The first team time trial of the season ended with a brilliant third place for Team Jayco AlUla today at the Trofeo Ses Salines, after a strong showing over the tricky 23.8 kilometre course.
The ‘purple train’ finished just 17 seconds behind the winning team, pacing themselves over the fast and untechnical first half, before a more challenging second half of the race. After a U turn, at the 11 kilometres split, a strong headwind put all teams to the test and proved to be the section where the race was lost or won.
The Australian squad worked well to maintain a high speed and steady pace, keeping the riders together for the most part, before one final big effort towards the finish line, riding themselves onto the podium to display a real team effort.
Jasha Sütterlin
“I think today was a super result for us at this time of the season. The first part of the race went smoothly with a high speed and everybody did a really good job until the U turn into the head/crosswind section to the finish. The guys started to do some short pulls to keep the speed high, me and Matthews tried to then do the pulls as long as possible that everybody could recover and we managed to stay all together for as long as possible towards the last 5km. In the end, we lost three guys and we managed very well to keep the speed and then finish on the podium in third place.”
David McPartland – Sport Director
“We’re very satisfied with our race. All our riders did their job, and we showed that we’re working hard for the future. It was an important race, especially in view of the Tour de France TTT, because there aren’t many opportunities to race together in a team time trial event during the season.”
Trofeo Ses Salines results:
- Red Bull BORA-hansgrohe 23:55
- Movistar Team 0:04
- Team Jayco AlUla 0:17
