Welcome to the Golden City, for the prologue of the 2022 Praha - Karlovy Vary - Praha! We're in beautiful Prague, whereof the historic centre is among the UNESCO World Heritage Sites - and it's definitely a fantastic stage for today's race!
Just 5km of flat roads, meaning about 5 minutes of full gas for the riders - and then we'll have a first stage winner and yellow jersey! If you have seen our race preview, you won't be surprised about the favorites list for this short time trial: Phinney, Ganna and Zmorka are the ones listed on top, followed by Yatsevich, Leung and Kemboi. And the bookies really like the final letters of the alphabet, as after "Z" and "Y" they also have 2x "V" and 2x "W" - Vlatos, Viennet, Wirtgen and Würtz. In Scrabble, you couldn't do much with those letters - but today they could be good for a win!
Before we dive into the finale of the race - we'll provide live coverage of the final two riders per team - let's look back on what has already happened today, as 138 have finished their race:
What happened so far
Very surprisingly, 4th starter Schäppi is still holding onto the lead! With a finishing time of 5'00", he had an amazing average speed of 60km/h - and he was heavily supported by a strong tailwind of about 33km/h.
The strength of the wind dropped to 24km/h after roughly the first round of starters, explaining why some big names weren't able to attack the best time today. The wind speed is back up now, so we can expect the winning time to be even below 5 minutes!
Some others may have failed today, but Greek ITT champion Vlatos clearly delivered! Although surprisingly not being able to beat Schäppi, he got closest so far and is on a good 2nd place, just 3" back.
And to the home crowd's big delight, Czech ITT champion Kukrle finished just an additional second behind and is currently 3rd! The fans definitely pushed him to a great provisional result!
Currently in 4th place is the very first starter in this race, Pszczolarski. The Pole finished with the same time as Kukrle, but the timekeepers see him a few fractions behind the local hero...
The latest top result comes from Eaton, who lost 5" to Schäppi, proving that strong times are still possible!
And in 6th place, we again have one of the first-round starters, with Weinstein. The German lost another second, being 6" down.
Larsen definitely can't be happy with his current 7th place, beaten by several usually slower prologue riders. He's also 6" behind the leading time.
The latter holds for R. Goldstein, too. 8th place for him, probably more or less as expected.
Way above expectations, however - and probably an even bigger surprise than Schäppi, is Swift in 9th place! The Brit lost 7", which is an excellent result for him!
Completely different feelings for Zmorka, who rounds off the provisional Top10. The Ukrainian TT champion is also 7" down - but for him that's definitely 7" too much!
After the images, let's take a look at the pure numbers - here are again the Top10, as well as some other stage or GC favorites who have already finished their race:
Praha
1.
Schäppi
5'00"
2.
Vlatos
+ 3"
3.
Kukrle
+ 4"
4.
Pszczolarski
+ 4"
5.
Eaton
+ 5"
6.
Weinstein
+ 6"
7.
Larsen
+ 6"
8.
R. Goldstein
+ 6"
9.
Swift
+ 7"
10.
Zmorka
+ 7"
11.
Wirtgen
+ 7"
12.
Dillier
+ 7"
13.
Viennet
+ 7"
22.
S. Lammertink
+ 12"
27.
Leung
+ 13"
51.
Yatsevich
+ 18"
57.
Sütterlin
+ 19"
66.
Mullen
+ 21"
71.
Howson
+ 22"
Most of the specialists could limit their damage to what's inside the expected range in a prologue, but those losing 10 or more seconds already to Vlatos as the top GC contender so far might have a hard time getting this time back later on!
But now, let's jump into the live action - we've got almost 50 riders left, and some of them should definitely be able to reshuffle the current Top10 positions!
LIVE +++ LIVE +++ LIVE
The first three riders of the second-last round weren't really interesting stage- or GC-wise, so we start our broadcast with Barbio, teammate of leader Schäppi. But the Portuguese isn't up to his task today:
5'24"
(80th, + 24")
Much stronger by Kiwi Bevin, who actually prefers longer time trials but does a good job today:
5'11"
(22nd, + 11")
And here we have a surprisingly good time! Dima almost matches Zmorka et al at 7", but in the end loses two seconds more:
5'09"
(15th, + 9")
Christian then proves that it wasn't just the wind, but a great performance by the Romanian before, as the Brit only gets an average time:
5'19"
(65th, + 19")
We now have several strong time triallists in a row, whereof Fraile is the first to finish his race. But it's a very disappointing showing by the Spaniard, almost as bad as the likes of Yatsevich or Sütterlin:
5'16"
(45th, + 16")
Next up is Los Pollos' final GC hope Keizer. After Sütterlin failed and Zmorka semi-delivered, all eyes are on him now - and he's very fast! On the final 1'000 meters, it even looks like he might crack the best time...
