Strong showing in Burgos TTT
Friday 5 August 2016 16:00, UK
Team Sky produced a strong team time trial effort to finish fourth on stage two at the Vuelta a Burgos, just six seconds behind winners Astana.
Team Sky produced a strong team time trial effort to finish fourth on stage two at the Vuelta a Burgos, just six seconds behind winners Astana.
With stage one winner Danny van Poppel resplendent in the race leader's purple jersey, Team Sky were the last outfit to tackle the 10.9km course and set off knowing they had to better Astana's time of 13 minutes and 10 seconds, set at an average speed of 48.8km/h around the streets of central Burgos.
Finishing with five riders, Pete Kennaugh led the team across the line alongside Salvatore Puccio, with David Lopez, Ian Boswell and Van Poppel coming home fractions later.
A very tight left-hand turn just 50 metres before the finish made for a dramatic finale and the team couldn't quite match the winning time, finishing fourth, with Movistar and Etixx - Quick-Step filling out the podium placings.
Dmitri Gruzdev (Astana) becomes the new race leader, taking over the purple jersey from Van Poppel, but the Dutchman retains the sprinter's green jersey ahead of a hilly stage three in northern Spain.
'Really good ride'
Speaking to TeamSky.com after the stage Sport Director Brett Lancaster was pleased with how the team performed.
He said: "The guys did a very good ride, particularly considering we've got no time trial specialists here at all, and Pete Kennaugh was on a really strong day today. It was a really technical course, with really narrow roads, and it had a bit of everything really. There was a hard cobbled section, a technical descent, and a long out and back where the powerful riders came to the fore. In general we're really happy.
"At the halfway mark we were really in the ball game, right on top of it, but we dropped away a little bit at the end. We wouldn't have really asked for anymore. There was a couple of little mistakes at the end, but that's very normal on a technical course. There won't be many teams finishing saying 'oh we nailed that'."
Reflecting on Van Poppel's win on day one, Lancaster revealed the Dutchman has been working hard on his sprint in recent weeks, and believes he'll be in the mix again on day three.
He added: "Danny was really happy yesterday. He's been doing a lot of sprint work lately and that showed so it was good for him to come out and do that. Fair play to him - he'd taken a bit of skin off earlier on in the stage and he got stuck in there.
"Tomorrow should be ok - in fact the next two days will be ok, but the last two days will decide the GC. We'll see how the guys are feeling on the last day. The boys will back Danny tomorrow."
