The World Championship Team Time Trial is contested on a 54km course featuring 5 cobbled sections, all ranked 3 stars.
The stage favorites show up as:
The Norwegians lead things off
Defending champions Russia tackle the first cobbled section, a nasty uphill stretch lasting 1 km.
The opening 12km’s are all uphill including that 1km stretch of cobbles so look for the climbing oriented teams to thrive in this section.
The Norwegians set the first time at 28’16. Now they have about 20km of downhill and flat to the second time check before another 20km of up and down to the finish. This middle section includes 2 more cobbled sectors with the final 2 in the last 20km.
The Swiss are the next team through and they are 58 seconds ahead of the Norwegians.
The French are next with Sicard leading. And they put in what seems like a strong time, 1’05 ahead of the Swiss.
Slovenia come through next, 59 seconds behind France, just ahead of the Swiss, they are followed by Denmark who are well off the pace, 2’20 behind France. Then the defending champions who lose 1’20 to France, good for 4th.
Meanwhile the French have reached the next cobbled section, which is flat but almost 2km in length. The third sector is also flat, and long, at 2.3km. Mostly weak cobbled riders in the French squad so it will be interesting to see how the long cobbled sectors impact them.
At the first time check, Australia, another of the favorites crosses 1’31 down on France.
Across next is Eritrea and they slot into 3rd one minute down on the French. The US cross next and they are not only the first team to come close to the French but the first to beat them. By 6 seconds.
Spain do even better and have 18 seconds on the US. The first two teams have crossed the second check point and the Swiss still lead the Norwegians by 1 minute, almost no change from time check 1.
Portugal pass the first time check 32 seconds behind Spain, good for 4th place.
France pass the 2nd time check and again take the lead by 1’16 over Switzerland. Very little change from their lead at the first check. So far the teams are evenly matched on the second sector.
The French will soon reach the 4th cobbled sector, 1.1 km uphill.
Belgium (10th) and Italy (5th) pass the first time check without threatening the lead. Colombia slot into 4th 28 seconds behind Spain. Ukraine are next and take 10th.
Slovenia, Denmark and Russia have all passed the second check and the gaps are all relatively similar to the first check. The middle section isn't really impacting the gaps.
Spain, the current leaders at the first time check are about to start the third sector of cobbles, the longest on the course. Their best cobbled rider is very weak, maybe this section will impact them.
Australia continue the pattern of no change at the 2nd time check, they are mid-table. New Zealand crosses the first time check in last, over 3 minutes behind Spain.
The USA crosses the seconds time check 9 seconds ahead of France, versus 6 seconds at the first check. So far, they are evenly matched.
Ahead of them were Eritrea, they suffered for their weaker TT skills and lost 30 seconds to the USA in the middle sector. They are in 7th at the second time check.
Ireland cross the first check in 14th, the Netherlands, 2018 Bronze medalists, are in 5th 31 seconds down on Spain.
Spain cross the 2nd check, they lose 4 seconds to the USA and lead by 14 seconds, so only minor losses and the remaining course is a lot of climbing where Spain were strong earlier. The first 12k took them 25’46 the next 20km took just 22’16.
Portugal lose a little time versus the other contenders on the 2nd section and are now 43 seconds back, 11 seconds worse against Spain but still good for 4th at the second time check.
Great Britain cross the first-time check in 7th. Next up are the favorites, Germany, their young superstar Herklotz leads them across but the time is not competitive, they are 2’17 down in 17th place. They have some great TT riders but they are weak climbers. Perhaps they can do better on the 2nd section. Clearly this TT is favoring the climbers.
Colombia, more climber oriented, lose 24 seconds to Spain on the middle section which is where the strong TT guys thrive. They are now 52 seconds behind in 5th. Italy crossed before them and lost 7 seconds on Spain and are in 6th.
Austria (9th) and Japan (20th) cross the first time check. They are followed by Poland (10th), the last team on the road.
The final standings at the first check are:
1. Spain 25’46
2. USA +0’18
3. France +0’24
4. Colombia +0,28
5. Netherlands +0’31
Portugal are a close 6th at 32 seconds but then there is a bigger gap back to Great Britain in 7th.
At the finish Norway is the first team to finish. They have a total time of 1’25’48, Meaning the last third section them 35’46, making it the hardest section of the race. Time gaps could definitely change.
France have reached the final cobbled section, it is a nasty 800 meters up hill. They are catching dropped riders from the teams in front and Mottin has just been dropped reducing them to 7.
Switzerland finish 1’03 ahead of Norway, pretty much the same gap as at the first time check.
Paillot has also been dropped but France have 6 riders as the charge towards the line.
And France finish with a 1’36 lead over Switzerland, meaning they gained 19 seconds in the final third of the course. They will need Spain to fade if they are going to win.
The Netherlands have moved up to 4th at the second time check but but lost 2 second to Spain and are 33 seconds behind.
South Africa rode a great 2nd section gaining a second on Spain and moving from 15th up to 10th. Only Great Britain is left to cross the 2nd time check among teams within a minute at the first-time check.
Slovenia meanwhile has finished and suffered a disastrous last third going from 58 seconds behind France at the 2nd time check to 2’25 at the finish. So big losses are possible.
We have a traffic jam in the final cobbled sector as the USA catch Eritrea and Australia. But Spain are right on their tales. The gradients are over 12% so the gaps can be misleading.
Great Britain pass the 2nd time check 51 seconds behind good enough for 6th. There are still a number of teams to cross the second check but none of them are threats to the top 5. The top 5 at that time check are:
1. Spain 25’46
2. USA +0’14
3. France +0’23
4. Netherlands +0’33
5. Portugal +0’43
Colombia are back to 7th with Italy 8th.
Now the focus is all on the finish.
At the top of the picture is Eritrea. Their climbers excelled in the last 3rd and they go from 1’20 behind France to just 1’00. Coming across just behind them are the USA and Australia. Australia are well out of it because they only have 4 riders together. But the US are 1’00 ahead of France, meaning they gained 51 seconds. The strongest teams in the first section seem to be getting strong.
But the US can’t celebrate because right behind them are Spain.
Crossing the line we have:
Mikel Iturria
Justo Tenorio
Angel Madrazo
Ion Izagirre
David De la Cruz
Omar Fraile
And their time is 1’19’44, which puts them 2’18 seconds ahead of the US. They gained over 2 minutes on the US and 3 minutes on France in the last third of the race, and those two teams were closest to them at the 2nd time check. We still have 14 teams out on the course but it seems very likely that Spain will be the 2019 World TT champions.
Australia finish in 10th with major losses in the last section. Portugal feature a strong climbing team and bring 6 riders to the line.
But they can only manage 4th gaining a few seconds on France.
Duarte crosses 6th for Colombia just behind his teammates. But their excellent climbing squad have made up over a minute on France to snatch 3rd. Dropping the French off the podium and Portugal to 5th.
Italy take 6th, Ukraine 8th among the teams that have finished. South Africa continue strongly and take 9th. It seems France went poorly in the last section as now the Netherlands pass them as well. The Netherlands almost catch the USA for second and are strong enough to hold off Colombia by 15 seconds. This means they now have the final podium spot.
Great Britain fade in the last section and drop to 8th behind Italy and ahead of Eritrea. But Austria gain 40 seconds on them in the last third to take away that slot. Germany finish 20th, not a day for their pure TT riders. And Poland finish the day with an excellent last third snatching 8th from Austria who drop to 9th with Great Britain in 10th.
So Spain are World TTT champions. USA Silver. Nice work by their selectors. Netherland secure consecutive bronze medals.
