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Welcome to Differdange, Luxembourg. Today we have a Team Time Tial on the menu and a very special one; with only two riders per team!

First team to kick off this race is Schuh powered by Wiggle (CT). They don't have the strongest line-up of the startlist but their time will give us an indication of the conditions today: There seems to be quite some wind today and Offredo and Christian set the first time at 1h09'38. Is this good or bad?

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Just like Schuh, also Eddie Stobart (CT) riders stuck together throughout the whole course and in the end Van der Ploeg and Joeaar were able to beat Schuh by 35 seconds: 1h09'03.

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Valio - DeLaval (PCT) was one of the pre-race favourites and Paillot and Pökälä are very fast in the split times, especially during the downhill parts. They are faster than both CT's teams: 1h08'26

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Hugo Boss (PCT) was 2 seconds faster than Valio at the first split, but couldn't quite hold on to it during the last part of the course. Ligthart and Gonzalez Salas finished 16 seconds behind Valio: 1h08'42

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cycleYorkshire s/b ASDA-Savers (CT) is one of the best Continental teams here in Luxembourg, but also they couldn't beat Valio's time. Stannard and Robert were 28 seconds slower than Valio: 1h08'54

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Löbauer Stadtwerke - Etixx (CT) is the youngest duo on the startlist and with that in mind they had a decent Time Trial, Baska and Thill lost each other wheel many times and in the end they were 7 seconds faster than Schuh, so at least not last: 1h09'31

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Elta - Hellenic Post (CT) rode an ok time trial, Sakellaridis and Ma both took the same amount of turns more or less, but they were slower than Continental rivals cycleYorkshire and Eddie Stobart: 1h09'09.

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Just like Valio, Meiji - JR East (PCT) was one of the pre-race favourites, Kuboki and Kwok had about the same time as Valio at the checkpoints but just missed out on the best time in the end by 11 seconds: 1h08'37.

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SanCor (PCT) was all over the place today Van Aelbroeck and Rosas seemed to have a lot of language/communication problems. At one point Van Aelbroeck just went for it, never to be seen by Rosas again until the team bus: 1h09'27.

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Meanwhile last year winners Fiedler and Balloni of Karcher - Adira (PCT) have started their time trial as well. Up until now Fiedler has been on the front pulling hard for 9km straight! Original tactic, no checkpoints times yet.

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Put on your sunglasses three star favourite Generali - AXA (PCT) is next, Van Winden and Viviani were 5 seconds slower than Valio at the first split and unfortunately for them this trend continued during the race, very disappointed they reached the finishline: 1h09'07, 41 seconds slower than Valio who are still sitting on the winner chairs!

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Unlike Generali Vontobel (PCT) with Schär and Van Zandbeek are riding very hard, they are faster than Valio at the checkpoints, but like many others they loose ground in the last section of the race, finishing only 5 seconds slower: 1h08'31. Still a very good ride and provisionally 2nd place.

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We switch from camera's fast, because reports are coming in that Fiedler is dropping Balloni every time he accelerates. Balloni tries to keep up with the pace but clearly Fiedler has pushed him to much, Balloni soloed most parts of the last 10km and in the end Karcher - Adira (PCT) is close but 8 seconds slower than Valio: 1h08'34. Their manager's motto is Life is Pain, well this is painful!

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Only 6 teams remaining now and the pressure is on Wiesenhof - Andritz (PCT), they know by now that Generali and Karcher failed, can Brändle and Schädlich deliver... nope they also fail and are 1 second slower than Karcher: 1h08'35, maybe the conditions during the beginning of the race were better?

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Shimano - Siam Cement Team (PCT) surprised everyone with being faster than Valio at the checkpoints and what is this Quaade and Sai-Udomsin actually beat the time of Valio by 2 seconds: 1h08'24, especially Thai national champion Sai-Udomsin put in the performance of his life!

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So we have a new time to beat and only 4 teams left, Novatek-Panarmenian.net with Brajkovic and Cancellara show a tactic we haven't seen before, Brajkovic takes care of the hilly sections, often just dropping Cancellara at the top, but Cancellara gets back every time quite easily during the downhill sections and then is even strong enough to take his turns on the flat. It looks very well thought through, Shimano was first but Novatek is 16 seconds faster: 1h08'08!

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The last Continental team KAYAK - Clas Ohlsen (CT) is here to enjoy the landscapes mostly, Magnusson and Reijnen had a great time in Luxembourg and finished last, more than 2 minutes behind Novatek: 1h10'22.

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Only two teams left can Novatek win this race? Aeropostal Venezuela Ciclismo (PCT) gave everything they got, but after a good start they faded away in the checkpoint rankings. Cruz was the better one today, while Craddock had a hard time at the end of the race, resulting in almost 1 minute slower than Novatek: 1h09'05.

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So this is it: either Novatek or Porto - Prio (PCT) will win this race. Normally Nascimento and Oliveira both have good time trial skills, but today Nascimento is clearly the stronger one. They were around Novatek's time during most of the race, but in the end Oliveira totally gassed out and because of that they lost quite some time in the end: 1h08'33.

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So Novatek-Panarmenian.net wins the race! They cracked the difficult formula called Duo Differdange, "all" you need is:

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