The continents' best TT beasts are lining up against each other: 4 teams contesting on a flat 55km parcours around Ponferrada, Spain.
Clear favorite should be Team Europe, with Coppel and Europe's Conti Champ Gesink as the power horses here. America and Asia with pretty similar strong line-ups, hoping for a special day to fight for the victory.
Spoiler
Europe was the first team on the road, crossing the first split with a time of 25'16" - obviously an indicator, of what to expect later on.
America crossing this split next, already trailing by 21 seconds!
Asia next, also with already quite a margin on the leading team from Europe: 31 seconds with 35km remaining!
Team Africa will need a very very special day to join the fight for the podium:
46 seconds down on Europe at the split, so already 15 seconds behind Asia as well..
Europe it's way to the second and final split: 55'22" and still looking strong on the road.
Have we already seen the winning team here?
America defends his second place so far, but despite Phinney pulling the strings hard, the guys are down by already 58 seconds at this second split!
Europe most likely sealed the deal, while America still holds on to an advantage over Asia: 7 seconds though ain't too much to be save.
No news at this point: Europe setting the winning time of 1h13'20" at the finish.
America 1'33" slower eventually, so losing quite some time on the final sector.. and here comes Team Asia:
1'17" behind Europe and therefore much faster than America in the end! Africa half a minute behind America as the expected 4th today.
Dominating performance by Coppel, Gesink, Kritskiy, Pluchkin, Taaramäe, Keizer, Tenorio and Spilak. Probably one of the best TTT line-ups we've seen for years - if not ever.
