The UCI Road World Championships kicked off Sunday with the team time trial in Richmond, USA, held on a mostly flat and fast 38.6-kilometer course. Trek Factory Racing completed the course in a time of 43:54.57, it was the second quickest time provisionally, and after all 27 teams finished they lay claim to the 10th best time.

“Today was a short and fast TT, nothing technical,” explained director and team trainer Josu Larrazabal. “There was a tailwind at the start and headwind for the last 12-13 kilometers. So it was clear we needed a big power for the last part.

“We wanted to start fast, which we did, and we had our own organized split, which was after four kilometers and we were between 2-3 seconds from the strongest teams so that for us was a good start.”

Notorious for starting the team timed events too slow, Trek Factory Racing devised its own fourth split time to counter this, and they were on a steady pace throughout the race, even picking up their speed in the finale to finish with a provisional second best time.

“At the end from the 3rd split time to the finish line we recovered time to three or four teams which allowed us to be in the top 10,” continued Larrazabal. “When you take into account that some of our guys here did not have this race on their plan, and we had to deal with injuries and health issues and had to change the team quite a lot in the last two weeks, because of all that we have to be happy with our result.”

With the time taken on the fourth rider from each six-man team, Trek Factory Racing arrived at the climb to the finish line with its team intact.  Marco Cpæedan pulled hard into the final crucial uphill, and then dropped off the pace to allow the stronger climbers to finish it off.   The team crossed the line with five men, with Coledan not far behind.

The team’s tactics were solid, their technique flawless, but they missed some power; they lacked a full team of specialists for a classic TTT course.

“We had two lightweight guys in Riccardo [Zoidl] and Fabio [Felline] whose profiles are climbers and when the speed in 60km/h they need to push relative to their weight much more than the others, so even if they do their maximum it’s not enough,” Larrazabal said

“Our goal was to fight for the top five and we were 45 seconds down from that, so in that sense we are not satisfied. But we need to be happy of how we fixed everything in the last two weeks and how the guys reacted and fought for the best.”

Jesse Sergent, a powerhouse in the race against the clock, was below his normal capacity in Sunday’s time trial, and struggled through the frustration of not riding at his usual aptitude.

“Today I was probably the weakest guy,” said Sergent. “I didn’t quite have the real power you need to be on the front. I have been fighting a stomach bug the last few days and lost weight, and I tried to put on a brave face today and do the best I could.  I had some power, but not the real punch you need for a team time trial and especially for a course like this.

“My pulls were a bit shorter, and times where we needed to speed up I could not do what I would have liked or usually do in team time trials, and that was a little bit hard on the head as well, but I kinda did just what I could. I did it for the guys that are here, they all did a really strong ride. Marco and Markel [Irizar] were probably the real strong men in the team today, so good on them.”

As expected the fight for the World TTT title was a battle between the final teams and last year’s winner BMC Racing repeated its victory, edging out Etixx-Quick Step by 12 seconds in a time of 42:07.97.  Movistar rounded out the podium, 31 seconds in arrears.

“I felt good at the start, and decided to take longer pulls. But I regretted that in the second part. I was really suffering and I was hanging on for dear life.  Markel was very strong today – he did one big pull into the last climb to launch us and then dropped off,” Stijn Devolder said.

“I think we missed a little bit, especially in the headwind we missed a little bit of speed, but we did our best and we didn’t make many mistakes. We were more or less smooth the entire way. Definitely I was feeling good and it was the best TT for me in a couple of years where I had the best feeling. I had good legs, but I wanted to finish further ahead with the team…today it was not possible," Irizar said.