Coppel as the big favorite for the victory of the Celtic Chrono, that kicks off near Belfast. Zmorka, Durbridge, Keizer, Ford and Cornu as other favorites, who will aim for the podium at least.
The first part of the two-days event comes with a mostly flat parcours and 55km in total. Who will lead the race at halftime?
Olman with an early start and he crushes the few first non-contenders' times easily:
1h14'14 as the first notable best time at the "split" - probably..
Viennet about half a minute behind Olman's first split times, but it's enough to finish this first of two days as provisional 2nd:
+ 39" on Olman!
Haga + 1'11" as provisional 3rd so far..
Golovash looking strong on the road then, being slightly faster than Viennet:
+ 28" as new provisional 2nd at halftime!
Sergent + 1'12" to finish one second slower than Haga.. Cornu + 1'22" for a rather disappointing time..
Other riders such as Wen Hao Li, Goldstein, Mullen or Mottin finish this first leg sime further seconds or minutes behind!
Durbridge next and he certainly needs to beat Olman to show he's ready for a big victory. His compatriot apparently put up a very strong performance though, as Durbridge can't beat him on this first day:
+ 17" as new 2nd at the end of this first part of the event!
Kovalev + 51" as provisional 5th..
Ford as the next Australian on the road and just like his former teammate Durbridge, he can't beat his former teammate Olman today:
+ 50" and so one second ahead of Kovalev as provisional 5th at halftime..
Schädlich finishes the first of two legs in the same time as Ford:
+ 50" on Olman, who definitely had a strong ride here!
Zmorka as one of the big favorites for the Celtic Chrono, but also struggling to reach Olman's time:
+ 19" to finish a couple of seconds behind Durbridge as 3rd so far!
Viviani not amongst the top favorites, but the Italian delivers a very strong performance here:
+ 7" on Olman as new provisional 2nd at halftime!
Coppel next and only two big favorites are about to finish the first of two legs. Coppel with some stunning early split times and opposing to all other contenders, he will easily beat Olman's long lasting best time after those 55km today:
1h13'18" to finish the course 56 seconds faster then Olman!
Keizer as the last promising rider hitting the road, but he finishes the first part of the event in the same range as Durbridge and Zmorka:
+ 1'15" as 6th (on the same time as Zmorka)!
Provisional Results after "S1" in Belfast
1
Jerome Coppel
Carrefour - ESPN
1h13'18
2
Miles Olman
Sauber Petronas Racing
+ 56
3
Elia Viviani
Generali - EDF
+ 1'03
4
Luke Durbridge
cycleYorkshire
+ 1'13
5
Marlen Zmorka
Team Reddit
+ 1'15
6
Martijn Keizer
Indosat Ooredoo - ANZ
s.t.
7
Oleksandr Golovash
Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff
+ 1'24
8
Emilien Viennet
cycleYorkshire
+ 1'35
9
Michael Ford
Novatek-Panarmenian.net
+ 1'46
10
Lucas Schädlich
Kraftwerk Man Machine
s.t.
11
Ivan Kovalev
Swisslion Cycling Team
+ 1'47
12
Chad Haga
Minions
+ 2'07
13
Jesse Sergent
Novatek-Panarmenian.net
+ 2'08
14
Dominique Cornu
Euskaltel - Elior
+ 2'18
15
Roy Goldstein
Fablok - Bank BGZ
s.t.
Spoiler
16
Matthias Brändle
SPAR - Shimano - SCG
+ 2'19
17
Mikhail Ignatiev
Fablok - Bank BGZ
+ 2'20
18
Stefan Kung
Generali - EDF
+ 2'27
19
Ryan Mullen
Kulczyk - DMTEX
+ 2'29
20
Hugues Mottin
Andorra Project - InGamba
+ 2'42
21
Wen Hao Li
Carrefour - ESPN
+ 2'44
22
Marcel Barth
Kulczyk - DMTEX
+ 2'58
23
Martyn Irvine
Kraftwerk Man Machine
+ 3'02
24
Lukas Postlberger
SPAR - Shimano - SCG
+ 3'06
25
Tony Martin
Swisslion Cycling Team
+ 3'10
26
Richard Laningo Laizer
Andorra Project - InGamba
+ 3'15
27
Mujtaba Hussein
GCN ProTeam
s.t.
28
Reinhardt Janse van Rensburg
Minions
+ 3'17
29
Daniil Fominykh
Team Reddit
+ 3'18
30
Yevgeni Nepomnyachsniy
Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff
s.t.
31
Robin Manulang
Indosat Ooredoo - ANZ
+ 3'23
32
Metkel Kiflay
Team Reddit
+ 3'28
33
Mikhail Kochetkov
Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff
s.t.
34
Kristof Goddaert
Kulczyk - DMTEX
+ 3'29
35
Dmitri Grabovski
Adastra - Argon 18
s.t.
36
Geoffroy Ngandamba
GCN ProTeam
+ 3'36
37
Kristjan Koren
Generali - EDF
+ 3'39
38
Andrew Tennant
cycleYorkshire
s.t.
39
Filippo Ganna
Euskaltel - Elior
+ 3'51
40
Welle Jallays
Fablok - Bank BGZ
+ 3'56
41
Ian Richardson
Indosat Ooredoo - ANZ
+ 3'57
42
Dion Beukeboom
Adastra - Argon 18
+ 3'58
43
Chris Barton
Minions
s.t.
