Unsurprisingly, Jan Barta (Bora-Argon 18) made it four in a row at the Czech time trial championships. The time trial specialist beat former teammate Leopold König (Sky) by 45 seconds while Petr Vakoc (Etixx-QuickStep) was 1.44 behind in third.

During the last few seasons, Barta has established himself as one of the best time triallists in the world and the strong Czech even finished third in last year's Tour de France TT. Hence, he went into today's battle for the Czech title as the big favourite and he fully lived up to expectations.

Barta stopped the clock in 46.42 after having covered the 39km course in the Slovakian city of Zilina which was 45 seconds faster than the mark set by König who made his comeback after a testing Giro. Interestingly, Barta was just 5 seconds faster than Peter Sagan who won the Slovakian title on the same course.

Barta will try to make the double on Sunday in the road race championships where he faces tough competition from the likes of König, Vakoc and defending champion Zdenek Stybar.