CSC as strong as ever

Whatever critics have been saying in the past, Bjarne Riis' team CSC continues to perform at its best in this second part of the 2005 road calendar, the Grand Tour season. Two riders of the Danish team placed first and second of today's first time trial of the Giro d'Italia: David Zabriskie and Ivan Basso, who also moved up to second overall. The Italian team leader and GC contender therefore gained valuable time on the other overall favourites, Lampre's Gilberto Simoni and Damiano Cunego. Danilo Di Luca rode well to finish 10th, finishing 1'35 behind the winner Zabriskie, and kept his maglia rosa.

"I'm very happy with my victory," said winner Zabriskie. "I started early, so it was quite nerve wracking to watch the other guys on TV. On the last part of the course we had headwinds, and I knew that would be to my advantage because of my position on the bike. I'm a time trial specialist, and this is definitely a victory I've dreamed about for a long time. I was allowed to take it easy in yesterday's stage, so I was able to aim for something big today."

Ivan Basso said that, "Today's stage was very important, and I was fully aware of what I had to do. It's fantastic to be able to make a result like this, which is what Bjarne and I had hoped for. We've been working for a long time with this time trial, and I believe, I've done the route about 20 times. I've been training a lot in order to be able to make a difference in this discipline. Yesterday's time loss was just another motivation factor for me, and I was very determined to retaliate. I owe Bjarne a special thanks, cause he is also a big part of this triumph. We still have a lot of tough stages ahead of us, but today we took a giant leap forward."

CSC's team manager Bjarne Riis was justly proud with the way his boys rode. "It was a fantastic day for us," he said. "David showed his huge potential and Ivan did the time trial of his life. We couldn't expect more than this. Our preparations have paid off, and Ivan confirmed yesterday's time loss wasn't due to lack of strength. Our team is here to win the Giro with Ivan, and today we showed, that we mean business," said Bjarne Riis.