Welcome to Vilnius for the Continental Tour’s one and only TTT classic. Glanbia Foods, Adastra - Hell Energy and Euskaltel - Elior are officially the favourites, though home team DK Zalgiris will fancy their chances after finishing 5th in the PCT’s Monterrey TTT last month.
Our first starters today are CYBEX Platinum. They set a time of 29’38 at halfway, and finish in 52’56 to set the early benchmark.
Next across the line are BNZ. They won’t challenge CYBEX Platinum, being 32 seconds down at the first checkpoint and losing 1’08 by the finish.
They are almost caught by one of the day’s big favourites in Adastra - Hell Energy. 29’21 at the checkpoint is a new best time, and they finish strongly in 52’15, 40 seconds up on CYBEX Platinum.
Azteca - NBCSN are 7 seconds down on Adastra - Hell Energy at the intermediate timecheck, and they can’t make it up by the finish - slotting into provisional second, 19 seconds down.
Eddie Stobart don’t have the best ride - 37 seconds down at midway, and 1’48 down at the finish (the same time as BNZ), with Ruiz dropped en route.
Tryg Insurance have a relatively unspectacular ride today. They lose 35 seconds by the time check, and finish 1’20 down on Adastra - Hell Energy.
The next team on the course are Euskaltel - Elior, and they are absolutely flying! 11 seconds up on Adastra - Hell Energy at the intermediate checkpoint (29’09), and while they lose time towards the end they still cross the line as provisional leaders in a time of 52’08.
Bianchi - Campagnolo are one of the weaker performers on the day - +1’18 at halfway, and 2’40 down at the finish.
NENT p/b Hootsuite also end up near the bottom of the rankings. 1’03 down at the intermediate, and 2’17 down at the finish.
They are almost caught by Netia - Vonin, who slot into a provisional 5th place, 1’17 down after losing 42 seconds in the first half of their ride.
Equinor find themselves in a provisional last place, losing 1’35 to Euskaltel - Elior by the intermediate, and 3’13 at the finish.
Their ride is so poor that they are almost caught by a Centovalli - Fiat team that itself wasn’t all that quick - 48 seconds down at halfway, 1’31 down at the finish.
GCN put together a decent enough ride, losing 23 seconds by the time check and another 13 by the finish, slotting into provisional 4th (+36) - though losing Lejman in the process.
However, we have a surprise time setting a new fastest time at the intermediate check. OMV Petrom - Albania come through it 23 seconds quicker than Euskaltel - Elior (28’46), and they grow their lead to 32 seconds at the finish (51’36) to put themselves in the box seat.
Home favourites DK Zalgiris have a solid start to their ride, coming through 27 seconds behind OMV Petrom - Albania at the midway point. A strong finish puts them into provisional 3rd (+35) at the finish.
McCormick have a so-so ride, losing 46 seconds at the checkpoint, and finish 1’09 down - provisional 7th for them.
The last team through are Glanbia Foods, can they spoil OMV Petrom - Albania’s party? They’re only 7 seconds down from them at the timecheck, but disaster strikes as their team splinters in the final kilometres. They recover to cross the line together, but it costs them a likely win - +8 at the finish, so OMV Petrom - Albania take the victory, with Euskaltel - Elior completing the podium!
