Ponferrada 2014
Movistar Team claims 6th place in team time trial World after great performance: only 20" short for silver, 16" for bronze
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The most special Worlds for Eusebio Unzué’s structure, the first ones at home since 2005 in Ponferrada, saw the Movistar Team offering another good performance in a speciality they’ve made one of their biggest bastions. The Spanish squad took 6th place in the TTT World Championships, held over 57 kilometers of rolling roads in the Bierzo, which the BMC Racing Team profited to claim the title with 31″ over Belgian team OPQS -winner of the previous two editions- and 35″ on Australian outfit Orica-GreenEdge.
Though their sixth position repeats the achievement of the 2012 edition of the race in Limburg, the Movistar Team was this time only 51″ away from glory, and respectively 20″ and 16″ off silver and bronze medals -1’17” and 31″ were the gaps two years ago-. After their tenth place earned last year in Florence, the telephone squad’s progression becomes evident, even more taking into account which riders made part of today’s block: only Erviti was older than 30, with Amador (28), Malori (26), Dowsett, Izagirre (25) and Sütterlin (20), the only one to lost contact halfway through the race, all in their twenties.
The Movistar Team’s good performance allow them keeping a consistent lead in the UCI World Tour ranking, with 174 points over Tinkoff and 236 on BMC with only two races remaining: Il Lombardia (October 5) and the Tour of Beijing (10-14). Before that, Adriano Malori (ITA), Alex Dowsett (GBR) and Jonathan Castroviejo (ESP) will defend their national team colours on Wednesday during the individual team time trial of this year’s Ponferrada Worlds.
MOVISTAR TEAM at TTT Worlds:
Valkenburg ’12:
1. Omega
2. BMC, 0.03
3. Orica, 0.17
6. Movistar Team, 1.18
Florence ’13
1. Omega
2. Orica, 0.01
3. Sky, 0.22
10. Movistar Team, 2.31
Ponferrada ’14
1. BMC
2. Omega, 0.31
3. Orica, 0.35
6. Movistar Team, 0.51
MOVISTAR TEAM’S LAST 10 TTTs
Vuelta a España, ’12 – 1st
Tirreno-Adriatico, ’13 – 2nd
Giro d’Italia, ’13 – 2nd
Tour de France, ’13 – 7th
Vuelta a España, ’13 – 5th
World Championships, ’13 -10th
Tirreno-Adriatico, ’13 – 3rd
Giro de Italia, ’14 – 8th
Vuelta a España, ’14 – 1st
World Championships, ’14 – 6th