Tinkoff’s Tirreno-Adriatico campaign got off to an excellent start with a good performance at the opening Team Time Trial. The team worked together well on the 22.7km course running through the streets of the renowned seaside town of Lido di Camaiore, finishing with a time of 24’06”.
With a course that raced past Oleg Tinkov’s house and in conditions that would make for fast times, Tinkoff’s riders were aiming to impress on the first stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico. After an early start as the second team out on the Team Time Trial, it was a matter of waiting to see how the other teams performed after setting a strong time of 24’06” and taking an early lead.
Sport Director, Lars Michaelsen, was impressed with Tinkoff’s performance. “We can be proud of the team today, they did a great job and supported each other well. As always you can’t have eight riders on the same level in a team time trial so it’s a challenge for the strongest to keep it balanced. Oleg Tinkov experienced it from a front row seat today and tried to cheer them up – he saw they were really fighting for it.”
“We had a small struggle to pick up the speed again in the last 10km and at the end everyone was on the limit. It’s fair to say that Maciej Bodnar was our big engine out there, but everybody did their best so I’m happy.”
With all teams in, Tinkoff narrowly missed out on a podium position, coming in 4th, 11 seconds down on eventual winners, BMC.
Adam Blythe was full of praise for the team but saw opportunities for himself to improve. “The performance of the team was fantastic – I think the team did a super good job and we did a good time. I wanted to pull a bit harder towards the end and take longer but didn’t have the legs.”
“It was a time-trial where we wanted to give our best.” said Oscar Gatto after the team came home. “We prepared thoroughly and took care of every detail. In addition, we rode past the home of our team owner, Oleg Tinkov, so it was important to perform well. There is still a long way in the Tirreno-Adriatico and we now focus on the stages ahead. We have two strong leaders, Peter Sagan and Roman Kreuziger and we will all work hard to support them.”
Michaelsen was waiting to see how tomorrow’s stage would develop. “Tomorrow the responsibility is with another team, so we can sit in and wait. With Peter Sagan, it depends on his recovery – it’s quite a challenging last 10-12km and you need to be fresh to go there when the attacks come so we will see how it pans out on the road.”
Stage Result
1. BMC 00:23:55
2. Etixx-QuickStep +00:00:02
3. FDJ +00:00:09
4. Tinkoff +00:00:11
5. IAM Cycling +00:00:12
