Tour of Croatia: Tinkoff win team time trial

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Despite a late crash involving Juraj Sagan, Tinkoff came out on top in the team time trial at the Tour of Croatia. Jesper Hansen led the Russian team over the line in a time of 49:36 with Gazprom-RusVelo finishing four seconds back. CCC Sprandi Polkowice rounded out the top three, a further six second down.

Matija Kvasina’s Synergy Baku Cycling Project team finished fourth on the stage, 31 seconds down on Tinkoff. Like the stage winners, they too suffered a late crash on the dicey wet roads, but Kvasina was at the front when the fall occurred and kept out of trouble. The result kept the Croatian in the lead.

Kvasina now leads Hansen on GC by 32 seconds with one stage remaining in the race. Riccardo Zoidl’s Trek-Segafredo team finished outside of the top ten in 12th place, 2:21 down on the winners, effectively ending the Austrian’s chances of winning the race overall.

“This is a dream come true. Synergy Baku has proven what our small well-played team is capable of doing,” said Kvasina in a team press release. “Millions of thanks to all my teammates and to our sponsors for giving us the chance to be here. It is one winner but there was great work done by the whole team, both riders and staff.”

“Let’s now survive the last stage and then we can enjoy it a little bit, but with our whole focus on the Tour d’Azerbaidjan.”

Zoidl had come into the stage second on GC, 19 seconds off Kvasina’s leader’s jersey but on the wet undulating coastal roads the American-registered team failed to mount a serious challenge and when Zoidl began to dangle off the end of the team in the closing stages, the writing was on the wall. The Austrian dropped to seventh overall as a result 2:09 off the lead. First the team lost Julien Bernard to a crash in the wet conditions, with Giacomo Nizzolo later puncturing.

"It began raining a half hour before the start, so for all the teams the conditions were the same," said director Trek Segafredo's Dirk Demol. "The beginning was very technical, and Riccardo (Zoidl) had so much fear that we had to slow down on every roundabout. We lost a lot of time already in the start."

"I told the guys to finish with five and just go on to the finish, knowing we were out of the GC - we had already tomorrow in mind. It was clear after the first intermediate split time already, we had simply lost too much time in the first kilometers, so with the crash and the puncture after the second intermediate, it was over.

"We were so good the first four days, and just a big disaster today. We have all the reasons to be happy with three stage wins and our performance so far, but you know when you are second in the GC your ambitions are to give [the overall win] a go. But after nine kilometers we had already lost too much time."

CCC Sprandi Polkowice’s strong ride saw them move two riders up the leader board with Victor de la Parte tied on the same time as Tinkoff’s Hansen and Felix Grosschartner up into fourth, at 55 seconds.

At the finish Ivan Basso praised the efforts of the Tinkoff team. The Italian is now a DS for the team he once rode for. "The guys paced it well and had to take care as the conditions were tough on the wet roads. We were trying to stay safe but in the late push for the line Juraj Sagan came down but he’s fine and doesn’t have any problems."

“It was a fantastic day – when you win a team time trial it’s a present for not only the riders, but the staff and the whole team. I’ve been saying all week how good the team spirit is here and it was a real collective effort today.”

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