Bradley Wiggins and Sky celebrate on the Giro del Trentino podium.(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Team Sky are feted on the podium.(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Team Sky power to victory in the Giro del Trentino team time trial.(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Team Sky celebrated victory in the Giro del Trentino team time trial with a champagne fight on the podium that left most of them soaked to the skin but happy to have won yet another race.
The celebrations were a rare moment of emotion, a glimpse of the riders with their guard down, after a near perfect ride in the 14.1km team time trial around Lienz. Team Sky stopped the clock in a time of 15:20, a super fast average speed of 55.174km/h.
Bradley Wiggins was happy to let his teammates cross the line ahead of him but he did some huge turns on the front, especially in the final part of the course, keeping the pace high for long spells but without breaking up the team.
Wiggins admitted that he was not happy with how he felt on the bike but was pleased with the result.
"I was dreadful today. I almost climbed off this morning so it's nice to finish the race with a win," he said, perhaps indicating his form is very good but that the antibiotics for his saddle sore have affected him. The truth may be revealed during Wednesday's first mountain stage and on the 14km climb to the finish in Vetriolo Terme.
"It was a good test for us for the team time trial at the Giro d'Italia," Wiggins said.
"It's important we don’t lose time there, that's the big goal. We wanted to limit our losses, so to win is great. I wouldn't say it's a surprise but there is so much that can go wrong and to get it right like that and win is a bonus."
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Cataldo ready for the mountains
Dario Cataldo is Italian national champion and showed his tricolore stripes on his Team Sky skin suit during the team time trial.
He will play a vital role helping Wiggins in the Giro d'Italia and is ready to help Wiggins in the three mountain stages of the Giro del Trentino.
"We expected to do a good ride. Much of this team will ride the Giro and so it's a good test for everything. Now we're ready for the mountains. They'll also be a test and to get the legs ready for the Giro," Cataldo said.
While Wiggins opted to train in Mallorca, Cataldo was at altitude in Tenerife with most of his Giro d'Italia teammates before the Giro del Trentino.
"It was a hard work, a big block of work," he said. "We thought we'd pay for it a bit here and so we were a little bit worried for the TTT. Now things should go better."
Team Sky opted not to control the race during the morning road stage and so Wiggins, Cataldo, Siutsou, Kennaugh, Knees and Zandio are 6:03 behind new race leader Josef Cerny (CCC Polsat) and the other seven riders who were in the morning breakaway.
Cataldo did not seem worried about the time gap.
"The GC will change, the mountains are hard," he said bluntly. "It's a big gap but we known that the guys who paid for it this morning, will pay for it on the climbs."
"Brad seems to be in great form and he's very motivated. We'll see what happens tomorrow. We'll try and do something, but just like the other teams doing GC."
Stephen is one of the most experienced members of the Cyclingnews team, having reported on professional cycling since 1994. Before becoming Editor-at-large, he was Head of News at Cyclingnews. He has previously worked for Shift Active Media, Reuters and Cycling Weekly. He is a member of the Board of the Association Internationale des Journalistes du Cyclisme (AIJC).
