photo credits @ Tirreno-Adriatico
An impressive display of time trialling prowess during today’s opening stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico, saw BMC Racing Team secure a second consecutive victory along the 22.7 kilometer course ahead of Quick-Step Floors Cycling and FDJ in Lido di Camaiore, Italy.
BMC Racing was the final team to start, rolling down the ramp as the pre-race favorites having won here one year ago. But, if the eight-rider team felt the weight of any pre-race expectations, they didn’t show it.
Out on the course, BMC Racing quickly settled into a seamless rhythm as they looked to better 23:37 the time set by Quick-Step Cycling.
Fifth-fastest at the complicated turning point, including two left-hand 90-degree turns, BMC Racing kicked it up another gear heading into the second half of the course.
In a brilliant show of strength and teamwork, the riders stopped the clock at 23:20, which was more than enough to claim the stage honors, and put Damiano Caruso into the race’s first leader’s jersey.
“Most of us are time trial specialists. We won like last year but faster than last year because we have two new riders in the team, Stefan Kung and Rohan Dennis who are really fast against the clock. They have made that difference today compared to last year. Maybe the weather conditions have also helped for a faster time. At the end I was first on the line, which enables me to wear the leader’s jersey – it’s a great honor Racing at home in Italy with that jersey will be special. We’ll see how far I can go with it. We’re also racing for our leader Tejay van Garderen”, said an elated Caruso after the stage.
Lotto-Soudal was the first team down the ramp of today’s team time trial, subsequently setting a benchmark time of 24:24, before Nairo Quintana and his Movistar team jumped ahead with 23:42.
From there, the Spanish squad was eclipsed by Quick-Step, who were hoping to go one better than their second place to BMC in last year’s opening TTT, as they set an impressive time of 23:37.
But there was no stopping BMC, who rode at an average of 58.371kmph to claim the opening race honors.
Teams Finishing
1 BMC Racing 0:23:20 2 Quick-Step Floors 0:00:17 3 Movistar Team 0:00:22 4 FDJ 5 Orica-Scott 0:00:25 6 LottoNL-Jumbo 0:00:40 7 Lotto Soudal 0:00:52 8 Bahrain-Merida 0:00:53 9 Dimension Data 10 Astana 0:00:55 11 Sunweb 0:00:56 12 Trek-Segafredo 0:00:58 13 AG2R La Mondiale 0:01:00 14 UAE Team Emirates 0:01:09 15 Bora-Hansgrohe 0:01:11 16 Cannondale-Drapac 0:01:18 17 Katusha-Alpecin 0:01:36 18 Team Sky 0:01:42 19 Androni-Giocattoli 0:01:45 20 Bardiani-CSF 0:02:21 21 Nippo-Vini Fantini 0:02:22 22 Novo Nordisk 0:02:52
General classification after stage 1
1 Damiano Caruso (Ita) BMC Racing Team 0:23:21 2 Rohan Dennis (Aus) BMC Racing Team 3 Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) BMC Racing Team 4 Stefan Küng (Swi) BMC Racing Team 5 Daniel Oss (Ita) BMC Racing Team 6 Tejay Van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing Team 7 Tom Boonen (Bel) Quick-Step Floors 0:00:16 8 Matteo Trentin (Ita) Quick-Step Floors 9 Bob Jungels (Lux) Quick-Step Floors 10 Julien Vermote (Bel) Quick-Step Floors 11 Zdenek Stybar (Cze) Quick-Step Floors 12 Fernando Gaviria (Col) Quick-Step Floors 13 Niki Terpstra (Ned) Quick-Step Floors 14 Anthony Roux (Fra) FDJ 0:00:21 15 Jérémy Roy (Fra) FDJ 16 Matthieu Ladagnous (Fra) FDJ 17 Steve Morabito (Swi) FDJ 18 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ 19 Sébastien Reichenbach (Swi) FDJ 20 Jonathan Castroviejo (Spa) Movistar Team
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