We’re on for the PT TT festival! It’s 48 km of flat roads in Vendée, France. Though Würtz might look to add another victory here for Grieg – that would be his personal 4th! - Wirtgen has trained and is now here to spoil the fun.
Cosnefroy is probably the first significant time-trialist up the road. And he indeed takes the lead in the intermediates, and, in the end, the hot seat: 55’53.
But Zakarin is better at all the intermediates and soon dislodges him (55’39).
Brunel is slower than them (55’54), while the English champion, Hayter slots in provisional 2nd (55’52).
Leung is slightly faster : 55’52.
Vlatos is the first rider to menace Zakarin in a while. And indeed he finishes in the same time.
20 riders have finished already. Let’s have a look at the classification.
Tanfield maybe won’t beat his leader, yet to come on the rad, but he leads the provisional classification by a tiny margin : 55’38
Kukrle is 12 seconds slower : 55’50.
The Russian Champion, Yatsevich is now under the camera, and he seems determined to take back the lead for Tinkoff. He does that : 55’37.
Bissegger loses 15 seconds : 55’52.
In the absence of significant climbing, Powless probably doesn’t expect too much. 55’51 is his time.
It’s the same time for Christodoulos.
And as the teams leader will soon come on the road, we can have another look at the provisional classification.
Bernal is having a stellar season, and he smashes the best time : 55’24. What a rider !
Coming right after is Gonzalez Salas who takes 2 more seconds : 55’22.
Will that hold against the German champion time-trial abilities ? No ! Sütterlin is a bit faster : 55’21.
Ganna is doing rather well in the 2nd part of the race, to take provisional 3rd, 55’22.
Mano slots a time in this area too : 55’24.
Same story for Lammertink.
Mullen comes now, ahead of the 5 stars. With a very good time of 55’09 he takes the hot seat, but probably has better not get too comfortable.
Phinney is a legend of this race, but age begins to catch up. Still, he beats Mullen : 55’07.
Zmorka is obviously one of the best time-trialist of the world, and he’s the first under 55 minutes : 54’54.
The world champion, Würtz, follows and bests that : 54’41.
But there’s no beating Wirtgen today. 54’28 is a very good time, the Luxembourger takes the win without contest.
