Giro del Trentino – Stage 1 Preview
By David Hunter
Riva – Torbole 12.1km
The race starts with a short TTT.
The course has a few changes of direction, but it isn’t overly technical. This should be a day for the teams with big engines. The weather looks nice, a beautiful sunny day with very little wind. A nice day to ride a bike.
Bora were the surprise of last season, taking the TTT, in a massive shock result. Their team is very similar to 2015, with Muhlberger replacing Salerno. That means they will be confident of delivering a similar result. The Germans do like this discipline and have good equipment and a professional attitude towards the art of the time trial.
Despite last year’s result, Sky and Astana, will start as the big favourites. Sky have Landa, Knees, Deignan, Boswell, Lopez, Moscon, Peters and Zandio. For me, this doesn’t look particularly strong, in fact, Sky were way down in 8th & 10th place in the Coppi Bartali TTT.
Astana arrive with Nibali, Agnoli, Capecchi, Fuglsang, Kangert, Kozhatayev, Malacarne and Scarponi. Considering the other squads, this looks the strongest by a considerable distance. Astana have a solid record in TTTs, they last won in the Vuelta a Burgos. They struggle in the WT events against the biggest teams, but they manage to bully the smaller squads in these types of races.
AG2R will be better than they usually are, but I still don’t think they will challenge for the podium. In fact, I expect them to lose to some of the pro-continental outfits. Gazprom-RusVelo are fresh from an outstanding TTT win in Coppi Bartali and just won Giro dell’Appennino. They certainly seem to be on the up and should’t be underestimated.
In a bizarre change, the organisers have decided to send Team Sky and Astana out first, Caja-Rural and Gazprom, go out last. The later teams always have a slight advantage as they know what time they have to beat. Knowing it and being able to beat it are two different things though!
Prediction Time
Astana to start off a strong week with a dominant performance.
David Hunter
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