Race day in Scandinavia. Who is going to be the best in the team effort battle of PT teams?
The first team on the course will be Top 5 candidate Kenya Airways. From then on we have the first big deal on #5, I-Gen Festina. Right after that another outside favourite in Grieg, until from 15-19 several big players will come to battle for the win. Enjoy:
Startlist:
1. Kenya Airways - Dimension Data
2. Aegon - Lavazza
3. eBuddy
4. Pokerstars.com
5. I-Gen - Festina
6. Grieg - Eftel
7. Eritel - Sonatrach
8. Evonik - ELKO
9. BPost - Vlaanderen
10. Pendleton's
11. RedBull - Huawei
12. Becherovka - Petrof
13. Gazelle
14. RBC Pro Cycling
15. Metinvest - Dacia
16. Bouygues Telecom
17. Jayco's Cycling Project
18. Tinkoff Sport Academy
19. Movistar - US Postal
20. Aker - MOT
21. Puma - SAP
22. Orange - KLM Cycling
23. Vesuvio - Accumalux
24. Vontobel
As everybody has a deep love for it's teams HQ, that of most of you surely needs some refreshing (slight denunciation from me here, we want to see them sweet texts, graphics, thoughts & discussions there!), we decided tp provide the material for that as a gallery before reporting the race. So here you go, pick your team and let them shine on your site, we did at least one pic of every team in full size:
Kenya Airways is the first team on the road and setting some good trademarks. At the end they set the first time in 1h11'19, which really is a decent start. Their times on the first checkpoint up the big Öresund bridge couldn't be beaten for a long time, as until the first bigger favourite came in with I-Gen.
The Slovenians took hell to burn and were over 20 seconds ahead up the bridge already. Similar strength couldn't be offered by Grieg, who were down quite a lot up the rise of the bridge. And a double digit disaadvantage would be tough to catch back.
Up next the few teams from PCT invitation Eritel to Becherovka were all far off the Top 3, while in the meantime I-Gen Festina settled the major time to compare to. 1h10'03. Would anybody be able to beat the 1h10'00 today? At least doubtful, as I-Gen really looked strong today. This impression is covered by the checkpoint times of Grieg, that lost continually and came in with 28 seconds of difference behind I-Gen. However, that was far better than the current 3rd Kenya Airways (almost 1 minute), so we'll see the real value of this ride later.
And indeed, going back to the Öresund checkpoint we see Gazelle with a strong start to the day. Not quite as fast as Grieg, but well placed in third currently. Meanwhile Pendleton's looking to be much better at the second checkpoint, they seem to stream forward. They would finish later, 10 seconds down on the current third in Kenya Airways.
But then the big players started to do their work. First Metinvest, and they are looking not as strong as they might have been anticipated. They're settled in the region of Grieg, with a pretty clear gap to I-Gen as well. Does that mean we have seen the winner already? Bouygues Telecom won't challenge them with one of these midrange timechecks, roughly 20 seconds behind I-Gen. Looking now onto the finish Gazelle comes in with a rather strong time, sitting in current third 53 seconds down on I-Gen. This doesn't look all too bad for the finale.
But then we recieve a shocker. The next two teams are through the first checkpoint, and I-Gen is back in second! But it's not Jayco that have beaten the first checkpoint time, but it's Tinkoff. Lead by a strong Yuriy Trofimov the Russians are 7 seconds ahead of I-Gen, and even have 2 more on Jayco. Don't count out the Aussies though, as they are projected to show their stronger side lateron.
Then again, take a look at what the other teams do. Movistar looking decent, in current 6th at the first checkpoint, exactly filling the handy gap between Grieg and Movistar. Aker, lead by the allmighty Bazhkou up the first intermediate checkpoint, doesn't fail to look set for a Top 20 position. From further behind only Puma looks like danger for the Top 10. Orange had a fantatic start in reach of Movistar, but they will suffer under the lower number of riders, or won't they?
Anyway, we focus back on the main players left, and these are clearly the likes of Metinvest (#15), Jayco (#17), Tinkoff (#18) and Movistar (#19). The Ukrainians on their farewell tour seem to have failed in their ambitions, as it's clear that they won't win today. The checkpoint instead indicates, that they'll have to try and hold back Grieg for 4th, as the pair of Jayco and Tinkoff is faster. The Russians didn't even lose time on the bridge, and still hold 7 seconds. Jayco instead has increased the pace and overtook I-Gen on the first checkpoint.
For completing the times here, it's Movistar still in 6th, while Puma and Orange might fight for a top 10, as the later so far only slightly went down the classifications. This is, despite the quality of their riders, indeed a surprise. Aker and Vontobel are set for a position around #20, while Vesuvion looks strong on the fight for the lanterne rouge. But now let's get back to the finale of the winners.
And there we firstly see Metinvest come in, riding a strong last part and coming in in 1h10'22, 19 seconds down on I-Gen but 9 seconds ahead of Grieg. This is current second, but only projected fourth if not one of the upcoming teams suffered some major losses. Then Bouygues with a good race, finishing s.t. with Pendleton's but slightly behind them on their way to a result around #10.
Now it's Jayo's and Tinkoff coming in, and surprisingly the Aussies are the ones that are down to 5 men earlier. Tinkoff, like I-Gen, with 6 men fairly deep into the race. And looking at Jayco'z time they indeed suffered from this! They are overtaken again by I-Gen, so they only finish second. It's tenths of a second that decide, as both teams are counted as s.t.. But at the end their lack of depth might have lost them silver. Or even the win?
Because Tinkoff doesn't look as strong as at the beginning anymore. On their absolutely stunning time trial outfits they've shined bright so far, but now it looks as if they really suffer. What does the time say?
1h09'57! This is the new best, and indeed a team that has beaten the 1'10. What a stunning race for the Tinkoff boys, we might see some twitter flood incoming about who's the greatest now, as the oligarch's team is set to win the race here if no miracles happen.
And the team closest to a miracle, Movistar, is now done, finishing on solid 6th 46 seconds down on Tinkoff. In behind Aker, that were slightly faster than Evonik and with that could secure a Top20, if Vesuvio doesn't go full strength anymore. Puma with a decent time incoming: 1h11'29. And guess what, this is exactly the same time of Pendleton's and Bouygues Telecom. The Germans went lucky though here with the tenths on their side, meaning that they were counted the fastest of those, sitting in current 9th.
They were projected to finish so, but actually didn't. Orange with a stunning race, as they come in 8th 1'20 down. What would've been possible if they raced with 8 riders? We might see next year. Vesuvio then indeed claims the lanterne rouge with a phenomenal time of 1h14'41, which means that they were over half a minute slower than Pokerstars. The final time will come from Vontobel, and they have reached the fantastic achievement of being the better of the wildcard teams and on top finishing in the Top 20, beating some of the WT teams.
But now let's go back to honor the surprise winners of today, that have completely shocked the opposition: Tinkoff Sport Academy. In an otherwise very predictable team time trial they were the cinderella story of this year, beating the huge favourites of Jayco and I-Gen and thus the team that will most likely win the title. Congrats Oleg!
Denmark/Sweden 
