Lithuania and Turkey may not have much in common but they do have the sort of teams that mash up well to make a mixed championships over flat terrain here in ‘parts unknown’.
Lithuania have the following riders:
Bagdonas and Kroupis long time riders of the returning protour team Bacardi.
Eastern European stalwarts Privatbank have Vaitkus and Konovalovas on their books.
We also have Siskevicius (the crap one) who rode for Becherovka as a stagiare.
Turkey have not really a great tradition of strong bike riders but lucky for them that there is some teams that enjoy sponsoring riders from less well known cycling nations.
Live Nation have plucked Reis and Hasta from the talent pool, though climber Mustafa Sayer (Siam) and sprinter Carsi (La Vie Claire) are probably the best known pedelers from the European - Asian gateway nation.
The stronger Lithuanians make the race as Konovalovas and Kroupis attack after a couple of inactive laps.
These two build a large lead with Bagdonas marking a far too late move by arguably the rider who ‘should’ be winning in Vaitkus. Anyway it is Bacardi vs Privatbank here. Both riders have 61 Sprint too.
Kroupis had been the nervier of the two coming into the last 10 kms and had tried a few rather pathetic attacks. These fears prove well founded as the nice acceleration Konovalovas takes a comfortable sprint win.
Good stuff from him as he is by a margin the best chorono man too.
Behind as four Lithuanians go clear Carsi and Reis move away from Hasta and Sayer.
A rather sulky performance from climber Sayer who would have likely preferred any type of hill.
Reis meanwhile puts up an impressive fight against Carsi, the two are neck and neck going into the final kilo.
But Carsi’s better sprint wins the day.
Well I say wins the day the Turks decide to stop a few metres from the line, Carsi is awarded the jersey anyways.
Rank
Name
Team
Time
1
Ignas Konovalovas
Privatbank - Nemiroff Professional Cycling Team
1h58'16
2
Aidis Kruopis
Bacardi Limited
s.t.
3
Tomas Vaitkus
Privatbank - Nemiroff Professional Cycling Team
+ 7'53
4
Gediminas Bagdonas
Bacardi Limited
s.t.
5
Mustafa Carsi
La Vie Claire
later
Chrono:
The two road champions Konovalovas and Carsi double up in the time trial.
Konovalovas a good all round stage racer one of the stars of the Privatbank set up and a long time Continental tour points grabber. He will have a nice colourful jersey with those garish Lithuanian colours.
Carsi will give La Vie Claire or under their new name JimBowen! some interesting tactical choices - do they keep this double champion?
