ITT Worlds

Castroviejo finishes 14 seconds short for top-ten finish in the ITT Worlds, covered at crazy pace in Tuscany as Tony Martin (OPQ) claimed his third consecutive rainbow jersey

Propelled by his legs and a tailwind to reach almost 52kph average over the 57km between Montecatini Terme and Florence -the same covered by the trade teams during the TTT on Sunday-, Tony Martin became World Champion again on Wednesday. The German beat Olympic gold medalist Bradley Wiggins -silver this time- by 46 seconds and four-time rainbow jersey Fabian Cancellara by 48″. The long stretches and flat roads made great gaps and did not favor the chances by the two Movistar Team riders in the universal race: Jonathan Castroviejo -back on the road after competing on Sunday- and Alex Dowsett, who arrived in Tuscany after the Tour of Britain.

The Essex boy couldn’t find his best form after showing signs of improvement in his home tour and finished in 41st place, more than five minutes behind Martin. In turn, Castroviejo made a more regular performance, always close to the top-ten places in the intermediate timings. It was in the second part of the TT when he lost some crucial seconds that took him to the 14th place across the finish, 3’13” behind the winner and just over a minute behind the 5th place. The Getxo rider will be back on the ‘arena’ alongside José Herrada and Alejandro Valverde (ESP), Rui Costa (POR), Giovanni Visconti (ITA), Andrey Amador (CRC), Sylwester Szmyd (POL) and Nairo Quintana (COL) for Sunday’s road race (272km.)