Welcome to the coverage of this year's Isle of Man TT. The sky is mostly clear and with pleasant 21°C we have great conditions for this race. It's still some time until the big favourites start.


The first on the ramp is Steven Cummings of wearing the jersey of Eddie Stobart, one of three CT teams at the start today. Of course he is no threat for the good spots today.


The first decent time on the first time check, just before the first little bump, is achieved by Sascha Damrow with 20'21'' which equals an average of 40,1 km/h. He left better timetrialists like Alexander Wetterhall behind him at that point.


It still didn't take long until also that provisional time was beaten. First it was Jakub Danacik in 20'13'' and shortly after Andrew Tennant who can hope for a very good result today. His time 20'03", equaling 40,7 km/h at that point. No we wait at the first checkpoint for the first real big name Michael Rogers who already left the start ramp.


It may turn out as a smart tactical decision of Oz to let their star start so early, as better conditions here compared to later when all the other big favourites, also his team mate Jack Bobridge, start are possible. It is no surprise that the Australian TT champ Michael Rogers takes to new best time after 13,6 kilometres here. His time 19'50" should stand a little now. That is 41,1 km/h for now.


Meanwhile the last man of the team's first starters Marlen Zmorka is the only one to set a decent time at the first checkpoint for some time. His time 20'08". Other decent timetrialists like Barth, Johansson or Canadian champion Christian Meier are all around 10 more seconds behind.
The first riders already reached the second checkpoint after 39,9 km and there it is still the German Dramow holding the early best time.


Compared to the first checkpoint not much has changed after for every team one rider crosed the point. Michael Rogers is still the man setting the best times here for now, here 55'53'' which is 42,8 km/h. Ahead of him here Harry Kraft and Piotr Mazur, who started 4 and 2 minutes earlier than Rogers. But now the feared hill follows which could mix things up a little more. This is the provisional standing at the 2nd checkpoint after 17 riders went through:



A further bit down the road Koren is the only one to come close to his team mate's time after the first check after 17 more riders came through there. His time 19'58''.


But let's now switch to the finish where Alexander Wetterhall is coming in. He had a close battle with Sascha Damrow for the best of the very early starters. The German was cloesly ahead at the first two checkpoints but Wetterhall turned it around on the hill where he was one tiny second ahead. It turns out that he could keep that gap and he sets a new best mark of 1h32'48'' at the finish 2 seconds ahead of Damrow. This is 39,7 km/h.


Towards the second so far Tennant the gap of Rogers stays very constant throughout the hill. Now he is with 43 seconds and a time of 1h13'34'' ahead. Now only a downhill to the finish follows.



Now back to the finish where Andrew Tennant just turned up with a new best time of 1h31'26'' 30 seconds ahead of Jakub Danacik who we missed. Now all the favourites are already on the road.


Next rider with high hopes coming to the finish is Mazur. The Pole just misses provissional second by 4 seconds in 1h32'10''. Just behind him also already in sight on the finishing straight is Michael Rogers coming. He left a chanceless Harry Kraft behind to storm to the finish in 1h30'41''. This is of course a new best mark and surely a potential podium. His average is 40,6 km/h.


After Ukrainian Zmorka who comes provisional 3rd 1'09'' behind every team has someone in the finish and the standings there are:



Chinese champ Haijun Ma is the last one of the second group to come to the second intermediate. The conditions on the long flat seem to have changed drastically as noone of them gets into the top 5. Kristjan Koren who was still second on the first check lost over a minute to Rogers and is only 6th here still. The second best of the second starters is Ed Clancy which tells a lot as he has medicre timetrial skills but was the first of them to start. So he used the conditions perfectly, like Rogers and is provisional 9th here now. The standings after 34/51 riders at the time check at 39,9 km:



Clancy is now already approaching the finish line and gets provisional 6th 2'02'' behind ahead of better timetrialists.


At the first check now the last rider on road Mikhail Ignatiev is through. Out of the team captains he is the only one to come remotely close to Roger's time set early in the morning. 7 seconds make him provisional second there. If he manages to keep that time it is for sure possible that he makes that time up on the hill as he is considered the stronger climber. The full table on the first check after all 51 riders passed it:



Having quite a good day today is Marcel Barth being on every time chek in the provisional top 10. On the line he almost passes Stijn Devolder with a time of 1h32'32''.


