Astana's Sergey Ivanov wins (Image credit: Chris Baldwin)
Astana had only two riders out of 180 in the Russian National Championship, but one of them won. Sergey Ivanov finished first in Krylatskoe event after 16 laps. It was the fifth national title for the 33 year-old. He also won in 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2005. His win comes after finishing seventh in the Amstel Gold Race, third in the Tour of Belgium and 11th in the Tour of Switzerland so far this season.
Each lap brought five short, but steep climbs, making for a challenging race. With the help of the new time trial champion and team-mate Vladimir Gusev, Ivanov managed to move up from groups in the back to the front of the race.
With 22km to go on the second to last lap, Ivanov, a former Tour de France stage winner (2001), attacked, and nobody followed. He built a 1'30" gap inside of one lap. After a solo ride he arrived first at the finish in Krylatskoe. Alexander Bazhenov finished second followed by Roman Klimov in third.
