The Chrono des Herbiers is about be begin and the big question is, whether Taylor Phinney can complete the triple and get his third consecutive victory for the new Herbiers-record or not. Fiedler and 2015 winner Zmorka as his biggest competitors, a few other guys may hope to upset the big favorite as well.
The first 48km of the two-days event feature the classic Herbiers profile. Who's going to have the best time at "halftime"?
Viennet sets a first notable best time after the first 48km of the event. His "halftime" split should be a first indicator for the bigger names later on.
Yatsevich looking strong as well:
2 seconds ahead of Viennet at the finish of leg one!
Oliveira provisional 3rd at day one's finish:
+ 31 seconds on Yatsevich..
Vlatos as one of those riders, who may hope for a podium result here. He's not in best shape though:
+ 34 seconds as provisional 4th at the first of two legs!
Howson as the next Top-5/10 contenders and the Aussie goes strong on day one:
14 seconds ahead of Yatsevich for the provisional lead!
+ 36 seconds and such a few seconds ahead of Oliveira and Vlatos!
Bibby with a very strong first leg:
+ 20 seconds as provisional 4th behind Howson, Yatsevich and Viennet!
Durbridge + 0.51 to finish right behind Vlatos.. Kritskiy + 1.12 Kittel + 1.17 for a disappointing performance.. Sütterlin + 1.43 just outside the Top-20 already!
Zmorka almost with the same early split times as Howson and he delivers a new best time at halftime:
4 seconds ahead of Howson!
Fiedler not as strong as Zmorka then:
+ 34 seconds on the day! Definitely should have expected more so far..
Gesink + 1.57 with a terrible first day..
Phinney much better then and he crushes the best time from Zmorka:
Provisional Results after "S1"
1
Taylor Phinney
RBC Pro Cycling
1h03'07
2
Marlen Zmorka
Team Reddit
+ 1'09
3
Damien Howson
eBuddy
+ 1'13
4
Kiril Yatsevich
Team Tinkoff
+ 1'27
5
Emilien Viennet
cycleYorkshire
+ 1'29
6
Ian Bibby
Gazelle
+ 1'33
7
Jacob Fiedler
T-Mobile
+ 1'43
8
Mario Gonzalez Salas
Hugo Boss
+ 1'49
9
Nelson Oliveira
Desigual
+ 1'58
10
Panagiotis Vlatos
Festina - Dexia
+ 2'01
11
Luke Durbridge
cycleYorkshire
+ 2'04
12
Silvan Dillier
Team UBS
+ 2'10
13
Yoann Paillot
Aker - MOT
+ 2'13
14
Dennis Van Winden
Berg Cycles
s.t.
15
Timofey Kritskiy
Team Tinkoff
+ 2'25
Spoiler
16
Michael Valgren Andersen
Air France - KLM
+ 2'29
17
Marcel Kittel
EA Vesuvio
+ 2'30
18
Ho-Ting Kwok
Air France - KLM
+ 2'34
19
Michael Hepburn
Bennelong - Mitchelton
+ 2'36
20
Rodrigo Nascimento
Porto - Prio
+ 2'40
21
Zakkari Dempster
Bennelong - Mitchelton
+ 2'42
22
Bob Jungels
EA Vesuvio
s.t.
23
Adrian Malori
Team Tinkoff
+ 2'51
24
Omar Fraile
Desigual
s.t.
25
Jasha Sütterlin
Team Puma - SAP
+ 2'56
26
Steven Lammertink
eBuddy
+ 3'01
27
Jose Goncalves
Team UBS
+ 3'02
28
Andreas Hofer
T-Mobile
+ 3'03
29
Victor Campenaerts
Volvo acc. by Spotify
+ 3'05
30
Mathieu Bernaudeau
Air France - KLM
s.t.
31
Robert Gesink
Berg Cycles
+ 3'06
32
Pim Ligthart
Hugo Boss
s.t.
33
Andreas Vangstad
Aker - MOT
+ 3'08
34
Carlos Verona
Desigual
+ 3'10
35
Tom Dumoulin
Aegon - Lavazza
+ 3'11
36
Tanel Kangert
Gazelle
+ 3'12
37
Alfredo Balloni
Berg Cycles
+ 3'13
38
Kevin Predatsch
T-Mobile
s.t.
39
Jakub Danacik
Moser - Sygic
+ 3'20
40
Phan Age Haugard
Volvo acc. by Spotify
+ 3'25
41
Javier AramendÃa
Hugo Boss
+ 3'27
42
Ken Sebastian Vassdal
Grieg - Eftel
+ 3'31
43
Thomas De Gendt
Gazelle
+ 3'35
44
Andrew Tennant
cycleYorkshire
+ 3'37
45
Dylan Van Baarle
Team Puma - SAP
+ 3'38
46
Giorgi Nareklishvili
Porto - Prio
+ 3'40
47
Alex Wohler
Bennelong - Mitchelton
+ 3'41
48
Daniel Turek
Moser - Sygic
s.t.
49
Johan Lindgren
Grieg - Eftel
+ 3'43
50
Alexandor Cataford
RBC Pro Cycling
+ 3'50
51
Joey Rosskopf
RBC Pro Cycling
s.t.
