We're off in the 2018 Tour de l'Avenir in the beautiful city of Liege in Belgium. Today's stage is a short 6 km Time Trial to get the peloton warmed for the eight days coming up after this. Having said that, the the stage looks to be a close fought affair, behind Kemboi that is, if the bookies are to be believed.
Yamamoto With the first competitive time of he the day, 7'21".
Van Niekerk blows it away with a time of 7'12".
Zhao goes 2nd, 5 seconds in arrears.
Scotson now 2nd, 3 seconds behind Van Niekerk.
Maccagli matches Zhao's time.
Ganna would've been hoping for better. 7th for the moment, 10 seconds down.
Hanninen with a good ride to go 5th for the time being.
Cosnefroy is another rider who's off the pace by 5 seconds. A lot of tie-breaking needs to be done at the end of this stage!
Dulanjana goes 3rd at 4 seconds deficit.
Wirtgen with a disappointing run. He 22 seconds off the pace.
Cavagna with a good run. He crosses the line to go 3rd.
Gidich is 8th, 8 seconds down.
Per is now 9th, losing 9 seconds on the leader.
van der Poel showing his class to perform better than his billing and move into 6th place for now.
Oh Oomen! A stomping run to tie Van Niekerk at 7'12". Who get's the higher position though? And will last man riding be able to beat them?
The surprising answer is no! Kemboi with a poor ride. being a whole 10 second slower than the best time. 15th place is a huge disappointment for the Sri Lankan after this stage.
The judges have ruled and it's Oomen who's the winner. The main challenger to Ranaweera lays down the gauntlet early in this year's Tour de l'Avenir.
Today's winner - Sam Oomen.
Puma lead the Teams standings after the first stage and Oomen leads everything else.
