BMC Racing Team wins Team Time Trial in Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana
Feb 02 2017 03:07 am CET
SUBSCRIBE TO RSS FEEDSBMC Racing Team has won the opening Team Time Trial of the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana. Team Sky with title defender Wout Poels finished second.
The 37.9km long course led the riders from the coastal part of Orihuela to the city with the same name, with a climb in the middle to further complicate matters for some of the lesser gifted time trialists.
BMC, always a top candidate for the win, didn't disappoint and finished the route in 43 minutes and 47 seconds. This was 21 seconds faster than Team Sky, the last of the 12 WorldTour formations to hit the road in this team time trial.
The world champions at this discipline, Quick-Step Floors, had to settle for third place at 49 seconds from the winning team. Movistar, with Nairo Quintana, came in at just over a minute from BMC and are therefore 41 seconds behind Sky in the overall classification.
Fifth place went to Team LottoNL-Jumbo led by Steven Kruijswijk, ahead of Astana and a somewhat disappointing Katusha-Alpecin with time trial world champion Tony Martin.
Although still on time, the German was a little late to arrive to the start, seemingly because of technical issues with his bicycle.
Italian Manuel Senni of BMC is the first leader in the general classification and gets to defend his jersey in a 180.6km stage from Alicante to Denia on Thursday.
"It was a tough course and a very hard day especially in the first part of the race with that climb," said Senni. "But we had strong guys like Stefan Küng, Michael Schär and Alessandro De Marchi able to do a great job pulling at the front. In fact, everyone did a good job today.
"I came into this race late, so I was just trying my hardest to stay with them for as long as possible. In the end, I still had good legs and was able to go all the way. On the run into the finish line I was sitting at the front, so before I knew it, I had crossed the line first. There wasn't any plan for that to happen but I am super happy about it."
Olympic champion Greg van Avermaet was proud of his teammates, including the ones that don't necessarily stand out in this discipline.
"We prepared well for this TTT, and I think it was an important start as it was a good parcours and an excellent exercise for what is coming up over the rest of the race. We have a good team here, maybe not everyone is a time trial specialist, but for sure everyone did a really good job, and we had a smooth ride.
"I think that is very important for a team time trial like this where there really wasn't a lot of time to settle down on the bike. I am proud of everyone. Every rider did their job, and we saw the result on the finish."
#VCV2017 @BMCProTeam took the victory in the TTT of the 1st stage at the @VueltaCV pic.twitter.com/K0vkbyRadU
— CyclingPub (@CyclingPub) 1 de febrero de 2017