52
Tobias Ludvigsson
Volvo acc. by Spotify
+ 3'53
53
Truls Engen Korsaeth
Grieg - Eftel
+ 3'56
54
Frederik Frison
Aegon - Lavazza
+ 4'02
55
Thomas Faiers
Isostar - Slovenija
+ 4'05
56
Pedro Sequera
Team Reddit
+ 4'06
57
Michael Schär
Team UBS
+ 4'14
58
Philipp Walsleben
Aker - MOT
+ 4'15
59
Ignacio Jesus Prado
Moser - Sygic
+ 4'31
60
Patrick Bevin
Team Puma - SAP
+ 4'38
61
Chun Wing Leung
Porto - Prio
+ 4'47
62
Ziga Groselj
Isostar - Slovenija
+ 4'56
63
Sven Nooytens
Evonik - ELKO
+ 5'10
64
Zhihui Jiang
eBuddy
+ 5'28
65
Sabelo Mngometulu
Control Team
+ 5'41
66
Dusan Kalaba
Isostar - Slovenija
+ 5'42
67
Matteo Fabbro
Festina - Dexia
+ 5'44
68
Husain Al Basri
Control Team
+ 6'40
69
Hugo Hofstetter
Aegon - Lavazza
+ 6'57
70
Dragan Jasovic
Control Team
+ 7'47
71
Loic Vliegen
Festina - Dexia
+ 7'49
72
Ingus Eislers
Evonik - ELKO
+ 7'55
73
Tobyn Horton
Evonik - ELKO
+ 8'31
74
Amadou Bakari
EA Vesuvio
+ 9'36
75
Hersony Canelon
Team Reddit
+ 9'50
Gesink with quite a shocking first leg as 31st at halftime. The reigning world champion needs to ride a big second sector to somehow attack the Top-20 or Top-15 here. He's at least crushing the earlier competition on this second day and may indeed improve signfically for the final results.
Fraile finishes the second day 16 seconds slower than Gesink, but will also hope to improve from his 24th position at halftime..
Kritskiy as another rider aiming to improve his performance from the first of two legs. The Russian is doing even better than Gesink, finishing this second leg 3 seconds faster!
Dillier still with a chance to attack the Top-10 and he's 22 seconds slower than Kritskiy for a fairly good result on this second day. Let's have a look at the provisional result at the (combined) finish:
Durbridge next and as 11th in the first day's leg, he also wants to improve today. He's solid, but again not too special - finishing the second leg 24 seconds slower than Kritskiy:
+ 3 seconds behind Kritskiy at the finish then, provisional 2nd for the combined results!
Vlatos goes signfically faster, almost beating Kritskiy's best time of the day (2 seconds slower eventually):
new best time for the combined results though, 22 seconds ahead of Kritskiy!
Oliveira + 0.37 at the finish, behind Van Winden.. Gonzalez Salas + 1.22 at the finish, with a terrible second leg!
Fiedler can't be happy with his first day. He's signfically stronger on this second course though and beats Kritskiy's turn by more than 25 seconds:
now leading the provisional results at the finish by 47 seconds on Vlatos!
Viennet + 0.40 as provisional 2nd Bibby + 1.10 at the finish as provisional 4th
So both Viennet and Bibby not as good as on the first course, but solid enough to get a notable result eventually!
Yatsevich next, coming off a very strong first leg. He's again amongst the best of the day, though not as stunning as yesterday - finishing the day's performance about 50 seconds slower than Fiedler:
+ 35 seconds at the finish as 2nd, five seconds ahead of Viennet!
Howson and his fight for the podium. He had a very good first day, too, but can't repeat a similar strong performance on the second leg, which he finishes more than a minute slower than Fiedler:
+ 41 seconds at the finish as provisional 4th behind Fiedler, Yatsevich and Viennet..
Zmorka probably fighting to defend his 2nd place rather than attacking a dominating Phinney.. he's amongst the best of the day again, but easily slower than Fiedler on this day (losing almost 50 seconds in this leg):
+ 14 seconds at the finish, Fiedler stays in the lead! Zmorka 2nd, Yatsevich 3rd..
Phinney not only had a dominating first leg, he probably will know, that Zmorka didn't really put some pressure on him today. Fiedler making a nice jump today, but he had quite a disadvantage on Phinney at halftime.. let's keep it short, Phinney would also deliver in this second leg, where he even beats Fiedler's long lasting best time by 48 seconds eventually!
Phinney with an "easy" victory then! And he indeed completes the triple and becomes the first rider to win the Chrono des Herbiers three times. If his palmares already wasn't impressive enough, it should be now. This guy is just consistent as hell.
Fiedler podiums Herbiers for the first time, finishing a good 2nd thanks to a strong performance in the second leg. No chance against Phinney, but getting the result, that he might have aimed for.
The same goes for Zmorka, who completes the podium with a comfortable gap on the next rider:
Yatsevich and wildcard entry Viennet complete the Top-5 ahead of Howson, Vlatos, Kritskiy, a strong Bibby and Durbridge as 10th. Dillier, Paillot, Van Winden, Oliveira and Gesink rounds up the Top-15. Surely not the best result for Gesink, who had a terrible opening leg here. Fraile, Hepburn, a disappointing Kittel, Dempster and Gonzalez Salas inside the Top-20. Sütterlin with a poor result as 25th.
