Philip Deignan (second in line) gets his Giro del Trentino off to a good start with a solid ride in today's opening team time trial.
By Gerard Cromwell
Having recovered from a bout of sickness that saw him skip the recent Tour of the Basque Country, Philip Deignan returned to action for Team Sky at the Giro del Trentino in Italy today.
Despite lining up at the race with only six riders, compared to the eight-man rosters of the other teams, Sky finished third in the opening day team time trial.
BMC, led across the line by local rider Daniel Oss, took stage victory in the 14.3-kilometre race against the clock, beating NetApp Endura by 15 seconds with Team Sky a further four seconds back.
“It was fast, really fast,” admitted Deignan of his comeback ride.
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“We only had six guys, but as a unit everybody rode really strongly. It was a bit of a shock to the system for me as I haven’t raced much this year. I had a good two weeks at home training but you can’t replicate this sort of thing.
“It was quite a technical course but most of the corners were quite fast and you didn’t have to brake for many of them. Luckily it stayed dry too as the rain was threatening a bit just as we were warming up.”
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Deignan will look to get some racing kilometres into his legs ahead of the Giro d'Italia next month and lines up in Italy alongside Bradley Wiggins, Dario Cataldo, Kanstantin Sioutsou, Salvatore Puccio and Ian Boswell for the four day race.
“We knew it would be an interesting stage starting with a limited number of riders,"said directeur sportif Dario Cioni afterwards.
"But there was no doubting the quality of the team we do have here. There were a few small mistakes, but when you go full gas in a team time trial that is sometimes what happens. The guys had a really good ride, especially in the second half.
“Even though there were just six of them, they didn’t lose time to any other team. So that was impressive and it means they have a good condition.
"We knew Brad was on form after Roubaix. We have Philip in there who is still returning from a long break following injury. We had Cataldo and Kosta coming down from a training camp at altitude, so maybe they didn’t have the ideal run-in to the race.”
Although Wiggins seems to be on flying form after an impressive Paris-Roubaix last week, Cioni says the squad will now look to Cataldo and Sioutsiou as the race heads into the mountains tomorrow for the first of three road stages.
“Being in third puts us in a really good position tactically," says Cioni.
"On paper, tomorrow should be the easiest of the three mountain stages. It will be about seeing where everyone is.
"Cataldo and Kosta have the chance to ride for GC, while for Brad it’s an important training block as he builds towards California. It’s the first climbing he’s done since the Classics so he’ll see how he feels on the day.”
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