Welcome to the 2022 Chrono de Herbiers. Phinney hopes to take revenge for Würtz snatching the title from him last year.
These two top the favorites along with the other outstanding TT rider, Zmorka and last year’s 3rd place, Yatsevich
The first top rider on the course in the first leg is Vlatos but he settles for second at the finish, 1 second so far behind Kiwi Champion Sergent.
Mano is the next threat on the course, he was 11 seconds better than Vlatos and 12 seconds better than Sergent at the 2nd time check. Mano holds it to the end and takes the lead by 17 seconds knocking Oliveira out of the hot seat (Olivera briefly held the lead after beating Sergent by 2 seconds)
Next Viennet comes close, he finishes the first leg 3 seconds down on Mano.
But behind him Zmorka finishes as the new leader by an impressive 29 seconds.
Zakarin is next on the course and takes over 2nd, 25 seconds down.
He is immediately beaten by Tanfield who is just 18 seconds slower than Zmorka.
It takes a while for the next strong time, it comes from Howson, he is just 3 seconds off the lead.
Leung puts in a good time, 15 seconds down, new third.
Zmorka’s teammate Sütterlin also does well, 22 seconds down 5th.
Hepburn takes 6th 25 seconds down.
Coppel has won this race twice. A third one probably isn’t on the cards. But nobody told him that – he takes over the lead 8 seconds ahead of Zmorka.
Two-thirds of the riders have gone now. The top 25 so far are:
The next rider to threaten the top times is Viviani. He was only 10 seconds behind Zmorka at the 2nd check and 13 seconds ahead of Coppel, but the latter made up an incredible 31 seconds in the last third versus Zmorka. Viviani can’t repeat that, he ends in 6th, 29 seconds down.
Lammertink is the next big name on the course. But poor ride for him 14th, +0’47
Even weaker times from Mullen (+1’39, 40th) and Dillier (+1’23, 36th)
Russian Champion Yatsevich does better, he is the new 4th, +0’21.
Behind him Wirtgen set the new best time at the 2nd check. And he holds that to the end, he is the new leader by 23 seconds.
Next is Ganna. Not great from him, +1’02, 13th.
Just Würtz, Phinney, and then Cattaneo left on the course now, in that order. And the Italian didn’t start last.
Würtz was 3 seconds down on Wirtgen at the 2nd check. He finds 4 seconds and takes over the hot seat.
Phinney next, he was on the same time as Wirtgen at the 2nd time check. He smokes the last segment and finishes 11 seconds ahead of Würtz.
The Italian Champion is the last to finish, 50th for him +2’29. Very much outdone by his veteran teammate.
So Phinney and Würtz deliver the expected 1-2 in the first leg. Advantage to Phinney. 11 seconds is a good gap but certainly not insurmountable.
Standings after the first leg
Spoiler
1
Taylor Phinney
Isostar - Specialized
1h00'45
2
Mads Würtz
Grieg-Maersk
+ 12
3
Tom Wirtgen
EA Vesuvio
+ 13
4
Jerome Coppel
Minions - Subwoolfer
+ 37
5
Marlen Zmorka
Los Pollos Hermanos
+ 45
6
Damien Howson
Duolingo
+ 49
7
Kiril Yatsevich
Tinkoff - La Datcha Team
+ 59
8
Chun Wing Leung
King Power
+ 1'01
9
Harry Tanfield
EA Vesuvio
+ 1'04
10
Elia Viviani
cycleYorkshire
+ 1'07
11
Jasha Sütterlin
Los Pollos Hermanos
+ 1'08
12
Michael Hepburn
EA Vesuvio
+ 1'11
13
Aydar Zakarin
Tinkoff - La Datcha Team
s.t.
14
Yuttana Mano
King Power
+ 1'15
15
Filippo Ganna
Team Puma - SAP
+ 1'16
16
Emilien Viennet
Polar
+ 1'18
17
Michal Kukrle
Moser - Sygic
+ 1'21
18
Lucas Schädlich
Aegon - Peroni
+ 1'23
19
Steven Lammertink
Aker - MOT
+ 1'25
20
Dylan Van Baarle
King Power
+ 1'26
21
Alexys Brunel
Team Puma - SAP
+ 1'27
22
Shaun Nick Bester
Isostar - Specialized
s.t.
