August 10/11 13:54 pm - Tour de l'Ain: Stage 1, Two in the Top-15 for SpiderTech

Posted by Editoress on 08/10/11
 

Results from the 2nd stage of the Tour de l'Ain in France

Two in the Top-15 for SpiderTech at Tour de l'Ain Stage 1

Directeur Sportif Kevin Field explained that in the pre-race plan, "We expected this stage to be a classic sprinter's stage. With Zach, Guillaume and Martin here that was perfect for us. We ultimately wanted a sprint. However we also wanted to show the team in the race and potentially nab some points in the early sprint or KOM climbs."

In our meeting we clearly pointed our fingers at Jimmy Casper, from Saur Sojasun, as the sprinter to watch for the stage. In the end Jimmy won. He has become a specialist in these kinds of races. His team took responsibility to set tempo early in the stage once the break established prior to the first sprint at 23 km. We didn't make that break of the day. But when the dust settled from the early action we were not too upset by that. There are only six man teams in this race and every little bit of extra horsepower would count in the end.

Rabobank and Saur did a great job feathering the gap to the break. A tailwind in the final 15 km made the final catch difficult. The SpiderTech riders assembled as a group inside the final 12 km to set up the final. We expected narrow technical roads leading into a tricky finish. What we experienced wasn't quite like the race book indicated.

The end result for us, in retrospect, is that we committed a bit too early. Even the final corner that looked like a hairpin in the book, wasn't. We were able to dump Martin and Guillaume at that corner in front, but they were swarmed in the long sprint and finished 11th and 12th in the stage.

We hoped for a better result, but in the end we take a lot of satisfaction out of how the guys rode together as a team to set up the sprint. Sprint timing can be tricky, and today the guys learned a good lesson. If we continue to ride the setup like today a great finish is likely.

Tomorrow is a tricky day to predict. It will definitely be a tougher day of climbing, but could end in a sprint or the race could shuffle with a significant break staying away. We'll make a race-plan to try to take advantage of either scenario.

Courtesy Team Spidertech powered by C10