60km against the clock. The 'Snaefall' as the challenging climb prior to the third split time. Some crosswinds.
Former race winners as the top favorites: Ignatiev and Cornu, as well as Reus, who's amongst the most dangerous contenders. Paillot as another possible threat. Sergent, Viennet, Martin, Bärndle or maybe Dennis? The list of contenders for a notable result is quite long.
Li as one of the early starters and the Chinese sets a first notable best time at the first split:
Split#1: 16'12"
He beats Sterobo by 10 seconds, Tennant by 19 and Laizer is 12 seconds off.
Viviani is doing better and he ain't far off Li's time:
Split#1: + 3" as provisional 2nd!
Pökälä is even closer:
Split#1: + 1" and significally faster than some better TT horses!
Stannard is doing fine on the first sector:
Split#1: + 8"
Dempster with a good sector as well:
Split#1: + 6" as 5th so far
Those mentioned guys with some good performances so far, as they are beating the big favorites after 12.5km of racing:
Some shocking performance from Ignatiev and Viennet in particular, but also Reus, Paillot and Van Winden won't like what they did so far.
Fominykh surely as the biggest surprise so far. A strong outing.
Brändle is doing better at the second split, that comes after 37.4km:
Split#2: new provisional best time
Pökälä + 9"
Li at + 10" now
Mottin + 13"
Van Winden + 14"
Paillot + 23"
Dempster going strong:
Split#2: new best time, a second faster than Brändle!
Fominykh keeps to impress as well:
Split#2: new best time, 3 seconds ahead of Dempster!
Viennet still shockingly bad:
Split#2: + 58" on Fominykh...
Cornu is doing significally better:
Split#2: new best time and how fast he rode this sector! 32 seconds ahead of Fominykh now!
After being 8 seconds off Li at split#1, Cornu is impressively storming onto the first place, now with a comfortable lead at the second split. The 'Snaefall' climb is now ahead and it should definitely shake up the positions once again.
Sergent moved up to 5th, Li dropped to 8th, Van Winden at 10th now.
Paillot 12th ahead of Brajkovic, who should do well on the climb. Same goes for Dennis, who's at 15th for now. Reus 18th, Ignatiev 23rd.
Brajkovic is indeed looking good on the climb and he crosses the third split with a strong time:
Split#3: new best time!
Dempster + 1" Pökälä + 10" Van Winden + 11" Stannard + 12" Li + 20" Viviani + 34"
Mottin ain't bad, but he's behind Brajkovic:
Split#3: + 11"
Brändle crushing the competition though:
Split#3: new best time, 30 seconds faster than Brajkovic!
Fominykh keeps to impress:
Split#3: + 24" as provisional 2nd!
Provisional Split#3
Sergent looking good as well, he may fight for a podium afterall:
Split#3: + 21" as new provisional 2nd!
Dennis is improving, as to be expected:
Split#3: + 41" as 7th best so far..
Reus won't be much of a factor, as he's just 13th at the split with almost a minute lost on Brändle so far. No chance to fight for a Top-5/10 here.
Opposing to Cornu, who's been strong enough on the climb:
Split#3: new best time, 34 seconds ahead of Brändle!
Ignatiev is having a horrible day:
Split#3: + 1'56" as 22nd...
49.8km done:
Viennet even worse than Ignatiev and also Paillot won't be happy to be on 13th only. Li dropping to 12th after the climb. Stannard, Van Winden, Mottin, Dennis and Pökälä probably fighting for the lower Top-10 positions.
Fominykh may be of danger for Sergent, who's likely too far behind Brändle to attack him.
Sergent fighting for the podium and he does well to hold off Fominykh at the finish:
Cornu is approaching the finish and his lead at the third split looked comfortable. He's finishing off the course after 1h27'14" and it's indeed enough to easily hold off Brändle:
Brändle + 37" as comfortable 2nd (half a minute ahead of Sergent)!
Cornu with his second Isle of Man victory after he took it in 2010. That's quite a while ago and he will be happy enough to finally get his name on the honour roll for the second time. After being slightly disappointing at the first split, the Belgian rode an impressive second sector and easily defended his comfortable lead until the finish. Simply the best today.
Brändle with a great 2nd place ahead of Sergent and a strong Fominykh and Brajkovic. There's no real pattern, whether the puncheurs or the pure TT guys would deliver here: Dempster as 6th ahead of Mottin, Van Winden and Pökälä - with a strong puncheur like Dennis completing the Top-10 ahead of Paillot, Stannard, Li, Reus and Atkins.
A truly disappointing day for Ignatiev (23rd), Viennet (24), Bookwalter (25), Tennant (35) and particularly Martin (37). As said before: a bad day will destroy your timetrials.