After him there are Johansson and Canadian champion Christian Meier, who both did a similar race today. Johansson just misses out on the provisional top 10 being 2'12'' behind, Meier is 3 seconds and 2 spots better at the moment.


At the top of the hill everyone is awaiting Koren who was a good bet for the podium today but lost a whole bunch of time in the middle part. At the incline he is expected to make up time and indeed he is 15 seconds faster than Rogers up there also passing Israelian TT champ
Roy Goldstein. Being 55 seconds behind still makes him 4th but Zmorka is only 1 second ahead at this point so a provisional podium at the finish is certainly within reach with a good downhill.


Colombian climber Fabio Duarte had a very good start still having the 9th time in the leaderboard after 14 kilometres. But afterwards he dropped more and more the leaderboard now finishing 2'28'' behind Rogers in 14th.


Luxembourgian TT champion Nick Clesen is a good example of a victim of todays conditions. His abilities should make him a top 10 contender but now he finishes almost 3 minutes behind in 18th with many riders to come.


One of them being Kristjan Koren. With a great downhill he moves past Zmorka and finishes 1'02'' behind his leading team mate. Now we only await the team captains here.


They all passed the second checkpoint now on the foot of the deciding hill. Mikhail Ignatiev is keeping his loss in limit and is only 22 seconds behind. Now he has to go in the climb with a lot of power to move closer to Rogers. Of the other team leaders only Yevgeni Nepomnyachsniy, here closing up on Dan Craven can be happy with his result after 40 kilometres. He is provisional 7th there and 1'16'' behind, he aswell has the talent to make up some time on the hill. Other than that only Kai Reus is also in the top 10:



Now reaching the finish Ian Stannard who was the biggest hope in this race of all CT fans. He fights hard but still has to be disappointed with 2'12'' behind the winner, finishing even behind his fellow CT rider Ed Clancy.


Meanwhile the leader of the Kazzinc team Nepo.. has reached the top of the hill with a very surprising time. He made up 27 seconds on Rogers up the hill and sits now in third there. Imagine if Ignatiev would get up there so fast.


Now reaching the finish CT's second strong timetrialist Michiel Elijzen. He surprises everyone with one of the fastest downhills so far. 1'41'' behind Rogers make him provisional 7th.


Ignatiev has reached the third checkpoint as last and as expected he made up time on Rogers but probably not enough. He is still 7 seconds behind. In any case a very close race. Also relying on their uphill skills are Ian Bibby and Jack Bobridge who also reached the provisional top 10 up the hill:



Nepo realises something is possible and fights hard until the end. Also helping for his time should be his hard fought out duel with Craven who himself will be disappointed after the race. The Kazakh makes up more time and in the end even pushes Tennant from second. A great race from Nepomnyachsniy who unleashed his abilities in the end.


Just after those bad news for Jaguar with Tennant loosing a possible podium porbably right in the end the next man of the African team ´Ian Bibby approaches the line. He also showed to have some reserves in the end as he finishes only 1'01'' behind as provisional 4th even 1 second ahead of Koren.


Next one Tanel Kanget who is still fighting for a potential top 10 after being 13th on top of the hill. But as provisional 9th 1'40'' behind that now seems quite unlikely.


Kai Reus needs to be disappointed with his intermediate results so far as a clear pre race podium contender provisional 7th being 1'15'' behind is surely disappointing.


Jack Bobridge who started today with Oz's #1 will most likely finish as the worst of his team. But three in the top 10 is still an option for the team, with a time of 1h32'00'' that goal is fulfilled, although he will end up only as 10th. Now we wait for Ignatiev who is the only one to possibly push Rogers from the throne and with a disadvantage aof only 7 seconds after the last check that is certainly possible.


Here comes the Russian. Ignatiev in the end came surprisingly close to Bobridge and can even see him finish in the distance. 41 seconds later he crosses the line, looks up and finds out he is on the same time as his Australian contrahent Rogers. Nevertheless a great comeback by the man of Metinvest, coming so close after already loosing a lot of time due to the bad conditions.

