Astana Pro Team flew to a podium finish in the afternoon team time trial stage at the Giro del Trentino on Tuesday, slicing through the 14km of alpine countryside in beautiful Lienz, Austria after a lackluster morning road stage.
In 15:33, Astana’s eight boys in blue covered the winding but mostly flat time trial course just 13 seconds behind Stage 1b winners Sky.
“This was a very good result for us. All of our riders finished together and we have only begun to narrow down our selection for the Giro d’Italia. Sky’s riders at the Giro del Trentino are 99 percent already confirmed for May,” said Astana Team Manager Giuseppe Martinelli.
Martinelli said work in the team time trial remains to be done, and pointed out what he said were technical errors in an otherwise competent effort in Austria.
“We still have to work on smoothing out the tempo, and making more of a transition from one rider to the next. I think we were close today in accomplishing this, but I also think we are well on our way,” Martinelli said.
Astana Pro Team rider Tanel Kangert, who finished 44th in the morning stage, in a very large peloton that allowed eight breakaway riders more than 10 minutes advantage before closing the final gap to just under seven minutes, said racing twice in one day is not a normal circumstance in professional cycling.
“The hardest part is you have to get up earlier than normal to eat and prepare. Today we woke up before seven and the race started at 9:30. It’s colder in the mornings still, and when we finished it was also very important to get a good meal, get a shower and rest with our legs up before the time trial. In the morning we raced 130km and the afternoon was 14km, so in the end it’s a really full day of racing,” Kangert said.
