The Dutch TT champion second quickest over 2.6 kilometers at the Deutschland Tour
A 2.6-kilometer prologue opened the Deutschland Tour and Bauke Mollema covered the short, intense race in 2 minutes and 58 seconds, the second fastest time and one of only three riders to finish under three minutes.
All riders were required to use road bikes, arguably an advantage for Mollema using the new, more aero Madone, the fastest bike ever produced by Trek.
When Mollema crossed the line he set the fastest time and held the hot-seat until World TT Champion Filippo Ganna, one of the final starters and favorite to win, arrived and clipped him by two seconds.
The final starter, another prologue favorite in Nils Politt, flew over the line one-second slower than Mollema, giving the Dutch champion an incredible second place, impressive for a rider who has made a career of racing uphill fast.
Bauke has taken his race against the clock to another level this year. He raced his National Championships time trial for a first time and won. He raced to two top 10 finishes against some of the fastest against the clock in the Tour de France, and to a superb 4th place in the Stage 21 time trial at the Giro d’Italia.
The 35-year-old Dutch climber signed a rare 4-year deal with Trek-Segafredo. His days of riding for the GC may now be over as he now targets one-day races and stages, but he has proved that at any age one can learn new skills in cycling.
9th place for Bauke in the Tour's opening time trial in Copenhagen
🎙 Bauke Mollema:
“It was a nice prologue today and a bit of a special one because it was on the road bike, that was what was allowed, and it was only 2.5km more or less. It was super explosive, super fast and there were just two corners in the end where you had to brake a little bit, or at least where you had to pay attention as they were still fast corners.
“I was really motivated for today. I knew that I was able to do a good result on an effort like this. I have a good three-minute effort in the legs and last week, I did some efforts in training, some short ones, to prepare for this TT. Actually, as I was preparing for this race, I was looking at this prologue more than the rest of the race. I am quite happy with the result and I couldn’t have done more than I did today.
“It was actually nice riding on the Madone, it’s one of the fastest road bikes in the peloton and we also made some small changes to try and be as aero as possible for a TT like this. We changed my handlebar just for 2.5km, changed the crank, some faster tires and I think that worked out pretty well. I have to thank the mechanics for that.
“We will see how good the legs are during the rest of the week. I was not really focussing on the rest of the race as I am just coming back from a break. I have only been training for ten days and I haven’t trained uphill for more than one month as I’ve been in Holland since the Tour so we will just see how the race unfolds and if there are any more possibilities to go for a good result.”
