Katusha team stuns with unexpected second place
Past champion Ivan Basso and race contender Joaquim Rodriguez have both expressed satisfaction with the outcome of yesterday’s team time trial at the Giro d’Italia, with their squads’ performances putting them both in a good position heading towards the mountains.
Basso’s Liquigas-Cannondale team was seventh, conceding 26 seconds to the victorious Garmin-Barracuda team but gaining time on the squads of several of his rivals.
As a result, the Italian improved from 37th to 33rd overall, and now sits 47 seconds away from the Maglia Rosa he is targeting.
“We can say that we rode a good team time trial, both for the performance and for the result in respect to the teams of the other contenders for the pink jersey. It wasn’t an easy route, and we knew this.”
Basso suggested that the most important outcome was that he didn’t lose time. “The ‘special’ classification among the riders that fight for GC didn’t change. Only Rodriguez earned a lot seconds, but we’re speaking about short distances. This is not the moment to look to the GC…we only have to think and concentrate on the next stages to built our race, stone by stone.”
As Basso suggested, Rodriguez had reason to be happy. His Katusha team indicated beforehand that it would be happy with a place in the top fifteen, but instead it almost won the test. Only Garmin Barracuda was faster, the specialists in the discipline going just five seconds quicker than the Russian squad.
The result was completely unexpected; the team itself acknowledged this, referring to the outcome as ‘astonishing’. Many commentators echoed this sentiment after the TTT.
Rodriguez is one of the best climbers in the peloton, but has traditionally lost time against the clock. He had a solid prologue, though, and yesterday’s result means that he is now up to tenth overall, thirty seconds away from the pink jersey.
After Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin Barracuda), who is fourth overall, Rodriguez is the best-placed of the overall contenders.
“The team did a spectacular team time trial,” he stated. “We couldn’t have gone a second faster. I’m very happy because we gained seconds over all the other favourites, and this gives me strong motivation and a great morale”.
He gained seventeen seconds over Roman Kreuziger (Astana), 21 on Basso, 26 on Marco Pinotti (BMC Racing Team), 29 seconds on last year’s Giro winner Michele Scarponi (Lampre ISD), one minute 39 over Jose Rujano (Androni Giocattoli – Venezuela) and one minute 40 on John Gadret (Ag2r La Mondiale).
“I’m very happy about this result,” stated Katusha directeur sportif Valerio Piva. “The goal was to lose as little time as possible, the dream was to enter the top five. Instead, we lost only five seconds from Garmin-Barracuda, which was the favourite team today. It was totally unexpected: we have to thank our guys, they were extraordinary.”
The team attributed part of its success to the new time trial bikes from Canyon that the riders were using.
The race continues today with a flat, fast stage from Modena to Fano. A bunch sprint is expected, while the first climbs come on tomorrow’s lumpy stage to Porto Sant’Elpidio.