Welcome for the time-trialing world championship. After the riders of the future yesterday, we’ll see the stars of today! First of them is the current champion and PT king Taylor Phinney. Zmorka and Yatsevitch should be the main outsiders.
Tenorio is the first with a decent chance on the road, and he takes the lead at half stage, 34 seconds faster than Fernandes. The others, including Choi or O. Goldstein, already are 1 minute behind. It’s worth to note than it’s raining and that the wind is at 20 km/h.
Zakarin doesn’t seem to be in the best of days: he loses 28 second on the first section. He’s even slower than Küng (+0’21).
It’s the same for Keizer (+0’24)
And even worse for Cattaneo (+0’38)
Kittel loses more than 1 minute. Cosnefroy 51 seconds.
Dunbar, on the other hand, is in the game: only 17 seconds slower than the Spaniard.
Howson also is on a bad day: he loses 1 minute.
At the end of the race, Tenorio finished in 1h02’49, 30 seconds faster than Küng. Zakarin couldn’t close the gap.
Rekita has a decent first half (+0’46).
At the finish line, it’s a sensation! Dunbar had a very good 2nd half, and he takes the hot seat with more than 30’’ on Tenorio!
The wind is not so strong anymore, which doesn’t seem to good as Benicius and the other Goldstein are already very far the head of the race.
Ganna (+0’26) can still believe in victory, but it will be hard for him.
8 riders still have to pass the first check, and a bit more than half the contenders have finished. Let’s have a look at the rankings.
Viennet won’t do better than in the TTT: he’s in the same time as his teammate Cosnefroy. Mullen, in the other hand, is 2nd! That’s one second faster than Dunbar. Can he be as good in the second half than his compatriot?
Not the same story for Zmorka. He loses 1 minute.
Only Phinney yet to pass.
And it’s 32’42! That’s 5 seconds fastest than Tenorio, 21 seconds than the Irish duo. Will he keep his advantage till the end?
Rekita finished 32 seconds behind Dunbar, he’s provisional 3rd.
No chance to win for Dilliez, who already lost 50’’ to Phinney on the first half. He’s provisional 5th though (+0’41).
Lammertink is 1 second slower.
Ganna takes provisional 2nd (+0’14). Strong 2nd part for the Italian specialist. Meanwhile Ireland truly is on fire. Mullen takes the hot seat, 7 seconds faster than Dunbar. And yeah. I did miss both the guys.
And Vlatos flies too! He’s 2nd, 4 seconds slower.
But guess who’s coming? Yes, it’s Phinney entering the last kilometer.
And he wins! What a victory for the world champion!
But. Wait. You might have noticed that there is somebody I didn’t mention. I wasn’t paying attention, but Phinney added to his domination by overcoming Zmorka on the road. What a sad day for the Ukrainian!
Phinney won’t care: he’s (again) the time-trial world champion!
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