The team time trial in stage two of the Volta a Catalunya, arguably one of the most decisive in years at a lengthy 41.3 kilometers, demonstrated its prominence in the weeklong race.
While Movistar eked out the win over pre-race favorite BMC Racing by two seconds and 46 seconds over Team Sky, Trek-Segafredo put in a decent ride to finish fourth (+1’15”) – still suffering significant time gaps to some rivals, but avoiding complete disaster.
“I am happy, we have given everything, we were quite organized, and we have made a good TTT,” said Alberto Contador. “In the race, I felt well, and the team has also done very well, but we must congratulate the other teams who have ridden stronger than us.”
“The last few years the Volta has been decided by five or seven seconds,” pointed out Contador. “Then, these differences [today] are very big to be trimmed, but there are still five stages, and we will have to try.
“We have to look at the stages that come, first at La Molina, which is not very hard and where perhaps the biggest differences will be for the bonuses. We are far from direct rivals: 1:15 from Valverde, which is a lot of time. The race gets more complicated because both Van Garderen, and Sky with Thomas and Froome, are ahead. Now we have to go day by day and see what can be done.”
