07 March 2018

BMC makes it three in a row

For the third year running, BMC Racing Team won the inaugural team time trial of Tirreno-Adriatico with an advantage of four seconds over Mitchelton – Scott and nine seconds over Team Sky. For the second year in a row, Italy’s Damiano Caruso crossed the line in first position and took the Maglia Azzurra of overall leader in the Race of the Two Seas.

 

STAGE RESULT

1 – BMC Racing Team 21.5km in 22’19”, average speed 57.804kph
2 – Mitchelton – Scott at 4″
3 – Team Sky at 9″

 

GENERAL CLASSIFICATION

1 – Damiano Caruso (BMC Racing Team)
2 – Rohan Dennis (BMC Racing Team) s.t.
3 – Patrick Bevin (BMC Racing Team) s.t.

 

JERSEYS

• Maglia Azzurra (blue), General Classification Leader, sponsored by Gazprom – Damiano Caruso (BMC Racing Team)
• Maglia Bianca (white), Young Rider General Classification Leader, sponsored by FIAT – Fernando Gaviria (Quick-Step Floors)
• Maglia Arancione (orange), Sprinter Classification Leader, sponsored by Sportful – not assigned
• Maglia Verde (green), King of the Mountains Classification Leader, sponsored by Snello Rovagnati – not assigned

 

PRESS CONFERENCE

The first Maglia Azzurra, Damiano Caruso, said: “We’ve made the team time trial our forte for several years and have worked on it since the very first training camp of the year. Our team spirit makes the difference. There isn’t just one rider who wants to show that he’s strong. Richie Porte being sick, I’ve become the team’s captain for the overall of Tirreno-Adriatico. I’m aiming for the top 10. Maybe I can do better but I prefer to take a low profile considering the quality of the field. On paper, the course of this edition seems harder than usual. We’re also here to help Greg Van Avermaet win another stage.”

 

Best young rider Fernando Gaviria said: “I’m really happy with how strong my team was today. But we weren’t the strongest so we didn’t win the stage. We have put Bob Jungels in a good position. He’s our leader. It’s a satisfaction to have the best young rider jersey but I’ll try to get the stage win tomorrow. It’s a stage for sprinters but there are a lot of good sprinters: Kittel; Cavendish who crashed today, I think – I hope he’s OK; Ewan… and many more. It should be a great stage tomorrow.”

 

Mark Cavendish arrived out of time cut after crashing during the race.

 

STATISTICS

• BMC became the team with most successes in the team time trial of Tirreno-Adriatico: 3. Omega Pharma-Quick Step (now Quick-Step Floors) remain on two victories (in 2013 and 2014)
• BMC holds the three fastest average speed records at Tirreno-Adriatico: 58.329km/h in 2017, 57.804km/h today and 56.947km/h in 2016.
• The last three Italian leaders of Tirreno-Adriatico have won the team time trial and competed for BMC: Daniel Oss in 2016; Damiano Caruso in 2017 and 2018. In the past two years, they didn’t manage to retain the jersey on stage 2.

 

TOMORROW’S STAGE

Stage 2 – Camaiore Follonica 172km. Click here.