Giro del Trentino – Melinda Stage 1 Preview

By David Hunter

Riva del Garda – Arco 13.3km TTT

The race begins with a short, TTT.

It’s nice and flat and we should see some fast times.

With the race only featuring 4 WT teams, the list of favourites is quite short, especially as one of those teams is AG2R!

Sky – Porte, Nieve, Seb Henao, Konig, Lopez, Boswell, Siutsou and Zandio.

Astana – Cataldo, Kangert, Landa, Malacarne, Rosa, Tiralongo and Zeits.

Cannondale Garmin – Hesjedal, Dombrowski, Moser, Hansen, Brown, King, Skjerping and Villella.

AG2R – Pozzovivo, Peraud, Domont, Dupont, Gretsch, Houle, Kadri and Bardet.

I would say that the best TT riders are Porte, Cataldo, Kangert, Houle, Grestch, Peraud, Konig and Pozzovivo. At just 13.3km, it is possible to hide weaker TT riders and I would expect to see Porte doing a large pull.

Astana have a one man disadvantage. Over a small distance, that’s still important. They also have to decide who is team leader. If they go with Landa, they’ll have to keep him in the group, something that they didn’t do last year.

AG2R are usually poor in this discipline. However, they have beefed up their TT line-up and have 3 good riders and Pozzovivo is no slouch either. They should post a respectable time, much better than their usual times.

From the pro-continental teams, Rusvelo, look like the only threat. The Russian outfit usually are strong in this discipline and will certainly be the best pro-conti team. It would be a massive coup, if they could beat some of the WT teams.

Team bikes and tyres is also vital and for that reason I rule out AG2R.

Prediction Time

It should be very tight between the WT teams. I’m loathed to pick Sky as they look weak but think that Porte will pull everyone along, so I have to pick them.

GENERAL PREVIEWDavid Hunter

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