4'55" ... 4'56" ... 4'57" ... 4'58" ... 4'59" ... 5'00" ... 5'01" ... 5'02" ...
5'03"
(3rd, + 3")
The Dutchman matches Vlatos' time and slots into 3rd place! Although it's not the lead - and probably no stage win for the team - it's definitely a great performance, and one the team badly needed! Good job!
Dal Col is next - and it's going to be very close again!
4'58" ... 5'59" ... 5'00" ... 5'01" ... 5'02" ... 5'03" ...
5'04"
(5th, + 4")
The Italian ties local hero Kukrle's time - but given that the latter is local, well, Dal Col is ranked behind. Still a good stage for him!
Youngster Bissegger is next, and he's actually attacking his fellow countryman's time as well!
4'58" ... 5'59" ... 5'00" ... 5'01" ... 5'02" ... 5'03" ...
5'04"
(6th, + 4")
He posts the exact same time as Dal Col right before him, but loses some fractions more - provisional 6th place for the Jura GIANTS loanee, getting the best time of all U25 riders so far!
And all good things come in threes it seems, as Hepburn is our 3rd rider in a row with the same finishing time:
5'04"
(7th, + 4")
However, he's ranked last of this trio - we now have five riders at 4" of the lead (with Pszczolarski in 8th place being the lowest ranked of them).
The remaining riders of round 7 didn't get any notable results - and weren't expected to do so, either - so we'll move on to the final rider per team! Neither Kulppi nor Bagioli did anything worth talking about, though, so we move ahead to Atkins!
He does get pretty close to the leading time, but not quite as close as those before him:
5'08"
(18th, + 8")
After Bohli wasn't able to really contribute to his team's result, it's now Van Baarle's turn - but he's got some troubles with his visor! After the stage started in sunny weather, it's now raining - let's hope that this won't hinder the top contenders!
Whether it's the weather, the visor issues or just not the best day - the Dutchman posts a decent time, but doesn't manage to fight for the top spots:
5'10"
(26th, + 10")
We need to apologize for having missed out on Lo Cicero, who did a good job losing just 9" (20th place)!
Instead, our cameras are following the Slovenian super-talent Pogacar - and given the pan-flat nature of the course, he does a decent job:
5'12"
(34th, + 12")
Given that he matched S. Lammertink's time, it's actually a very good job, not just a decent one!
One might wonder why Foss is racing here - but he's likely hoping for the long TT to be very selective due to the ups and downs. Today, it's "down" for him, as he neither likes short TTs nor flat roads:
5'39"
(147th, + 39")
Manninen isn't a top stage contender, but the sprinter will want to lose as little time as possible, to have the option of taking over the leader's jersey tomorrow. Right now, the Finn is just inside the target 20" margin - let's see if that still stands in the end. Certainly not his best prologue result ever.
5'17"
(62nd, + 17")
The goals are very different for Ganna - he will target stages 1 and 3, meaning he wants to fight for the win today! And he does indeed:
4'57" ... 4'58" ... 4'59" ... 5'00" ... 5'01" ... 5'02" ...
5'03"
(4th, + 3")
He's the 3rd rider to stop the clock three seconds later than Schäppi - but this is only worth 4th place currently. Still, he matches Vlatos' and Keizer's time for the best GC favorite position!
But here comes one of the top contenders for the overall standings! Würtz is approaching... slowly!?! What has happened to the Dane? He seems to have cracked on the final meters, ending up posting a completely underwhelming time!
5'23"
(102nd, + 23")
It's not even a Top100 stage result for one of the main contenders - shocking! We can only wonder and hope for him to have a lot better legs in two days! Wow...
And we definitely can't blame it on the wind, that admittedly has again weakened a bit - but Ewan shows that strong times - very strong times for someone with his skills - are still possible:
5'07"
(17th, + 7")
A good performance by him, which should likely be enough to stay within the ominous 20" margin.
