After months of meticulous preparation, the waiting time is finally over and the GC riders have to be ready right from the beginning of the 2015 Giro d’Italia. For the second year in a row the race kicks off with a team time trial which is held in a spectacular setting on a bike bath along the Ligurian coast, and even though time gaps will be small on the short, flat and non-technical ride, it will be important to get the race off to a good start. At the same time, the stage is of huge importance for those sprinters and classics riders that have set their sights on a stint in pink during the first week and they need to stay in contention on the difficult opening day.

 

The course

After the spectacular start in Belfast, the Grande Partenza is back on Italian soil for the 2015 edition of the first grand tour. However, the opening stage is very similar to the one that kicked off the show in Northern Ireland one year ago. While the Tour de France has mostly started with a prologue, the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a Espana have often preferred to kick off their event with the discipline that is widely regarded as the most beautiful in cycling.

 

A team time trial is the perfect way to present the squads, their rosters and their ambitions and for the second year in a row, it will be the collective discipline that starts the event. RCS have had team time trials on the opening stage for most of the past decade, with the 2012 and 2013 being the recent exceptions. They have mostly been flat affairs suited to specialists and have always been kept at a pretty short distance which means that the time differences are usually limited.

 

This year’s course is 17.6km long, starts in a spectacular setting on the Ligurian coast in the city of San Lorenzo al Mare and finishes in one of the most iconic cycling cities, Sanremo. This TTT stage is raced almost entirely along the “Cycling Riviera” cycle path that features, on average, a narrow roadway (this was the former railway, hard-surfaced and re-arranged) and a few well-lighted tunnels along the course. Half-distance, in Arma di Taggia, two sharp turns and an underpass lead out of the cycle path, on to the split-time recording point at the 9.9km mark, and then back to the cycle path, up to the home straight on Lungomare Italo Calvino (where the finish line of Milano-Sanremo was set from 2008 to 2014). The stage profile features no challenging points and is completely flat.

 

The last kilometres run entirely across the city, and mostly along the “Cycling Riviera” cycle path. The route leaves the bike lane with a double turn approx. 500 m from the finish line, up to the final right-hand half-bend leading to the 250-m long home straight, on 7-m wide asphalt road.

 

Sanremo doesn’t often feature on the Giro d’Italia course but hast hosted a stage finish 11 times in the past, most recently in 2001 when the riders tackled a difficult stage in its hilly hinterland in 2001. Pietro Caucchioli beat Jose Azevedo in a 2-rider sprint while Jan Ullrich took third 27 seconds later. Last year’s team time trial was won by Orica-GreenEDGE who put Svein Tuft in the maglia rosa on his birthday. In 2011, HTC-Highroad took the win on the opening day in Torino to give Marco Pinotti a stint in pink and they were also the fastest in 2009 when Mark Cavendish took the early lead. In 2008, Garmin-Chipotle won the opener while Liquigas set Danilo Di Luca up for the overall victory by winning the 2007 opener even though it was Enrico Gasparotto who took the early lead under slightly controversial circumstances.

 

 

 

The weather

In the last few years, professional bike riders have not had fond memories of Sanremo as the recent editions of Milan-Sanremo have been marred by bad weather. However, the riders at the Giro d’Italia will get a chance to see how the coastal city looks in sunshine as they will have perfect conditions for the start of the race. Bright sunshine is forecasted all day and the temperature will reach a maximum of a pleasant 18 degrees towards the end of the stage.

 

Last year the rainy conditions created vastly different conditions for the teams and the weather significantly impacted the result. That won’t be the case in 2015. In addition to the dry conditions, there will be a constant moderate wind from a southwesterly direction. This means that the riders will have a cross-headwind for the entire stage and that will put a small dampener to the speeds in what will be a very fast stage.

 

The favourites

The Giro d’Italia organizers are always looking for a spectacular scene for the opening stage and this year they have definitely designed a beautiful start to the stage. With sunshine on the horizon, we should get some beautiful images of the Ligurian coast and the fact that a big part of the stage will take place on a bike path will make the opening team time trial truly unique.

 

While the spectators will enjoy the spectacle, it will be a very important day for the riders who cannot allow themselves to look at the scenery in what will be 20 minutes of pure suffering. With this kind of opening stage, time gaps will be created right from the beginning and this makes it an objective for almost all teams. In this kind of short, flat, non-technical team time trial, the time gaps are always very small and the time differences created here are unlikely to play much of a role in Milan on May 31. However, the result will set the tone for the first week of the race and impact the mood in the team camp so from a psychological point of view it will be crucial to get the race off to a good start.

