Watts against the wind
It was a wild and windy day on the Spanish coast for stage two of Volta Comunitat Valenciana. The conditions for the 17-kilometre individual time trial were extreme enough for race organisers to decide that finishing times would not count towards the overall general classification and that all riders would compete on road bikes rather than time trial bikes.
Despite the turbulent weather, Mathias Vacek showed his strong engine and came third on the stage, just 16-seconds behind individual time trial world champion and winner of the day, Remco Evenepoel. Mathias Norsgaard also finished inside the top-10, giving the team plenty of confidence with three exciting stages still to come this week.
Immediate race reaction…
“I knew it would be windy already, but during the recon it was surprising how dangerous it was. They decided to remove the time trial bike and use a normal bike to be safe and have no danger on the course. Nothing changed for me, I was still going for it and trying to take the stage. I knew Remco would be strong and he would go for it too. It was a good time trial to start the season. Even though I was on a normal bike I am satisfied with how it went and confident for the next stages.”
Fighting on for Mads
“Mads was the leader and the man of the team so it was bad for him [to crash on stage one] and I’m sorry he started the season like this. But he is mentally strong and will be back soon even stronger, so I wish him the best. We are still here fighting for him and for the team. The shape is quite good, the level is high here so it will not be easy to win a stage but I’ll do my best, I am confident and we will see how it goes.”
