The Czech Tour got underway this evening with an 18 kilometre long team time trial. Taking place on a mostly flat parcours, a small hill would change up the rhythm in the middle of the route, but with the fast roads it was set to be an electric 20 minutes in the saddle.
Starting as the third-last team, Team Sunweb rolled down the ramp and quickly settled into a rhythm, with all of the riders taking strong turns on the front of the train. Flying around the streets of Uničov, the team would go on to set the joint-best provisional time at the finish, with a sterling effort of 20 minutes and 14 seconds for the 18 kilometres. It would only be last team down the ramp, Mitchelton Scott, who would go on to set a faster time and take the stage win.
“We have a strong but relatively inexperienced team here for the TTT, but I struggle to find many points of improvement from our ride today – all the guys did really well. We were smooth and everyone suffered equally, and we can be proud of our podium finish.”
Chad Haga
“We did a really smooth TTT out there today. The guys prepared really well for it in the recon and we delivered a well-balanced performance. Unfortunately, we lost Max due to technical problems which cost us a little bit of time but it was a great team effort from everyone.”
Michiel Elijzen