The day has come in which all 18 teams of the Continental Tour have gathered in Vilnius to prove that they are the best at TTTs this season. 45,8 kilometers on a flat yet hilly terrain is between them and victory in this new edition on the calendar. Who will prevail?
As we've seen in yesterday's preview, a lot of teams have win conditions here and even more teams can fight for a top-3 spot. However, the bookies think that Andorra, Adastra and Banco de Bogoto have the highest chance to have their team on top of the (way too small) team podium today.
Starting off with Campari. They set the time to beat at 58'35. That means an average speed of around 46-48 kilometers an hour. It's a hilly profile, but I have a feeling that this time is easily beatable.
Indeed. One of the favourites, Adastra, set a time of 56'59! That's 1'35 faster than Campari. This will be the mark of all the teams that follow, but only time can tell how good this time was.
Next up is Telia. Certainly not one of the favourites, and it shows. They lose 1'43 behind Adastra and 8 seconds behind Campari.This should be motivating for the weaker teams still to come.
Such as Equinor. But they certainly couldn't surprise! +2'30 on Adastra meaning they may be a favourite for the red lantern fight. It feels as if the riders knew they wouldn't have a chance and took it easy today.
Oberfranken is another of the teams with less potential. They did go for it though, and finish +1'36, which means they lost one second to Campari! Of course there will still be a time correction, but it looks like they will have to settle with third for now.
Back to the race for the win then with Sauber! They had the same strength as Adastra on paper, but how about in the race? Well... They didn't even get close, honestly. +'43 puts them at second place, but they will have to fear quite a few other teams passing them.
It took a while before the next team appeared, which is Eddie Stobart. A bad sign usually, and indeed they finished 1'47 behind Adastra. Meaning they only left Equinor behind them.
Valio was a middle of the pack team on paper and indeed set such a time: +1'08 on Adastra which is third place for now. But it's only 25 seconds behind Sauber, meaning Sauber may have indeed set a poor time today.
Compal then... Ooh, so close to Sauber! 47 second behind Adastra, putting them in third place for now. But only 4 seconds behind Sauber.
DK Zalgiris interestinly finished with seven riders, showing either their depth or them taking it easy... What was it? Well they certainly didn't take it easy! +1'07 meaning they beat Valio by a second!
And after 10 teams have finished, it's time for an overview:
Banco do Bogota is a very good team when it comes to TTTs, but their biggest strength is that their time trialists know how to get over a hill, too. Which may prove to be decisive today. … But not decisive enough. They lose three seconds to Adastra! What a sigh of relief by Adastra's riders, but Bogota's once will probably look where they could've shaved off a tad more...
ENI-MOL was the worst team on paper and were simply forced to come here. Which shows in the time. +3'33 and thankfully a short flight home for their team.
Actually BNZ almost managed to pass them, catching this reporter off-guard! But with such a poor time from ENI-MOL BNZ's time can't be that good either. Indeed, +1'30 puts them right in the middle of the pack (whch is getting filled nicely!) in 7th.
Who's next? Ah, it's Rothaus? Can they challenge Adastra's time then? Mwoah... +'32 puts them nicely in third. Though Adastra probably didn't break a sweat here.
Swisslion was a favourite on paper and had three really good time trialists. Sadly, the other time trialists weren't as good, forcing them to slow down after the final checkpoint a bit. This means they went from second to third, 13 seconds behind Adastra, but still a decent result.
Three teams to go until Adastra can step up the podium! Unless a challenger approaches, of course. Costa Rica won't be one. +2'59 means only ENI-MOL finished behind them.
Top favourite Andorra is more dangerous though, and it shows: First at the first checkpoint, +'7 at the second.. Can they come back? No! +'12 means they have to be happy with third place. More was possible for this team.
GCN is the final team to finish. But their three national champions couldn't impress. Eight place with +'56 means they finished exactly as predicted.
Off to the podium ceremony, and we can see that only one rider of Adastra appeared. And perhaps rightfully so, they must be tired and this podium is way too small anyway. They started very early on and no one could beat their time. Grats!
Banco de Bogota came very close, but three seconds were the difference between first and second here. Andorra, Swisslion and Rothaus also enter the top 5. All of those teams were predicted to finish within the top 6.
Also predicted to end up up front was Sauber, but they only end up as sixth. Compal, GCN, DK Zalgiris and Valio complete the top 10.
And with that we conclude the coverage of the first edition of the “new” Vilnius GP! A very welcome to the CT calendar for sure. Until next year!
Vilnius GP
