Becherovka is the team to beat with 2 squads here. Okrouhlicky and Boros should be the main contestants, but Stybar and Polnicky won’t be easy pickings!
A 4-man breakaway sets in in no time: Vesely Hacecký Hochmann Turek
Cerny and Rabon join them later
They quickly get a gap of 7min, but they are all terrible cobblers. Will this work?
Aparently yes, as they keep increasing their advantage to circa 13min halfway through the stage. The Becherovka pack seems happy to have Vesely in the break.
Polnicky and Boros attack in the peloton. It seems like a good decision as with 19km to go they are trailing for 19 min…
Back at the front our escapees are reaching the final kms. Turek and Cerny go on the offensive with 4km to go!
Vesely leads the chase but Cerny is the less terrible cobbles rider which makes it hard for the regroup to happen!
Cerny opens the sprint with a vibrant acceleration…
Vesely and Hochmann give their all but the gap remains stubbornly consistent. Turek can’t respond either…
Which will give Josef Cerny the chance to wear his country’s colours for next year. Congratulations to the pizza boy!
Leopold Konig is the first interesting rider to start his TT. He takes the lead at the finish and sets a relevant time which shouldn’t be easy to beat.
Becherovka have multiple cards here in the Czech TT and after Konig goes Jakub Novak, a good time-trialist of similar category. He is not on a good day as he finishes 31s slower than his mate, even losing a place to Jan Barta who might just snatch a podium.
But there is competition to Becherovka here. Vojtech Hacecký is the man who could upset the PT men. He looks focused an fast but does he have enough to take the lead from Konig?
No he doesn’t but he comes really really close. In fact only a second separates him from the 1st place! Good effort though.
However there is still a name on the road who should be taken in consideration more than anyone else: Roman Kreuziger. The current champion has come here to take the first step of the podium and won’t make his team mate’s life easy…
The clock is ticking…
…what will his time be…
Six seconds faster than the previous one!
Another Czech national TT championship to Kreuziger! A national hero already.
