Cannondale-Drapac took their first team time trial victory for several years when they came out on top in in the opening stage of the Czech Cycling Tour. The American team beat CCC by 11 seconds and Klein Constantia and Lampre-Merida by 15 seconds and so put Patrick Bevin in the first leader’s jersey at the four-day race.

We have gathered a few reactions.

Sebastian Langeveld: Ulissi will be the big threat

Cannondale-Drapac won the opening stage team time trial at the Czech Cycling Tour on Thursday evening. Sebastian Langeveld led the green team across the line and will wear the first race leader’s jersey on stage two of the four-day race.

The 17.3-kilometer team time trial began in the northeastern Frydek-Mistek District of the Czech Republic. The out and back course was lumpy with a few rises on the mostly downhill run out to the turn-around point and a few descents on the mostly uphill run back to the start line.
 
“There were only three corners so technically it wasn’t bad, but it was quite hilly,” said Langeveld. “There were a couple significant drags on the way back. To race it as a team, it wasn’t easy. You had to start fast and lay the power down on the drags to bring it home.”
 
“It took a good team performance and an awareness of each other – so that nobody was going so fast to kill anybody else,” Langeveld added. “We finished with five. I think that says a lot about a course that is only 17 kilometers.”

While Cannondale-Drapac finished with only five riders, the American-registered squad had all eight riders in formation at the turnaround point. Sport director Johnny Weltz pointed to this tactic as a key to success.

“A few teams lost riders before the turning point, but we were able to stick together longer, and I think that made the difference,” said Weltz. “It gave the boys time to recover and be stronger in the last kilometers.”
 
Langeveld led the team across the line but it was Kristoffer Skjerping, fifth across the line, who stopped the clock at 20:05 for Cannondale-Drapac. The time was 11-seconds faster than CCC Sprandi Polkowice in second and 15-seconds faster than both Klein Constantia, in third, and Lampre-Merida.
 
“I felt really good today,” said Langeveld. “To be honest, after my abandon in the Tour, I’m super, super hungry from now on to just go for it, but for me, it doesn’t change if it was me or Paddy [Bevin] or Ruben [Zepuntke] or whoever in the leader’s jersey. The most important thing is the team effort. Somebody had to cross the line first, and today it was me.”
 
Cannondale-Drapac will start stage two with three leader’s jerseys. Langeveld leads the overall. Wouter Wippert tops the points classification. Ruben Zepuntke is the mountains classification leader. The second stage is 177-kilometers between Olomouc and Unicov that is expected to end in a reduced sprint.

“We haven’t had a chat about the team plan yet, but on paper, it’s a good opportunity to sprint with Wippert,” said Langeveld. “That goes hand and hand with defending the jersey – the leader’s jersey and the sprint jersey – so I suspect that is the goal.”

“It will be a real challenge to keep the jersey over the weekend,” noted Langeveld. “I think the biggest threat will come from Diego Ulissi. Lampre-Merida is 15 seconds behind us, so we do have that advantage. It’s a hard parcours, but we have a couple of guys that are in really good shape, and of course, we want to keep the jersey.”

CCC confident after TTT: We are in a good GC position

CCC Sprandi Polkowice opened the Czech Cycling Tour with second place in the team time trial.

The Orange team was represented by Victor de la Parte, Felix Grossschartner, Davide Rebellin, Jan Hirt, Nikolay Mihaylov, Josef Cerny, Branislau Samoilau and Sylwester Szmyd. They rolled down the start ramp as one of the last teams.

At the check point, CCC Sprandi Polkowice recorded second best time, only behind Klein Consantina. The riders in orange covered the second part of the route even faster and reached the finish with the fastest result. At that point there were still 4 teams on the course: Gazprom-RusVelo,  Wallonie – Bruxelles and two UCI WorldTour squads, Cannondale-Drapac and Lampre-Merida.

