Russians dominated this year's Duo Normand two man time trial, with Katusha's Nikolai Trusov and Artem Ovechkin winning in a time of 1:06:14 for the testing 54.3km course around Marigny, France.
Although the race was run in near perfect conditions, the two Russians were still 1:27 slower than Chris Boardman and Jens Voigt's record of 1:04:47, set in 1999. Had they beaten it, they would have collected a €3000 bonus - which will now jackpot to €4000 next year.
Second place went to Team Designa Køkken, a Danish team with a Russian twist as Sergey Firsanov paired with Latvian Aleksejs Saramotins to clock 1:08:33. Third went to Katusha's Continental team with Evgueni Popov and Alexander Porcev finishing in 1:08:46.
The Duo Normand is a rarity on the UCI calendar, as amateurs and recreational riders can test themselves against the professionals on the same course on the same day. Although it has to compete with high profile professional races such as the Vuelta a España, Tour of Britain and the upcoming world road championships, it still attracts well over 300 teams, competing in a range of categories from non-licenced riders to elite.
BikeRadar.com's Jeff Jones and Robin Coomber took part in the 'corporatif' category and clocked the winning time of 1:15:22, which was also good enough to break the category record by 33 seconds. A full report of their Duo Normand story will be posted on BikeRadar.com in the coming days.
| 1 | Nikolai Trusov (Rus) Katusha / Artem Ovechkin (Rus) Lokomotiv | 1:06:14 |
| 2 | Sergey Firsanov (Rus) Team Designa Kokken / Aleksejs Saramotins (Lat) Team Designa Kokken | 0:02:19 |
| 3 | Evgueni Popov (Rus) Katusha Continental Team / Alexander Porsev (Rus) Katusha Continental Team | 0:02:32 |
| 4 | Jens Erik Madsen (Den) Team Capinordic / Frederik Ericsson (Swe) Team Capinordic | 0:02:36 |
| 5 | Bas Stamsnijder (Ned) Van Vliet EBH Elshof / Ronan Van Zandbeek (Ned) Van Vliet EBH Elshof | 0:02:38 |
| 6 | David Veilleux (Can) Canadian National Team / Ryan Anderson (Can) Canadian National Team | 0:02:41 |
| 7 | Julien Fouchard (Fra) Cofidis / Christophe Kern (Fra) Cofidis | 0:03:45 |
| 8 | Andy Cappelle (Bel) Palmans - Cras / Dieter Cappelle (Bel) Palmans - Cras | 0:03:54 |
| 9 | Noan Lelarge (Fra) Bretagne - Schuller / Yann Pivois (Fra) Bretagne - Schuller | 0:04:05 |
| 10 | Nicolas Baldo (Fra) Continental Team Differdange / Sebastien Harbonnier (Fra) Continental Team Differdange | 0:04:13 |
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