12 riders taking part to the Bulgarian Championships, that this year will be raced in a tough mountainous route, in the whereabouts of Musala. 11 of them are Lululemon riders, the other is a loaned out Lululemon riders, ‘racing’ for Red Bull’s colors. Meh.
Stoenchev, Zaraliev and NC Mihaylov (Lululemon) go clear as soon as they set off. The group behind them has accumulated a 12 minutes gap, on top of the first mountain.
They obviously don’t bother following. The weather is so nice today. They are enjoying it I hope.
Fast forward about 30 kms, the 3 in the head have reached the foot of the last and decisive climb. No one has tried a move yet. Meanwhile, Panyatov and Ivanov (Lululemon) have gone on themselves, trying to chase the head. They are currently 15 minutes behind, after recuperating 1 minute of the original gap. It’s obviously too late for them now but they still try.
1 kilometer to go now, Panyatov is now giving his all. Each 200 meters he bridges 1 minute, and with 3 kilometers to go for him and Ivanov (Lululemon), they are now less than 10 minutes behind. It probably won’t be enough, but it will be interesting to see how much they’ll manage to trim the gap down on the finish line.
200 meters to go for those in the head. Zaraliev (on the left) and Stoenchev (on the right) are fighting it out for the win, while it looks like Mihaylov is out of contention.
Zaraliev takes a very nice win and secures the Bulgarian National Championship! Stoenchev comes in 2nd, right in front of the defending champion Mihaylov, who only just missed out on another National title.
Panyatov is a disappointing 4th after it looked like he could win this race any day. He lacked the tactical intelligence today. Ivanov rounds off the top 5.
The same riders will be taking the start to the TT. Mihaylov is the favourite for this year’s edition after striking the opposition last year and carrying home the double crown. He’ll have to face a fiercer than ever opposition though!
Zaraliev is going really strong so far, leading the first checkpoint by some seconds, behind him are Gyurov, Stoenchev and Mihaylov! The latter doesn’t look to be too sharp today.
Here’s a look at the standings after they’ve passed the 1st intermediate:
Mihaylov has ridden through the first 24 kilometers, and the National Champion’s gap is now as high as 27 seconds. Zaraliev is still comfortably in the head, holding 15 seconds on Gyurov and 24 on Stoenchev.
At the 3rd intermediate, Zaraliev is now 17 seconds in front of Gyurov, 32 in front of Stoenchev and 34 faster than Mihaylov.
A complete summary after all the 12 participants have set a time for the 3rd checkpoint:
Zaraliev crosses the line in 1st place after 1h08’23”. Great effort, we’ll hardly see anyone beating his time today.
Stoenchev also finishes his time trial. He is currently 2nd with 2 riders still to come, and he’s been 34 seconds slower than the Road Race champion.
Gyurov is next up, and forces Stoenchev out of his 2nd place. He ends up 14 seconds behind Zaraliev, which means he recuperated 3 seconds in the last 12 kilometers.
Mihaylov sprints his way to the finish line! He only just climbs a position to 3rd, narrowly in front of Stoenchev. This means that Zaraliev officially takes the RR-ITT double header, just like Mihaylov did last year. Nice job!
