What to say about Russia bar wodka, matryoshka, beautiful women and weird youtube videos.
In cycling probably the dominance by their home team Tinkoff with super star Yuri Trofimov. Not only one of the best cyclists in the world, also todays top favourite as we hit a hilly NC.
And Tinkoff really should not lose this one. The strictest transfer policy means 100% Russians in their team, which results in an incredibly 4x7-rider squads. Trofimov, Kritskiy, Zakarin and Rovny the 4 leaders.
But it wouldn`t be Russia, if the rider pool was that small. Novatek with 6 riders led by Pozdnyakov, Chernobyl (Efimkin) and Severstal (Foloforov) with 5 each. At least COC with a good chance as well as Efimkin is stat wise the 2nd best.
Metinvest with the always dangerous Ignatiev but without support, while the others are big outsiders only
.
Early on we saw attacks by the two strongest Tinkoff squads around Trofimov and Kritskiy. But as Severstal`s D.Ignatiev decided to follow them, the remaining two Tinkoff squads took care to catch them all.
Though it`s not much better if Ignatiev is allowed to go a bit later. Then again it`s 4 teams against one rider now. So should be under control as also Chernobyl or Novatek should have some interest.
The gap stays at 1'30 only as a huge Tinkoff Armada is taking control. The Chernobyl riders and Ignatiev look a bit afraid of all those black jerseys.
Interesting move by the Zakarin squad now. Gusev and Chernetskiy both attack at the same time and should work together nicely. 26km left and the gap still at ~1'30.
Ignatenko of the Kritskiy squad follows, which means that it`s only Tinkoff 1 around Trofimov doing the work now.
Though this is enough. Having a full team behind a strong leader shows to be key for chasing hard. All 3 Tinkoff riders are caught by Tinkoff. What irony.
The gap to Ignatiev though is down to 1min with the penultimate hill soon to start and with Tinkoff 2 again chasing as well, it`s expected to go down even quicker.
Last lap, 17km and the peloton can see Ignatiev. ~1min left for him.
With 9km to go it`s time for the leaders of Tinkoff 3 and 4. Zakarin and Rovny both attack with a 30s gap to Ignatiev.
But while they quickly catch Ignatiev, the group behind is chasing hard with both Tinkoff 1&2 working. Only 16 are left there but most of them Tinkoff riders.
Dropped riders are Kozontchuk, Gusev, V. Efimkin. Pozdnyakov or Kunshin.
Ahead of the final climb the trio ahead is caught and this means, time for Trofimov to end what his team has started. Can anyone avoid him to win?
3 more Tinkoff riders were the first to follow. All leaders of their squads in Rovny, Kritskiy and Zakarin.
Then M. Ignatiev, who so far anonymously stayed in the bunch as also A. Efimkin.
But only Rovny is able to more or less create a gap to follow Trofimov.
But no chance to beat Trofimov. It was expected to be like this. A too dominant Tinkoff team. A too dominant Trofimov. A too easy win for him.
Rovny with a good day it seems crosses the line as 2nd and the podium is completed by yet another Tinkoff rider in Zakarin.
Efimkin as 4th couldn`t do anything against the big team, while Kritskiy as last leader comes in at 5th ahead of Ignatiev. Tsatevich as 3rd non Tinkoff rider in the top 10 as 9th.
The time trial is expected to be closer. And actually could end with a non Tinkoff win.
Top favourite must be M. Ignatiev even though Tinkoff surely hopes for Kritskiy to have a perfect day as the difference is tiny. Also Vorobev, Trofimov or even Ovechkin can take this for Tinkoff while another big threat is Kovalev of Volkswagen.
Trofimov on the road early. And he beats the times of Zakarin and Zubov, which is not a big surprise.
Ovechkin though having a good day and goes 4s faster at the first. Though at the next split Trofimov is 1s ahead again. So very similar rides by those two.
Belkov then with a shocking result. He goes 1s faster after 10km while Gusev struggles completely. Also Karpets and D.Ignatiev with crap times.
Kovalev then with a nice time going through the first check 20s faster.
Belkov though keeps shocking by also beating Trofimov at half time.
Vorobev shocking the other way by beating Belkov only by 2s. Means he is far behind Kovalev.
Kritskiy though showing his skills. He goes through the 1st mark 10s faster than the VW rider. Can he defend the title?
Tough to say. Metinvest star Ignatiev is 5s faster. But everything open as the first 3 are within 15s.
Meanwhile Belkov`s shocking performance is seeing a small stop. Kovalev is 61s faster than him at half time. So rather than him being really strong today, it just looks like Trofimov having a really shit day.
Too much wodka after his RR win? Very likely!
Kritskiy is 21s faster than Kovalev though. Strong ride by him.
But not strong enough it seems. Ignatiev is the bigger beast on flat time trials and extended his lead to 8s. At least Kovalev seems beaten now and we have a duel between those two.
Duel? Not really! 3rd split and another 5s added.
Plus another 6 in the last part. So Mikhail ignatiev wins the Russian ITT NC and steals the jersey of Tinkoff.
Kovalev as 3rd already 55s behind.
Yuri Trofimov
