Team Columbia-Highroad dominated the final time trial stage at the Criterium International two-day race in France, just missing out on overall victory.
Tony Martin won the 8.3km time trial with a perfect ride. The talented German rider set a time of 10:05 for the fast course around Charleville-Mézières in the north of France, beating Britain’s Bradley Wiggins by six seconds.
Frantisek Rabon was third at eight seconds and Maxime Monfort fourth at 18 seconds. World time trial champion Bert Grabsch finished sixth at 20 seconds, meaning that Team Columbia-Highroad had four riders in the top six.
Jens Voigt won the two-day race for a fifth time, but only just. Thanks to his strong ride in the time trial, Rabon pulled back ten seconds on Voigt and almost beat him. Rabon was just two seconds away from victory but moved up to a well-deserved second overall.
Monfort also moved up the standings thanks to his good ride, going from ninth to fourth at 12 seconds.
“I think we showed that Team Columbia-Highroad has some amazing time trial riders,” directeur sportif Valerio Piva said. “Tony is a very talented rider and he showed it yet again. He beat Wiggins who is a short time trial specialist and all the other guys performed well. Four riders in the top six is pretty impressive.”
“Rabon went very close to victory and almost stopped Voigt winning for a fifth time. Some people might be surprised by his result but he was very strong in the recent Vuelta Murcia, he’s very motivated and rode well in the hilly morning stage.”
The next big objective for the Team Columbia-Highroad men’s team is the Tour of Flanders next Sunday and then the Vuelta Pais Vasco stage race in Spain.
“After Mark Cavendish’s victory at Milan-San Remo and the team’s impressive performance at Criterium International, our morale is sky high for the next races,” Piva said.
“Our results confirm that we’ve got some of the most talented young riders in cycling. They’re all very motivated, everybody is working well together and so everyone is improving rapidly. Things can only get better in the future.”