Only one of them was able to beat the time set by the Polkowice-based team – Cannondale-Drapac. Mihaylov, Hirt, Cerny and Szmyd sacrificed themselves for their leaders, giving it all on the road. They were unable to stay with the group all the way to the end, but helped De la Parte, Grossschartner, Rebellin and Samoilau take second place, only 11 seconds down on the winners.

“The course was very hard, especially the second part of it and it was not easy to stay in the group. After the halfway point, everyone was going full gas and we couldn’t wait for anyone, because we would have lost very valuable seconds. The plan was to go at a stable but very strong pace and we did that. Now we are in a pretty comfortable position, with a few of our leaders sitting high in the standings. They are all in good shape and the next days will show who will have the biggest chances of taking the overall win. Stage 3 seems to be the most decisive one, but time gaps may occur also on other days, in crosswinds or after some unexpected attacks. We have to stay focused and be ready for that,” sporting director of CCC Sprandi Polkowice, Sławomir Błaszczyk explains.

"Everyone wants to win, but second place is good. The course was short but certainly not easy. Especially the stretch back to Frydek-Mistek with a head wind gave a hard time," said Josef Cerny. 

Etixx-QuickStep feeder team beats Lampre-Merida in Czech TTT

Etixx-QuickStep’s feeder team Klein Constantia impressed with third place.

Michal Schlegel said:

"It was very fast, eight people to cover seventeen kilometers was everything but pleasant. With the third place, we are satisfied. We did not want to lose power. We can fight for a good GC result and it looks good.”

Lampre-Merida pleased with small time loss in Czech TTT

It was a solid performance for LAMPRE-MERIDA whose line-up is made up of Cimolai, Feng, Kump, Modolo, Mori, Petilli, Xu Gang and Ulissi. The blue-fuchsia-green selection obtained 4th place, completing the stage in 20'20", 15" more than the winning performance of Cannondale Drapac.

"Fourth place is definitely a positive result, especially considering the gap which was limited to 15" to a formation like Cannondale-Drapac that’s made up of very competitive riders in the time trial,” said sports director Philippe Mauduit. “The route made the riders busy, with ups and downs. We knew it would be important to manage the efforts of the individual riders. We were able to manage the energy and automation among the boys.”

Verva-ActiveJet pleased with sixth place in Czech opener

VERVA ActiveJet Team finished in sixth place. VERVA ActiveJet Team is composed of Jonas Koch, Jordi Simon, Adam Stachowiak, Kamil Gradek, Paul Charucki, Jiri Polnicky, Pawel Cieslik and Karel Hnik and lost 21 seconds to the winners.

”We rode slowly in the first part, which was much faster than the second part. The place is not as important as the tie loss, and this is not that big. The race has just started and I admit that we came here with high hopes,” said sporting director Peter Kosmala.

Good start for local team in Czech opener

Local team Whirlpool-Author finished 8th.

"I think we can be satisfied. We have a team of very young riders and have not done many team time trials so from that perspective we did a good performance. We did not want to lose too much and we succeeded. I personally look forward to tomorrow's stage to Uničov, because for me this is the only option to sprint for a good position. Last year I dropped the chain two hundred meters from the finish so I finished fourth. This year I want to improve," said one of the most experienced riders Alois Kaňkovský.

Lack of experience costly for Novo Nordisk in Czech TTT

Team Novo Nordisk took to their  time trial bikes for Friday’s opening stage of the four-day Czech Cycling Tour, a 17.3-kilometer team time trial from Frydek to Mistek.

“It was an interesting day of racing,” Team Novo Nordisk rider David Lozano said. “This is only our third ever team time trial, so our coordination wasn’t the best. But the power reflected on my Pioneer power meter was good, so I’m feeling confident for upcoming stages and hope to show something good! The team is motivated, and we hope for a good week here in Czech Republic!”

“For some of the team,” said veteran Team Novo Nordisk rider Chris Williams, “it was their first team time trial. And for Brian Kamstra, it was his first time trial ever! So just we wanted to stay upright and finish all together. Now our goal for the upcoming days is to set up our climbers. There will be a lot of climbing and stages that suit guys like Javier Megias, David Lozano and Charles Planet.”