The Slovakian National Championships has only 7 riders participating, 5 of them from Becherovka. it's short (shorter than tomorrow's ITT) and hilly, making Peter Sagan the ultimate favourite.
All three teams represented in the breakaway, Martin Velits, Erik Baska and Juraj Sagan are our escapees. It's almost as big as the peloton, history is on their side anyway but 3 vs 4 isn't a battle the peloton will be too happy with.
Or so you'd think - they have Baska up the road and so don't seem to care about their own chances - already they're out of the running, over 10 minutes down with 25km to go.
It was all going so well! Velits was probably the favourite from this break and he's crashed for seemingly no reason! I don't know how hard he crashed or if he'll be able to catch back on with 16km to go but it's a blow nonetheless
Well he's a handy time trialist and with a huge effort he makes contact again in 5km, 11km to go now, just over two more circuits.
No moves before the final hill as Baska leads them on, seems it'll be a sprint.
500m to go and Sagan now on the move, will the race be won just by positioning?
The Arrinera rider had the inside road but Baska now going faster, Velits behind seems resigned to third after his crash.
In the end the inside line was all it took - Sagan matching Baska's speed easily enough and holding him off for the win. Velits was always going to have a tough time on the back and having to chase solo, and is third. All the other Becherovka riders abandoned.
The Velits and Sagan brothers are the only ones in with a real shot here, with Martin and Juraj (going for the double NC) respectively the favourites. The three other Becherovka riders will in all likelihood be battling for fifth.
Out of the bigger four Peter Sagan is probably the weakest and is going the earliest, he's first at all the timechecks.
Martin Velits is next of the favourites to go and edges out Sagan by 11 seconds at the first checkpoint.
Defending champion Peter now beats out his brother by over half a minute, already quite dominant. Only Road Race winner Juraj to go.
This is setting up to be quite the battle, Juraj Sagan now checking in 2 seconds ahead of Velits. We'd get the same order at the second check with slightly bigger gaps.
Peter Sagan, almost overtaking Vysna, clocks in with a time of 1h23'02.
The Velits of Novatek now in the hot seat, 30 seconds ahead of Sagan.
Peter actually not far behind Martin and is the new leader after a solid ride, will it be enough to hold off Sagan, who's a man on a mission in pursuit of a second NC title here.
Juraj Sagan holds his searing pace all the way to the line and is crowned the double National Champion of Slovakia by 10 seconds over Peter Velits.
Sorry that the results failed to export, order was Baska-Vysna-Kolar after the top four
