Gazprom-Rusvelo made use of all their track experience to claim a dominant victory in the special team time trial at the Settimana Coppi e Bartali. In a stage where the teams were split into two 4-rider teams, Alexander Serov, Arthur Ershov, Artem Ovechkin and Kirill Sveshnikov were 12 seconds faster than the Rally team and 13 seconds faster than Uniero which was enough to put Ershov into the overall lead.

Gazprom-Rusvelo is known as a team that gives many Russian track riders a chance to ride on the road. Hence, they have traditionally been very strong in team time trials and a few years ago they proved their class by winning the team time trial at the Settimana Coppi e Bartali.

This year they are building condition for the Giro d’Italia which is their big target for the road season and hence the Italian four-day race is again an objective for them as it is traditionally key preparation for the Italian grand tour. Today they proved that they are ready for their big target as they turned out to be in a class of their own in the 13.3km afternoon time trial that came after Manuel Belletti had won the morning stage.

The TTT is a special one as it forces team to split their rosters into two 4-rider teams that do separate rides against the clock. That makes it difficult to decide whether to focus on the stage win or the GC.

Gazprom-Rusvelo knew that they were among the favourites so they sacrificed GC rider Sergey Firsanov and Alexander Foliforov who were part of the B team while they gathered their specialists Alexander Serov, Arthur Ershov, Artem Ovechkin and Kirill Sveshnikov in the A team. They turned out to be in a class of their own as they won the race with a 12-second advantage.

Rally Pro Cycling were always going to be one of the favourites and the team turned out to be the best of the rest. However, they were probably surprised that it was their B team of Jesse Anthony, Evan Huffman, Pierrick Naud and Danny Pate that did best while the A team had to settle for ninth. However, that put Huffman and Pate in a good position to go for GC.

Among the GC riders, Mauro Finetto could be very pleased as his Uniero team was a surprise third, just 13 seconds behind the winners, while Matteo Busato, Andrea Fedi, Daniel Martinez and Julen Amezqueta started well for Southeast by taking fourth. Riding for the Italian national team, Rinaldo Nocentini had a good start with fifth as was the case for Androni climbers Egan Bernal, Rodolfo Torres and Francesco Gavazzi who were sixth.

Team Sky had a disappointing day as their two teams had to settle for 8th and 10th, with the B team of Phil Deignan, David Lopez, Danny van Poppel and Alex Peters doing best. In his debut for Sky, Mikel Landa and teammates Sebastian Henao, Gianni Moscon and Xabier Zandio lost 21 seconds.

Ershov was the best rider from the winning quartet in the morning stage and so takes the overall lead in the same time as his teammates. However, he is likely to slip down in tomorrow’s second stage which offers the first serious climbing. After a flat start the riders will do two laps of a 22.1km circuit with the steef Monte Tiffi climb that they will do a total of three times. From the top, there are just 8.7km from the finish and it all ends with a narrow, cobbled 280m climb to the finish.

One for the specialists

After the morning sprint stage, the riders had their first chance to make a difference in the afternoon time trial which was held on a 13.3km course in Gatteo. After a flat and technical start, the road was slightly riding and less technical in the second half where the big engines were expected to make the difference.

It was still sunny when the first Meridiana team rolled down the ramp and they stopped the clock in 16.51 to set an early mark. However, it was the Sky quartet of David Lopez, Alex Peters, Danny van Poppel and Philip Deignan that was expected to set the early standard and they did so by posting a time of 15.33.

The race leader loses time

The Italian national team could only manage third with 17.16 and a three-rider Wiggins team had to settle for second with 16.37. Race leader Manuel Belleti and Southeast teammates Samuele Conti, Christian Rodriguez and Jakub Mareczko did better with 16.06 which was 8 seconds better than the Bardiani trio of Mirco Maestri, Simone Sterbini and Luca Chirico.

The first team from D’Amico Botecchia had to settle for fifth with 16.39 while Androni paid for the loss of Alessio Taliani as they stopped the clock in a modest 16.42, causing Franco Pellizotti to lose a lot of time. Topsport Vlaanderen did better with 16.14 but it was Synergy Baku that was the second team to go faster than 16 minutes with 15.59.

Rally take the lead

Uniero slotted into third with 16.05 before Kolss moved into second with 15.58. However, it was the Rally quartet of Evan Huffman, Danny Pate, Jesse Anthony and Pierrick Naud who got all the attention when they posted  a best time of 15.26.

Cycling Academy, Tirol, Dimension Data and Adria Mobil were all far off the pace before MG Kvis slotted into the top 10 with 16.14. After a poor ride by GM, Nippo showed their class by posting the fifth best time of 16.02. Skydive also had a fine ride with 16.11 but Trefor and Christina Watches both failed to make it into the top 10.

Sky come up short

Gazprom-Rusvlo showed their strength when their B team of Alexandr Kolobnev, Sergey Firsanov, Alexaner Foliforov and Ildar Arslanov posted the third best time of 15.39 before Amore e Vita ended the first wave of teams with a time of 17.17. It was now time for the A teams to try to beat the mark set by Rally.

Meridiana Kamen failed to do so and there was disappointment for the Sky quartet of Mikel Landa, Gianni Moscon, Xabier Zandio and Sebastian Henao as they could only manage third with 15.35, 2 seconds slower than their own B team. Instead, it was the Italian national team of Filippo Ganna, Rinaldo Nocentini, Matteo Pelucchi and Francesco Rosa who challenged the Americans with a time of 15.32 that was good enough for second.

Great performance by Uniero

Wiggins had a fine ride to slot in sixth with 15.52 before the Southeast quartet of Matteo Busato, Andrea Fedi, Daniel Martinez and Julen Amezqueta got a great start for their GC campaign by taking second with 15.31. It was disappointment for Bardiani as they could only manage 15.49 and D’Amico was far off the pace.

The Androni climbers Egan Bernal, Rodolfo Torres and Francesco Gavazzi worked with Marco Frapporti to stop the clock in 15.32 to move into fourth before Topsport Vlaanderen got a good start for Floris De Tier by taking 8th with 15.38. After Synergy Baku had failed to finish in the top 10, Uniero was the first team to get really close to Rally as they were just one second behind the Americans, giving Mauro Finetto a good start to the race.

Rally miss out

Kolss and Cycling Academy both missed out on the top 10 before the Rally A team of Rob Britton, Eric Young, Tom Zirbel and Adam De Vos tried to beat their teammates. However, they could only managed 15.34 and so slotted into 7th.

Tirol, Dimension Data, Adria Mobil were off the pace and MG Kvis narrowly missed out on the top 10. GM could only managed 15.55 while Damiano Cunego’s Nippo team lost some time with 15.42.

Gazprom take the win

There was disappointment for the Skydive leaders of Ivan Santaromita and Francisco Mancebo and they could only manage 16.07 and instead it was the young Danish Trefor team of U23 world time trial champion Mads Würtz who slotted into sixth with 15.32 which was much better than Christina Watches’ time of 15.58.

However, Gazprom-Rusvelo was now on the course and it was evident that they were in a class of their own. Stopping the clock in 15.14, they were 12 seconds faster than Rally and then just had to wait for Amore e Vita to arrive in 16.04 before they could celebrate their win.