44
Maciej Bodnar
Rothaus - Aegon
+ 3'59
45
Fabian Cancellara
Sauber Petronas Racing
+ 4'00
46
Vojtech Hacecký
Rothaus - Aegon
s.t.
47
Albert Kireva
Andorra Project - InGamba
+ 4'01
48
Nawuti Liphongyu
SPAR - Shimano - SCG
+ 4'02
49
Kai Reus
Swisslion Cycling Team
+ 4'23
50
Fabio Duarte
Novatek-Panarmenian.net
+ 4'24
51
Sean Downey
Rothaus - Aegon
+ 4'33
52
Krzysztof Marchewka
Adastra - Argon 18
+ 4'43
53
Steven Burke
GCN ProTeam
+ 4'44
54
Muhamma Afif Ahmad Zamri
Sauber Petronas Racing
s.t.
55
Nikolaos Ioannidis
Carrefour - ESPN
+ 4'46
56
Jaime Castrillo
Euskaltel - Elior
+ 5'51
57
Max Walsleben
Kraftwerk Man Machine
+ 7'01
As 17th at halftime, Ignatiev (+ 2.20) definitely won't fight for big result this time, but he's looking better on the Isle of Man parcours on the second day of this event, setting a notable best time of this second stage so far:
Cornu (+ 2.18) hadn't the best start into the event neither, but he delivers quite a strong time on this second parcours, where he already took two victories in the past seven years:
Cornu finishes the second leg 1'06" ahead of Ignatiev! This may lift him into the fight for a Top-5 result eventually..
Schädlich (10th at halftime) + 1'37" and quite far behind Cornu..
Ford (9th) had an half a minute advantage over Cornu on first day and while he actually doesn't too bad on today's partly hilly parcours, he still loses quite some time on Cornue eventually:
+ 1'24" on the day, so Cornu will also go past Ford in the final ranking..
Viennet + 3'08" and so quite a terrible day!
Golovash (7th) had a strong opening day, but he can't compete with the best today:
+ 2'44" on the day, clearly slower than Cornu, Ignatiev, Ford and..
.. Keizer, who even goes past Golovash on the 60km parcours:
+ 32" on Cornu though, provisional 2nd for the day!
Zmorka had the same time as Keizer on the first "stage", but he's not as strong as Keizer on today's hillier route:
+ 1'27" on Cornu, finishing the day three seconds slower than Ford!
Durbridge well within striking distance for at least a podium result here and his performance on this second leg makes it look quite promising:
+ 11" on Cornu, who keeps the lead for today's stage - but Durbridge easily beats Keizer and Zmorka!
Viviani needs another special performance to defend his lead over Durbridge at halftime, but he can't! Clearly slower than many other performers on this Isle of Man parcour, he will definitely drop a few places from yesterday's first leg of the event:
+ 2'56" on the stage's fastest Cornu! The virtual overall result shapes up as follows:
Virtual combined result from both days
Luke Durbridge
cycleYorkshire
LEADER
Martijn Keizer
Indosat Ooredoo - ANZ
+ 0.29
Dominique Cornu
Euskaltel - Elior
+ 0.58
Marlen Zmorka
Team Reddit
+ 1.24
Michael Ford
Novatek-Panarmenian.net
+ 1.52
Lucas Schädlich
Kraftwerk Man Machine
+ 2.06
Mikhail Ignatiev
Fablok - Bank BGZ
+ 2.08
Miles Olman
Sauber Petronas Racing
+ 2.16
Matthias Brändle
SPAR - Shimano - SCG
+ 2.16
Elia Viviani
Generali - EDF
+ 2.41
Jesse Sergent
Novatek-Panarmenian.net
+ 2.43
Olman as the second to last rider and he needs to defend 17 seconds on Durbridge now.. a tough task, as today's profile certainly doesn't suit him as the first leg did. He's clearly off the split times and loses too much time eventually:
+ 2'38" on Cornu's still lasting best time for the day and such losing more than two minutes on Durbridge!
Coppel with no real pressure then and he also sets the best time for the second day (3 seconds faster than Cornu on the day) and easily holds on to his commanding lead in the overall ranking:
Coppel wins the Celtic Chrono by more than a minute on Durbridge and almost two minutes on Keizer, who completes the podium. Obviously a prestigious victory for Coppel, who always lived up to his role as the big favorite here. Also Durbridge will be happy with a strong 2nd place and Keizer jumped from 6th to 3rd on this second leg of the event today.
Cornu struggled on the first day, but he finishes the TT event as a solid 4th ahead of Zmorka, who may not be too happy with his 5th place here. Not bad, but certainly not too special neither.
A solid 6th place for Ford ahead of Schädlich, Ignatiev, Olman and Brändle. So Olman dropped from 2nd to 9th eventually, while Brändle can be considered one of the winners of this second part of the event. Just like former Isle of Man ITT winner Ignatiev, of course.
Viviani eventually misses out on a Top-10 result, just like Sergent, Mottin, Golovash (14th), Kovalev and Viennet (16th). Haga a solid 17th in this field, beating van Rensburg, Mullen and Kung. Former race winner Reus with quite a shocking result outside the Top-50!
