The third day of events here in Krakow and it's miserable in rainy though though there seems to be hope for the afternoon and later starters., Poland kicks off this morning with the Elite Men's Individual Time Trial Championships. We've seen this course before with the U23 edition (won by Canadian Alexander Cataford) but for those unfamiliar the riders are faced with three cobbled sections, including the final hill, which is also used in the road races. The main favourites here ae Fiedler, Coppel and of course Phinney, whilst the best man for the cobbles who also has a good shot is Cancellara, though out of the top TTists it's more likely Dillier or Vlatos.
Oliveira looks to be his challenger for the early benchmark, he's 26 seconds back at the first checkpoint but 44 at the second. He stalls his losses a bit at the end but he's still 53 seconds back at the finish.
Wisinowski is another guy who could gain back big time on his cobbles, and with the benefit of the home crowd could surprise today. However it doesn't seem to pay off as he's the worst of the first 10 riders today, except for at the finish where he beats out Joeaar for 9th by 5 seconds.
Unfancied Braico with a spirited performance here, steadily improving to beat De Gendt for provisional third.
Franzoi seems to have been picked solely on his cobbles talents and it hasn't paid off - he looks to be a bottom feeder here even after the 20% cobbled first section of the course. It stays that way despite a spirited effort on all the cobbled sectors.
Spartacus is the first of the Swiss duo to go and is a surprising 20 seconds off Spilak in second initally, though time will tell whether this is a bad day for Cancellara or a great one for the Slovenian. He loses another 12 over the middle third of the route but gains 17 in the final third to lose by just 15 seconds to Spilak
Trofimov edges out Cancellara early on by 2 seconds, pointing to a bad day for the Swiss rider. However he slips behind Spartacus for third at the secpnd checkpoint and only slots in a second ahead of Oliveira. He'll stay there but similarly make up time on Spilak to come in 25 seconds bac.
Tenorio, like many Spaniards, hates the cobbles but is a very good chrono rider, yet can only muster 6th at the first check, and the same spot for the other two markers.
Vuelta winner Gesink is another top stage racer but similarly struggles, 5th for the moment already nearly 40 seconds behind Spilak's time. He loses more time over the rest of the course to finish provisional 5th as well
Ford & the Fort
Aussie Ford edges out Gesink but disappoints to be behind the likes of Trofimov and Spilak at the first check. He slips behind De Gendt at the second point but rallies to finish under a minute off the pace in 5th, ahead of Gesink and Tenorio.
Brookwalter really hates the cobbles but this is a bit embarrasing - not even top 10 at all three checks.
German beast Schädlich may be overshadowed by his Karcher counterpart but he's a class act on the time trial bike and 8th, 40 seconds behind, isn't good enough at the first check. Neither is 1'42 down at the second check and although he shuts the gap slightly he's still only 9th at the finish.
Tanel Kangert of Estonia heralds the second round of nations and is 4th at the first checkpoint. He's worse at the second, though, dropping behind Ford and Oliveira. He comes back slightly at the end for provisional 6th. Still nobody here coming close to Spilak's time besides Cancellara.
Frederik Frison another surprise result, 6th at the first check, loses some time to go 7th at the second and comes in 7th at the end, 1'13 down.
Well who do you enlist to take down our surprise leader? His own teammate. Slovenia truly stronk here as Koren edges out Spilak by less than half a second at the first chrono, though he loses a whopper 31 seconds in the middle third of the course. He comes close - the closest yet - but is 6 seconds behind his compatriot on the line.
Goncalves of Portugal doing decent now, 9th at the first check, 32 seconds behind. Worse at the second losing over a minute though and so won't challenge the top 10.
Tennant dissapointing here now coming closer to last than the top 10 - a season of Yatsevich can do that to your morale.
Rasmus Quaade dissapoints despite moustache power - even worse that the Brit actually, already losing a minute at both checks and finishing 29th.
Home favourite Biablocki isn't as bad as the previous riders and is only 44 seconds back initially for 13th, loses a good of time between there and the finish though and comes in 14th.
Former U23 champ Haugard has similar times, clocking in a second behind the Pole at the first check but leapfrogs to 1'26 behind Spilak and 10 seconds ahead of Biablocki at the second check (still outside the top 10). He gains back 7 seconds on Spilak's time and sneaks into the provisional top 10, 1'19 behind the leading time.
Reigning champion Aleksandr Pluchkin isn't just failing his title as world champion, more importantly he's failing his title as best Aleksandr from Moldova, after the second time check he has 26 seconds to make up on his teammate. Now let's go see what's happening elsewhere. The rain here making a huge difference to the riders coming through now.
Adriano Malori having a terrible day, he's the second worst rider at the first timecheck, only beaten out by his teammate Franzoi.
Dillier too very disappointing, especially given his promising adeptness at the cobbles. Over a minute behind at the first check, outside the top 35.
Finally a favourite with a damn respectable performance - Ignatiev 9th at the first check 32 seconds off the time of Koren.
Also losing big time is Gonzalez Salas, who loses under a minute but is still only 30th.
Keizer is 31st at the first check but improves to the top 10 at Chrono 2.
Vlatos loses 34 second early on but claws back to 30 down at chrono 2, 1 second ahead of Koren to go second.
Aussie Durbridge similarly improving but well outside the top 10 at both checks.
Pluchkin comes in now and is over 20 seconds behind his teammate, finishing in 21st.
Ho-Ting Kwok of Hong Kong started badly but has came back strong to finish 10th, on level time with Gesink.
Jerome Coppel has just gone through the second checkpoint in 9th, 50 seconds down on Spilak's still-standing time. He was 15th at the first check, 39 seconds down.
Phinney now coming through as the only real threat left, 3 seconds down in second at chrono 2. Now here he is overtaking the talented young Zmorka, who's having a catastrophic time in both senses of the word: 1'42 down at the second check, barely inside the top 30.
Ignatiev under the arch - he placed 6th in the second checkpoint and could still have a shot at the podium, but can only go exactly halfway between Cancellara and comrade, sorry countryman Trofimov in fourth, 20 seconds behind fellow Eastern European Spilak.
Salas coming in now and slots into 10th ahead of Gesink, he won't keep it and another riding who'll be going home dissapointed.
Keizer is under a minute behind the pace at the finish and is 8th and so could still make the top 10.
Vlatos with a shot at the win here and with a sterling show on the final hill he is only a second ahead of the Slovenian
Spoiler
Koren to move into second, 5 seconds behind Spilak.
Turbo Durbo was 12th at the second check and has increased the pace once again for the final assault on Krakow, he misses out on the top 10 though, coming in 11th, 2 seconds behind Kangert in 10th.
The last man who could possibly win, he's been 16 seconds behind Koren, then 3 behind Spilak, and is now
Spoiler
in all likelihood your new World Champion, storming to a 32 second lead over Spilak. Many others took a similar advantage in the last third and the Slovenian lost himself this race by fading there.
Behind the celebrations of Phinney is the bitter disappointment of Zmorka - he's 25th, 2'11 down on the American.
The last two were both 50 seconds down on Spilak at the last checkpoint, first is Fielder who can only muster 8th, over a minute down on Phinney.
Coppel then to finish us off, he's really ramping it up for the last kilometre, could he do it?
Spoiler
Sadly not, in fact he can't even beat Fiedler, finishing 9th.
A bizarre race and soul-crushing for the Slovenians but it's the American Dream prevailing here as Taylor Phinney is crowned your new World Champion in the Individual Time Trial!
