Vladimir Gusev of Team Astana won the 39-kilometre Russian time trial, his third time to take a gold medal in the event. Second and third went to Timofey Kritskiy (Katyusha) and Vladimir Karpets (Caisse d'Epargne).

"I am very glad with this victory," the 25 year-old said in a team press release. "It is always an honour to wear the national jersey. I want to thank my team director and former Olympic Time Trial Champion Viatcheslav Ekimov for his advice today."

He know aims for the road race on Sunday. "I hope that we can return on Sunday from Russia with two national jerseys." (GB)

RISULTATI

1 Vladimir Gusev (Astana)        in           54.58
2 Timofey Kritskiy (Katyusha)   a             1.30
3 Vladimir Karpets (Caisse d'Epargne)   a     2.00





Astana had only two riders out of 180 in the Russian National Championship, but one of them one. Sergey Ivanov won the 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.

ORDINE D'ARRIVO

1 Sergey Ivanov (Astana)    in      5.03.23    
2 Alexander Bazhenov (Parkpre)  a     2.04
3 Roman Klimov (Katyusha)     a       2.06
4 Alexander Arekeev (Acqua E Sapone) a 2.21

 Ivanov campione di Russia

 Alexander Bozhilov secondo classificato