Fairly good weather conditions (winds just up to 18-19kmh and pretty steady).. let's get it on!
Good Enery is the sixth team on the road and surprisingly goes for the lead at the first split:
5" faster than Project 1t4i and also Rothaus!
Tinkoff is amongst those teams, which may hope for a Top-5 or more. They look pretty strong at the first split, crushing the competition so far:
17" ahead of Good Energy and so already 23" gained on Rothaus!
The times at this first split keep surprising us: Festina, though being a Top-10 contender, goes for a strong time beating some better rated teams!
14" behind Tinkoff, but faster than Wikipedia, B and O, Bouygues and also Oz Cycling. The latter really struggling with already 40" lost on Tinkoff!
Bpost doing better than Oz, yet missing out on Tinkoff's lead:
17" as provisional 3rd at the first split..
With also Simply Red Bull struggling (25" down on Tinkoff), it's just ING delivering so far:
shared best time at the first split!
So ING on the way to glory today? Still 43km to go, of course. But Red Bull (25) and especially Oz (40) with already quite some seconds lost. Of all serious contenders, Bpost, Wikipedia and Rothaus with solid times.
The short climb might have caused some problems for a few pure TT-specialists, so we may get a clearer picture at the second split..
Project 1t4i, coming off three victories in a row for this event, definitely no serious contender for the win this year. But the team is amongst the strongest at this second split anyway:
+ 24" on a still leading Tinkoff-squad and gaining back time on teams like Festina (+ 38). Bouygues still going strong as provisional 2nd (+ 21), by the way.
Rothaus with an extraordinary strong ride over the bridge:
taking the lead at the second split by 9" on Tinkoff!
Oz Cycling still struggling to do anything special with now 27km remaining:
+ 47" on Rothaus as provisional 10th at the split!
Simply Red Bull now making up some ground on weaker teams though:
+ 24" as provisional 4th...
And just ING to come.. but what happened here?
+ 30" as 7th! A true shocker given the team's strong showing at the first split!
The longest sector is still ahead, but Rothaus delivered big time on the tricky ride over the bridge. Tinkoff and Bouygues, as well as Project 1t4i with some great times as well.
Simply still in striking distance and so may be teams like ING or Oz. The two latter though really with some unexpected slow times at this split. Especially ING with this huge loss over the bridge..
As said before, the final sector may be the key sector anyway. And the first teams crossing the line definitely show, that there will be some notable movements between the second split and the finish.
B&O is the fastest teams of all early starters eventually:
Beating teams like Tinkoff (24 seconds), Good Energy (31), Lotto (33) or Bouygues (52) by quite a margin, the team put up a really strong final sector!
Wikipedia with a chance to gain points on Vesuvio, which will end up as 17th today:
+ 21" for Wikipedia as provisional 2nd and therefore with a good performance!
Rothaus now aiming for this new best time, as they were the fastest at the second split:
+ 11" on B&O though, but at least provisional 2nd ahead of Wiki..
Oz Cycling as next team now.. winner of the Continental TTT in Monterrey, the team already showed that they know how to balance the turns in a long TTT. Just like in Monterrey, the Aussies struggled in the early half and come back strong at the finish:
new best time, beating B&O by 5"! So the Oz gained more than 30 seconds on B&O and even more on Rothaus on this final sector.
Bpost might have hoped to go for a similar strong performance, but the team really lacks the top-form today:
+ 53" on Oz, which may be too less for a Top-10!
Simply Red Bull and yet another top-favorite aiming for glory.. the team was more than 20 seconds ahead of Oz at the second split:
+ 8" at the finish though! It's pretty obvious, that Oz Cycling put up a huge performance on this final sector, while Red Bull has to settle for a provisional 3rd behind B&O!
Becherovka won't be a threat for the victory, but fights for a Top-10 result:
+ 36" as provisional 8th..
..the victory will be decided between Oz and ING now..
ING looked dominating at the first, but fairly poor at the second split.. to that point, Oz Cycling was never inside the Top-10, but bounced back in style. Will ING fight back from their losses, too?
+ 6" and so missing out on the win! Still kind of a comeback, as they gain back time on Red Bull, Tinkoff or Bouygues.
The wildcard-team takes out this prestigious TTT though: Oz Cycling kinda repeats it's story from Monterrey, where the team looked really in trouble in the first half. The comeback today was pretty huge and so was the fight for the podium.
An outstanding result for B&O, too: beating teams like ING, Simply Red Bull and Rothaus is pretty epic. Rothaus dropping to 5th eventually, while especially Bpost (12th) really couldn't live up to the expactations today. A few of those teams, which did so well at the first split, suffered big time in the flat parts: Bouygues (13th), Project (14th) and Festina (11th) all missed the Top-10 eventually.. Good Energy though with a pretty good 8th.
