Tinkoff-Saxo came fourth in TTT

Roman along with his Saxo-Tinkoff teammates took fourth in the 18.5-km team time trial that featured the opening prologue of the Tirreno-Adriatico race in Italy.

The Omega Pharma-Quick Step riders celebrated the victory, while the Tinkoff-Saxo squad lost 24 seconds on the victorious team. “Our team performed really well today. As for myself, it wasn’t my day and I was rather the weak link in our train. At the very beginning, I missed out on getting back into slipstream so I had a small gap that I had to bridge. It cost me a great deal of energy but I stayed with my teammates, which is most important. Luckily, in the second half I felt much better,” said Roman.

He was happy about the ride of his team. “The Quick Step and Orica have really good time trialist on their teams, they were a bit better. I just feel disappointed that Movistar finished ahead of us but, all in all, the gaps were quite small,” he admitted.

The main leader of the Saxo-Tinkoff team is Alberto Contador. “He was excellent today. The major goal is to make sure that he scores the best possible result. I am supposed to be his lieutenant in the mountains and stay with him as long as possible. We will see how it goes. I don’t feel bad so I would like to get a good result myself but the main priority of the team is the success of Alberto,” he added.

Team Time trial (18.5 km): 1. Omega Pharma-Quick Step 20:13, 2. Orica GreenEDGE +11, 3. Movistar +18, 4. Tinkoff-Saxo +24, 5. Cannondale +26, 6. Sky +27.;