Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali: Mark Cavendish moves into overall lead

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Israel Start-Up Nation won the stage 1b team time trial at the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali on Tuesday. They covered the 14km event in 11:36 and 55.8kph, one second faster than runner-up team Astana-Premier Tech and two seconds faster than third placed Deceuninck-QuickStep.

Mark Cavendish (Deceuninck-QuickStep), who earned a time bonus after he placed second in the stage 1a bunch sprint, moved into the overall race lead after the team time trial. He will start stage 2 on Wednesday with two seconds ahead of Israel Start-Up Nation’s Alex Dowsett, Ben Hermans, James Piccoli, Guy Niv, Alessandro De Marchi and Sebastian Berwick.

The second stage of the day, stage 1b, offered the peloton a 14km team time trial in Gatteo. The parcours was relatively flat loop that started along Via Rigossa then turned right onto Via Fenili, another right on Via Rubicone, where there was a gentle rise into the righthand turn onto Via Bastia, followed by a gentle decline and final turn toward the finish line located on Via Roma in Gatteo.

Jakub Mareczko (Vini Zabù) started the stage in the overall race lead after he won the opening stage 1a bunch sprint earlier in the morning ahead of Cavendish, Marius Mayrhofer (Team DSM) and Luca Coati (Team Qhubeka), but the time bonuses they earned meant there were only a handful of seconds separating the top four places from the rest of the field, leaving the race for the leader’s jersey potentially open to take during the afternoon team time trial.

Team Colpack-Ballan was the first off the starting ramp and set the first time of the day at 12:11 minutes over the 14km route but Trek-Segafredo soon finished with a new best time of 11:59 followed then by Team Qhubeka that were one second faster.

Ineos Grenadiers, that were the seventh team to start the event, covered the route in 11:44. It seemed as thought they might have held the hot seat for a longer period, but Ineos Start-Up Nation stormed through the finish line with the fastest time of 11:36, and then it was Team BikeExchange in at 11:42, both eight seconds and two seconds, respectively, faster than Ineos.

Vini Zabu and their overall leader Mareczko were the 20th team off the starting line, but they weren’t fast enough in the team time trial to retain the overall lead, finishing with a time of 12:00 minutes, and that bumped Mareczko down the standings and ultimately out of the leader’s jersey.

Israel Start-Up Nation held their best time of 11:36 as team Astana came close at 11:37. Deceuninck-QuickStep were the last team off the starting line and ended up with the third fastest time of the day at 11:38, two seconds slower than Israel Start-Up Nation but enough to put Cavendish in the overall race lead.

The Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali continues on Wednesday for stage 2’s 163km race from Riccione to Sogliano al Rubicone.