12 teams.. 3 clear favorites and one defending champion (Oz).. let's get it on!
RBC has a podium spot to defend here and are the first team to hit the road.. we will take a look at the first split time with the more challenging hilly sectors probably being a factor today.
Kazzinc with an early start, too. And definitely one of the most promising teams today.. they deliver:
20" faster than RBC at the first split!
La Vie will surely hope for joining those teams to battle for the podium at least. They struggle on the hills though: + 22" on Kazzinc at the split.
The hills definitely make for an interesting race here, as also top-favorite Oz Cycling has it's problems: + 18" on Kazzinc and already quite a disadvantage for the Aussies at this point!
Chiquita does fairly well though, crossing the first split just some minor seconds behind Oz Cycling!
Swedbank is the first team to come close to Kazzinc's best time, pacing for provisional 2nd at the split with just 7" on the Kazakh team. This is looking good for them so far, definitely a nice gap on Oz, RBC or La Vie.
And just two seconds slower than Metinvest, which crosses the split as new 2nd now: + 2" on Kazzinc, so putting some pressure on their rivals from Australia here!
The best time though is set by the last team on the road: Bonsucro! And what a showing so far, beating Kazzinc by 15"! The hilly parcours definitely suited this team..
Quite a surprising first split.. Kazzinc/Metinvest did well to establish a comfortable gap on their biggest pre-race-rivals from Oz Cycling, which finds itself amongst the other Top-5-contenders and needs to make up some ground now. Same goes for all teams, who want to have a shot at the win, as Bonsucro went for a superstrong first part here.
Karcher slightly improves as we now take a look at the second split time with a more flat sector on the menu. The team (10th at the first split), overtakes RBC, La Vie, Chiquita and a so far strong AMEX to stay in contention for the Top-5 today!
Oz Cycling - now led by Bobridge on today's final short climb - starts taking some seconds back from Kazzinc to cross the second split with a 12"-disadvantage on the Kazakh team..
The Aussies will make quite a jump on the provisional rankings, as they also overtake Metinvest already at this second split. Metinvest will stay in the mix though, crossing the split 13" behind Kazzinc..
..and still behind Bonsucro, which goes down to 2nd place as Kazzinc went for the fastest split with still 18km remaining! Swedbank lost it's momentum and falls behind the three top-favorited teams, as we now may have a clearer picture on who's going to have a realistic chance at the win!
Kazzinc certainly will have as they ride to the time to beat here: 1h18'42" for the win? We will see..
Defending Monterrey-champs Oz Cycling are next in line to cross the finish.. the team made up some ground on Kazzinc prior to the second split and.. they did the same prior to the finish: led by Australia's TT-champion Michael Rogers, the team sets a new BT, beating Kazzinc by 14" eventually! Quite a strong showing on the second half of the parcours here.
Will Metinvest manage to overtake Kazzinc, too? It's a close one and the squad around Mikhail Ignatiev also rode a strong final sector.. but they fall short on Kazzinc by just 5" as provisional 3rd at the finish! With Bonsucro still to follow, they may fear to miss the podium this year..
..no, they won't: Bonsucro does extremely well to finish 4th ahead of Swedbank, Karcher and RBC, but couldn't compete with the three very best teams eventually. The CT-squad misses the podium by just 3 seconds, which shows how strong they performed today.
So, Oz Cycling bounced back from a disappointing first split time, where it looked like the team would struggle to defend last year's victory. Kazzinc and Metinvest, as well as Bonsucro, fought a thrilling battle for the runner-up, with the three best rated teams making the podium here.
