National Championships - Segaert wins first Belgian time trial crown; Dramatic narrow victories in Germany, Portugal and Denmark races

The National Championships stories continued on Thursday afternoon as Belgium's individual time trials took centre stage. There was a first win for Alec Segaert in the men's while Lotte Claes upset the odds in the women's.

Bahrian Victorious rider Segaert, a prolific time trial rider, edged Tim Wellens to take the gold medal and win his first elite national title. Claes too took a major win, unseating Lotte Kopecky's dominance of the championships as the SD Worx - ProTime rider missed out on the podium.

In other countries, there were even closer calls. Nils Politt sealed the German champion's jersey for his Tour de France team time trial outing next weekend, beating Max Walscheild by a mere second. In Portugal, Antonio Morgado beat Rafael Reis by a second as well.

Things got even closer in Denmark as Kristian Egholm took a big win over Mikkel Bjerg - with just 0.38 of a second dividing the pair over a 29.2 kilometer test. The Canadian time trial saw Derek Gee-West take his third national title on Wednesday.

On Wednesday, many of Europes' top nations have had their riders race against the clock and we have some winners such as Ethan Hayter in Great Britain; Rémi Cavagna in France and Pablo Castrillo in Spain.

The British titles have gone to Zoe Bäckstedt in the women's elite race and Ben Wiggins in the men's under-23 route. Wiggins had a smaller course, but rode at an average speed that was higher than the men's elite winner.

But this title was taken by Ethan Hayter. The Soudal - Quick-Step rider beat Coonnor Swift and Josh Charlton of INEOS' elite and development teams respectively to defend his title successfully in Lampeter - over 38 kilometers.

In Spain it was Pablo Castrillo to take the title in Sabiñãnigo, winning with a very small margin in the 30-kilometer course. The gaps were very small amongst many riders, and once again provided a surprise victory.

However, below is a breakdown of some of the results of the top nations with time trial races on Thursday.