With a short prologue over 3.8 kilometers in Bourg-en-Bresse the five-day Tour de l'Ain began today in the French department of Ain. For BORA – ARGON 18, it was a return to the race after 2012, when the team convinced with two podium results.
The Tour de l'Ain is the start of a triple race program this week for the team, with the Arctic Race of Norway and the Czech Cycling Tour starting on Thursday. The distance of today's opening time trial was more for the explosive riders in the peloton and so Mike Teunissen (LottoNL-Jumbo) set the fastest time with 4:31 minutes. Stagiaire Lukas Pöstlberger set the best time of BORA – ARGON 18 and was a great 10th, just 5 seconds behind the winner. It was the first race day in the black-red jersey of the team for the 23-year-old Austrian.
"The course was very selective right from the beginning with an uphill and a curvy part. With our two GC riders Patrick [Konrad]and Jose [Mendes] we went on the safe side. We didn’t want to risk anything and have taken a minimal loss of time into account. Kudos to the performance of Lukas. He got his new bike only four days ago and nonetheless he was able to deliver such a great performance. That’s a huge proof of talent. He even did two small mistakes, surely because he doesn’t know the equipment so well yet. So we can be satisfied with the first day”, Sport Director Christian Pömer says after the start of the stage race.
"We haven’t linen up a real sprinter here, therefore it’s our goal to make the sprinters' teams life a bit difficult in the next two stages. Our focus is on the two final stages, which are very selective", Pömer explains the race tactics.
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