By Gregor Brown
Matt White, Garmin-Slipstream directeur sportif, is pleased with his team's winning charge for the start of the 2009 season. The Australian guided the team to its latest win Tirreno-Adriatico Friday in Santa Croce sull'Arno, Italy.
"Last year, we had a lot of close calls," White said to Cyclingnews. "We made a point at the training camp this winter to turn those placings into wins. We are on the right track, also with [Thomas] Peterson in California and [Christian] Vande Velde in Paris-Nice. Now, we got Tyler Farrar's biggest win ever."
At this point last year the USA-based team of Jonathan Vaughters only had one victory, Julian Dean's national championship win. The team, with the team time trial in the Tour of Qatar, has four wins so far in 2009. The latest was Farrar's impressive win over the world's best sprinters in Tirreno-Adriatico.
"We wanted someone in the break, which we had thanks to William Frischkorn, but it was always going to come back together with all of the sprinters here in the race. It was a finish that suited Tyler, super fast."
The team is protecting Ryder Hesjedal for the overall of Tirreno-Adriatico, which ends Tuesday. The Canadian finished seventh on Montelupone Saturday and is now seventh overall, 31 seconds behind Caisse d'Epargne's Joaquim Rodriguez.
The team's next race is Milano-Sanremo, March 21.