23
Nikita Razumov
Duolingo
+ 1'28
24
Ethan Hayter
cycleYorkshire
s.t.
25
Truls Engen Korsaeth
Grieg-Maersk
+ 1'30
26
Ivo Oliveira
cycleYorkshire
s.t.
27
Nils Politt
Team Puma - SAP
s.t.
28
Jesse Sergent
Aegon - Peroni
+ 1'32
29
Panagiotis Vlatos
ELCO - ABEA
+ 1'33
30
Anton Vorobev
Tinkoff - La Datcha Team
+ 1'36
31
Daniil Fominykh
Team UBS
s.t.
32
Nikolaos Ioannidis
ELCO - ABEA
+ 1'39
33
Martijn Keizer
Los Pollos Hermanos
+ 1'41
34
Omer Goldstein
Huski Chocolate
+ 1'46
35
Daniel Turek
Moser - Sygic
s.t.
36
Stef Krul
Polar
+ 1'47
37
Phan Age Haugard
Team UBS
+ 1'48
38
Jack Haig
Amaysim Cervelo
+ 1'49
39
Andreas Hofer
Aker - MOT
+ 1'50
40
Alexandor Cataford
De Stijl Cycling
+ 1'55
41
Brendan Canty
Amaysim Cervelo
+ 1'58
42
Josh Atkins
Moser - Sygic
+ 2'00
43
Silvan Dillier
Team UBS
+ 2'01
44
Tim Dees
Gazelle
+ 2'04
45
Mathias Norsgaard
Grieg-Maersk
+ 2'08
46
Carlos Verona
Zwift Pro Cycling
+ 2'16
47
Ryan Mullen
Polar
+ 2'17
48
Giorgi Nareklishvili
Aker - MOT
+ 2'21
49
Mushin Misbah
De Stijl Cycling
+ 2'27
50
Mattia Cattaneo
Minions - Subwoolfer
+ 2'30
51
Rasmus Quaade
Duolingo
+ 2'33
52
Sulkhan Akhmaevi
MOL Cycling Team
+ 2'41
53
Wojciech Pszczolarski
Evonik - ELKO
+ 2'51
54
Diego Agustin Ferreyra
ISA - Hexacta
+ 2'54
55
Eduardo Sepulveda
ISA - Hexacta
+ 3'00
56
Akil Campbell
Zwift Pro Cycling
+ 3'02
57
Jake Marryatt
MOL Cycling Team
+ 3'05
58
Andreas Leknessund
Gazelle
+ 3'14
59
Alex Wohler
Amaysim Cervelo
s.t.
60
Frederico Figueiredo
Gazelle
+ 3'20
61
Jean Bosco Nsengimana
ELCO - ABEA
s.t.
62
Hasani Hennis
Isostar - Specialized
+ 3'21
63
Edoardo Affini
De Stijl Cycling
+ 3'33
64
Karol Andrzej Domagalski
MOL Cycling Team
+ 3'46
65
Nicholas Dlamini
ISA - Hexacta
+ 3'52
66
Emil Dima
Huski Chocolate
+ 3'58
67
Alexander Evans
Huski Chocolate
+ 4'22
68
Carter Jones
Zwift Pro Cycling
+ 4'42
69
Alekss Krasts
Evonik - ELKO
+ 5'11
70
Jaako Hänninen
Evonik - ELKO
+ 7'33
71
Itamar Einhorn
Aegon - Peroni
+ 9'02
72
Jan Stöckli
Minions - Subwoolfer
+ 9'04
The top 6 riders in the first leg were separated by 49 seconds, from 7th to to 39th were separated by 51 seconds, so look for a lot of movement in the top 20 range.
Leknessund, 58th in leg 1, puts up the best marker early 1’02’31, would have been good for around 30th in leg 1.
Cattaneo, who had a disaster yesterday beats that by over a minute, 1’01’19. That is almost in the top 5 yesterday. Minions might be hoping this was a best-ball format after Coppel was their top 5 guy yesterday.