The jury comes together analyses some video footage and comes to the decision that this years winner of the Isle of Man TT would be an Australian. Congratulates to Oz Cycling and of course Michael Rogers. Also big congratiolations to Mikhail Ignatiev who made the race intense until the end. We will surely see some more close battles between the two timetrial kings of the PCT. Maybe next year the Russian will get that desired second win of this TT. Also chapeau to Yevgeni Nepomnyachsniy who were on nobodys list of podium contenders. Great race surely also for Jaguar - Eritel who in the end miss the podium very close.
It may be an interesting fact that the first 11 only were of 5 different teams, so it is obvious who lays emphasis on timetrialing.
Thanks for tuning in for this race.

1	Michael Rogers	Oz Cycling Project	1h30'41
2	Mikhail Ignatiev	Metinvest-Emirates	s.t.
3	Yevgeni Nepomnyachsniy	Kazzinc Procycling	+ 44
4	Andrew Tennant	Jaguar - Eritel	+ 45
5	Ian Bibby	Jaguar - Eritel	+ 1'01
6	Kristjan Koren	Oz Cycling Project	+ 1'02
7	Marlen Zmorka	Metinvest-Emirates	+ 1'10
8	Kai Reus	La Vie Claire	+ 1'15
9	Jakub Danacik	Kazzinc Procycling	s.t.
10	Jack Bobridge	Oz Cycling Project	+ 1'19
11	Piotr Mazur	La Vie Claire	+ 1'20
12	Tanel Kangert	Allianz-BMW Cycling Team	+ 1'40
13	Michiel Elijzen	Team TomTom	+ 1'41
14	Marcel Barth	Karcher-Adira Racing	+ 1'52
15	Ed Clancy	Eddie Stobart Pro Cycling	+ 2'03
16	Alexander Wetterhall	Swedbank - PEAB	+ 2'07
17	Christian Meier	RBC Pro Cycling	+ 2'09
18	Sascha Damrow	Karcher-Adira Racing	s.t.
19	Ian Stannard	Team ASDA-Savers	+ 2'12
20	Freddy Johansson	Swedbank - PEAB	+ 2'13
21	Luigi Sestili	Venchi - Ferranti	+ 2'15
22	Kiril Yatsevich	Bacardi Limited	+ 2'19
23	Lieuwe Westra	Gazelle	+ 2'22
24	Patrick Gretsch	AMEXpc	+ 2'24
25	Dominique Rollin	RBC Pro Cycling	+ 2'25
26	Fabio Duarte	Venchi - Ferranti	+ 2'29
27	Haijun Ma	Metinvest-Emirates	+ 2'32
28	Aidis Kruopis	Bacardi Limited	+ 2'42
29	Vasili Kiryenka	BelarusBank Pro Cycling	+ 2'46
30	Dan Craven	Venchi - Ferranti	+ 2'48
31	Przemyslaw Niemiec	BelarusBank Pro Cycling	+ 2'49
32	Arnaud Godet	AMEXpc	s.t.
33	Ludovic Bret	Allianz-BMW Cycling Team	+ 2'52
34	Nick Clesen	Kazzinc Procycling	+ 2'57
35	Vadim Shaekhov	Gazelle	+ 3'05
36	Matthew Brammeier	Team ASDA-Savers	+ 3'07
37	Steven Cummings	Eddie Stobart Pro Cycling	+ 3'08
38	Cornelius Van Ooijen	Team TomTom	s.t.
39	Richard Cleaver	Jaguar - Eritel	+ 3'13
40	Gustav Larsson	Swedbank - PEAB	+ 3'21
41	Kristijan Durasek	RBC Pro Cycling	+ 3'27
42	Russell Hampton	Team ASDA-Savers	+ 3'39
43	Stijn Devolder	AMEXpc	+ 3'42
44	Rodrigo Nascimento	Karcher-Adira Racing	+ 3'54
45	Kévin Lalouette	Gazelle	+ 3'58
46	Oleg Chuzhda	BelarusBank Pro Cycling	+ 4'11
47	Harry Kraft	Allianz-BMW Cycling Team	s.t.
48	Roy Goldstein	La Vie Claire	+ 4'26
49	Neil Van der Ploeg	Eddie Stobart Pro Cycling	+ 4'34
50	Indulis Bekmanis	Team TomTom	+ 4'58
51	Mikel Iturria	Bacardi Limited	+ 5'32