Against a very strong competition, Tobias Ludvigsson was up to it on Monday, in the opening time trial of Tirreno-Adriatico. A few weeks after his third place in the prologue of the Tour de la Provence, the Swedish rider once again showed his qualities as a time trialist to take a fine seventh place by the sea, at Lido di Camaiore. The Italian week is off to a good start.
For a change, “The Race of the Two Seas” started with an individual time trial. In recent years, Lido di Camaiore rather hosted online stages or team time trials. On Monday, however, the fourteen kilometres’ route had to be tackled by all the participants, one by one. The deal was however quite simple. “What was particular about this time trial is that it was not technical at all”, explained Julien Pinot. “It was all about power in this time trial. It was a round trip, super flat and therefore very, very fast”. The Groupama-FDJ cycling team kicked off its racing day with Antoine Duchesne shortly before 2:30 p.m. The Canadian completed the course in a time of 16’54’’, and was then followed by Jacopo Guarnieri and Thibaut Pinot. As for Tobias Ludvigsson, he showed up on the ramp at 3.40 p.m. and achieved the third best provisional time on the line 15’49’’ later. With the finish of the last competitors, including the day’s favourites, the Swede slightly slipped back in the rankings, but still remained in the stage’s top-10 by obtaining seventh position, thirty-two seconds behind the undisputed winner Filippo Ganna.
“I can be satisfied with this seventh place”, Tobias Ludvigsson
“I think I did a good time trial,” argued Tobias a little later. “We had a good plan to start a little bit faster on the way out, and that’s what I did. Technical wise, it was good. I also had a good pacing plan from the coaches, and I stuck to it. I felt good but I just exploded a little with three kilometres to go. I think I lost some time towards the end. But I can still be satisfied with this seventh place. I missed a few seconds here or there, but I’m very happy.” “It’s a nice top-10 against a high competition”, added Julien Pinot. “The first four are great time trial specialists. He finished just seven seconds behind Dowsett, who is also a great benchmark in this discipline. It is a good start in this Tirreno-Adriatico. He was the rider who was aiming big today within our team, and we are therefore very satisfied with this performance. As for Arnaud, he did decent time trials in Provence and UAE, so he wanted to also do this one properly. For the others, it was above all a matter of getting the engine started before the next stages”. Tomorrow, a long one of 219 kilometres will take the riders to Sovicille. “It’s a good start, and let’s now look to the sprints with Arnaud and on the other stages for Thibaut”, concluded the man of the day.
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