Mullen, who also struggled yesterday gets within 7 seconds of Cattaneo
But the times might be just running faster this leg as first Goldstein (-0’10) then Keizer (-0’19) and finally Vlatos all go faster. Vlatos new best time of 1’00’48 is 31 second better than Catteneo and only 3 seconds off Phinney’s winning time in leg 1.
But that is it for the top times for a while and with 52 riders done and 20 riders to go the leaderboard looks like this.
Vlatos also has the virtual GC lead.
Nobody comes close to the leg or race lead until 16th placed Viennet passes the 2nd check just 23 seconds down on the Greek, he was 15 seconds ahead of him to start the day.
But he can’t make up any time and loses another 6 seconds. He does take over virtual second from Keizer.
Ganna is next, he will be looking to improve on his 15th in the first leg. He loses 23 seconds to Vlatos, he is the new 2nd on virtual GC, 6 seconds behind Vlatos.
Mano is next on the course and is already 1’15 down at the 2nd check, he will be losing some spots in the GC.
Zakarin does a little better losing 49 seconds on the leg, but not a threat on the overall as he started the day just 22 seconds ahead of the Vlatos. Hepburn loses has a similar time +51. Then Sütterlin comes a lot closer, he loses 37 seconds, he did 25 seconds better than Vlatos yesterday. He is the new virtual 3rd.
Tanfield (+0’45) and Viviani (+1’34) were 9th and 10th yesterday. Tanfield’s time is solid, virtual 4th, he has a shot at staying in the top 10. Viviani does not.
Leung put in a nice time yesterday to sit 8th at the start of the day. He won’t be there at the end of the day +2’20 for him. Poor second leg for King Power.
7th on leg one was Yatsevich. He loses 42 seconds to Vlatos. He is virtual 3rd now, behind Vlatos and Ganna ahead of Sütterlin and Tanfield.
There was a 10 second gap between Yatsevich and Howson in 6th on the first leg. So now we are into riders who would expect to hold off Vlatos with a solid time. Howson had a cushion of 44 seconds on the ELCO rider.
That is Zmorka, the next starter, just behind him in the picture. So you can tell it didn’t go well for the Duolingo star. He loses 1’57.
On the other hand it is much better news for Zmorka. He not only catches his two-minute man but he puts 18 seconds into Vlatos on the leg, adding to his 48 seconds from the first leg. He leads the virtual GC by 1'06.
Next to finish is Wirtgen, 3rd yesterday. (Which isn’t good news for 4th place yesterday Coppel)
Wirtgen finishes 8th on the day, 54 seconds behind Zmorka. Unfortunately for him he only had 32 seconds to lose to the Ukranian. His time is good enough to hold off Vlatos though, Wirtgen slots into 2nd on the virtual GC, Vlatos down to 3rd.
Coppel is not too far behind but he cannot repeat his glorious ride from yesterday and loses a massive 3’24. He will drop down to 37th at the end of the day. Still a great first leg brought the veteran superstar one more moment of glory.
Just behind him is Würtz. He was 33 seconds ahead of the Zmorka at the start of the day and had added 17 seconds to that at the 2nd check.
Würtz almost beats the 1-hour marker – 1’00’03, that is 25 seconds better than Zmorka today and 42 seconds better than Phinney’s first leg winning time. He is the new virtual GC leader.
That leaves just Phinney on the course. With Würtz only 12 seconds behind after Leg 1 Phinney needs to beat his own time from yesterday by 30 seconds to reclaim his title.
And Chrono des Herbiers has a new king - Mads Würtz. After an outstanding 2nd leg today, he now needs just 3 more consecutive titles to match his rival.
For Phinney a painful second leg, he loses 51 seconds (4th best on the leg) and finishes 40 seconds behind Würtz in the GC. The consolation is that it is good enough to hold on to 2nd ahead of Zmorka. Los Pollos will be happy with 3rd and and 3 riders in the top 11.
Two solid rides give Wirtgen 4th and Vlatos uses a great 2nd leg to move up from 29th after leg 1 to 5th overall.
Chrono des Herbiers 
