Who doesn`t know the Greek top climbers? Simantirakis, Kastrantas or Gkazonis!
Middle one for Festina while the other two are riding for Elta, the big team in this race.
12 Elta riders in total. 3 Festina and one lonely Bonsucro rider. So it`s basically one for Elta to lose.
Poor Bonsucro. The break is formed and their rider isn`t in there. Instead all other squads have sent a rider.
Elta with Karatzios and Katrakis.
Festina with Vlatos, who though is more the TT champion but a horrible climber.
Last descent before the final climb. The peloton is 20min behind as expected as the stronger climbers won`t send their team mates to chase when other team mates are ahead. And no surprise Bonsucro can`t chase alone with a weak climber.
Vlatos starts to struggle now, which also was expected against the stronger Elta duo.
Katrakis in the 2nd position. He should be the stronger climber but today they are riding for different squads, so Karatzios is giving him a nice fight.
And actually the fight works well for him as Katrakis was not able to go around him. So the Greek NC jersey goes to Karatzios. Nice result for the younger of them and obviously good result for Elta.
The ITT is all about Vlatos. In the RR he tried but lacked the climbing in the end. In the TT he belongs to the best. Not only in Greece but also in the PT field, where he is a valuable rider.
So it`s not a surprise that Vlatos keeps the ITT NC jersey. He even passes Sakellaridis close to the finish line, who came in 2nd in a 1s fight against Tzortzakis and Katrakis.
Georgios Karatzios
