Van Avermaet: There is still a chance to win Tirreno-Adriatico

After returning from a two-hour training ride during an unexpected rest day at Tirreno-Adriatico, Greg Van Avermaet talked up BMC’s chances of snatching overall victory from Zdenek Stybar (Etixx-QuickStep). He promised to fight for the time bonuses up for grabs at the finish in Cepagatti on Monday before he, Tejay van Garderen, and Damiano Caruso try to cause an upset on the flat, out and back 10.1km time trial in San Benedetto del Tronto on Tuesday.

“Now it’s a totally different race. But that’s racing, that’s how it is. I was never imagined this, I’ve just ended up in a good GC position and so now I’ll try to get the best out if in the next two stages,” he told journalists who awaited the BMC riders to return from their training ride.

Caruso, Van Avermaet and van Garderen are just nine seconds down on Stybar thanks to their victory in the opening team time trial and consistent riding in the other stages. Bob Jungels (Etixx-QuickStep) is fifth at 11 seconds with Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) also a threat at 14 seconds.