Kemboi has already won a prologue this year, he doesn't want to wait for tomorrow's sprint stage to get the leader's jersey! And it's looking good for him again:
4'57" ... 4'58" ... 4'59" ... 5'00" ... 5'01" ... 5'02" ... 5'03" ...
5'04"
(9th, + 4")
In the end, he didn't quite have enough left - and on top of that is unfortunate to join the 4" group in second to last place! Still, with a good sprint tomorrow, yellow should be in reach - and green definitely could be an option given that he'll score some points today with only 3 riders left!
The first one of the remaining trio is yet another sprinter with Groenewegen. He's not quite as strong as some others in prologues - and that shows:
5'15"
(55th, + 15")
Depending on the winning time, he might or might not be able to take the lead on bonus seconds tomorrow. And the winning time should be posted by the next rider...
And here he is! TT World Champion Phinney is powering towards the finish line, he's fast, he's dynamic - really? Wait... No, that can't be, those clocks must be wrong! They tell us that the American doesn't win today - by quite a big margin even!
5'13"
(45th, + 13")
13 seconds! Just like Würtz, he's really underwhelming today - and everyone is shaking their head. What has just happened here? But well, let's wait for the final rider before asking some more questions...
Coquard is looking clearly faster than the American before - could the last rider on the road snatch the surprise win away from Schäppi?
4'57" ... 4'58" ... 4'59" ... 5'00" ... 5'01" ... 5'02" ... 5'03" ...
5'04"
(10th, + 4")
No, he can't! Coquard is the 7th rider to join the 4" clique - being 6th among them. A good result for him as well, but as some others - and especially Pszczolarski (11th) - he'll regret that the fractions weren't on his side today.
But that's it! The stage has come to an end - and we clearly have to digest some very negative surprises! On top of them is obviously Würtz, who posted the worst time of all top GC contenders - but also Phinney, who on paper is the fastest man against the clock on such short courses, and who will have to live with some handicap for now!
On the other hand, we obviously also have some winners - and especially one, the winner of this prologue, the first wearer of the yellow and green jerseys!
And here is Martin Schäppi, ladies and gentlemen! The Swiss outsider was the fourth rider to start the race - and his best time unexpectedly stood until the very end, bringing him and Team UBS a great win!
Panagiotis Vlatos, Martijn Keizer and Filippo Ganna all lost 3" today and took 2nd to 4th place - given how close the race was behind them, that 3" margin is actually a big gap! And for all three of them, it's a great start to their GC mission - this story will be continued in two days.
Martin Schäppi obviously also takes the first yellow jersey, with the GC looking exactly the same as the stage result. He probably won't stay in yellow for more than one day, with most sprinters having lost less than 20" today.
And he likely won't be the team's main GC option, with Dillier being just 7" behind and supposedly much stronger in the long stage against the clock. All the top TT specialists lost between 3" and 23" today - this 20" gap sounds like nothing, but we'll see in the end if those couple of seconds actually make a difference!
Appearance number 3 on the podium for Martin Schäppi, who also takes the first green jersey - which will be worn by Vlatos tomorrow.
The latter might also fancy his chances to be the final winner of this shirt, given that he's got another stage where he should be able to score well. The same holds for Ganna and maybe Keizer as well.
On the other hand, the sprinters will also have two stages where they could potentially get big points - while all of them could win both stages and get 50 points in total, Kemboi and Coquard have a slight head start over the rest due to their Top10 results today.
The reporter has to admit that he really, really enjoys this moment - "his" rider Stefan Bissegger putting on the white jersey for the best U25 rider of the day! It looks like he's already been learning a lot from his stay at Team Puma - SAP - way to go, Stefan!
On paper, the jersey should have gone to Niklas Larsen, but he lost 2" today. Emil Dima is currently 3rd thanks to his truly surprising performance - he's 5" back.
Last but not least, we again welcome Team Puma - SAP on stage, as they scored the best team result today! Ganna (4th), Bissegger (7th) and Weinstein (13th) were 3" faster than the Top3 riders of Team UBS. ELCO - ABEA trail by 4" - but stage 3 will clearly be the decisive stage for the team standings!
That's it from an interesting and somewhat surprising prologue here in Praha! We hope you enjoyed the broadcast, and we're looking forward to seeing you again tomorrow for the transition stage to Karlovy Vary!
Praha - Karlovy Vary - Praha 