 

For other riders, the stage is even more important. For Philippe Gilbert, the main goal in this race is to take the maglia rosa during the tricky first week and to do so he has to remain within a reasonable distance at the end of today’s stage. Simon Gerrans has done nothing to hide that he has similar plans and a few sprinters will also hope to stay within 10 seconds of the race lead as this would allow them to take the jersey if they can win the opening road stage to Genova. Even though different teams have different goals, no one will hold anything back when they roll down the ramp in San Lorenzo Al Mare.

 

However, one team is probably more focused on this stage that anyone else. Orica-GreenEDGE won the opening team time trial in 2015 and they have made the collective discipline one of their big specialties. They always put huge emphasis on the team time trials and whenever they have the chance to go test themselves in such an event, they select a big part of the roster with an eye on this stage. In the Giro, there is the added value of the maglia rosa which makes it even more important. Last year a win in the opening stage set them up for a memorable first week and they will do their utmost to get the race off to a similar start.

 

Hence, the roster clearly reflects their desire to do well on the opening stage. Riders like Michael Hepburn, Luke Durbridge, Sam Bewley and Brett Lancaster are all very strong on the flats and even though they are likely to play an important role in the lead-outs later in the race, it is hard not to get the impression that their selection is highly based on the opening stage. In fact, Sven Tuft was also scheduled to ride after he memorably took the maglia rosa on his birthday in 2014 – a feat he could repeat this year as the opening again will take place on May 9 – but the strong Canadian suffered a bad crash in the Tour de Romandie to put an end to what has been a disastrous spring campaign for him.

 

Tuft’s absence clearly makes the team weaker but on paper the team has the biggest amount of firepower for this kind of stage. The completely flat course means that it is all about pushing big gears and having big engines and that’s what Orica-GreenEDGE do better than anyone else. Furthermore, they have plenty of experience in riding team time trials and the core of the team has been practicing this discipline for a couple of years. Simon Gerrans, Michael Matthews, Simon Clarke and Pieter Weening can also set a decent pace in this of event and only Johan Esteban Chaves will probably suffer a bit when he tries to keep up with the powerhouses. On paper the team may not be quite as strong as it was last year but they must be the favourites to win the stage.

 

That means that it will be interesting to see which rider will cross the line in first position. Last year Tuft got the chance but this year it has to be another rider. We wouldn’t be surprised to see Gerrans in the maglia rosa which would be a great way to turn things around for the star rider after an injury-plagued spring.

 

In the Tour de Romandie, Orica-GreenEDGE were beaten by Team Sky by less than a second. Even though they have an almost completely different roster for this race, the Brits could again be their biggest rivals. The roster is loaded with time trialling talent and even though they would definitely have preferred a hillier course, they should get Richie Porte’s race off to a great start.

 

Vasil Kiryienka, Leopold König, Kanstantsin Siutsou and Porte are all time trial specialists while a track rider like Elia Viviani can also do very well in this kind of high-speed test. Salvatore Puccio has been part of team time trial winning squads in the past and Bernhard Eisel has a huge experience in the discipline even though he hates time trials. Climbers Mikel Nieve and Sebastian Henao will suffer but that won’t be a major issue as almost all teams have tiny climbers who can do little contribution. With a highly motivated Porte at the helm, Sky should be close to the win and it would be no surprise to see them try to put home rider Viviani into the pink jersey.

 

Some years ago Tinkoff-Saxo were among the best teams for team time trials but for a couple of season that hasn’t been the case. However, they are now ready to again contend for wins in this unique discipline and they have gathered a formidable roster in Italy. Manuele Boaro, Christopher Juul Jensen, Michael Rogers, Roman Kreuziger, Sergio Paulinho and Alberto Contador are all good time triallists while Matteo Tosatto has the speed to ride fast on the flats. Like Sky they would have preferred a hillier course but they have a very homogeneous team that should be able to do really well.

 

Contador will be highly motivated to get the race off to a good start and the first battle with Richie Porte could also be the battle for the stage win. If Tinkoff-Saxo come out on top, we would expect one of the three local riders Tosatto, Basso or Boaro or maybe veteran Rogers to take the jersey.

 

In the Tour de Romandie, Katusha did a great team time trial that saw them finish third, just 5 seconds behind winners Sky. In this race, they have a team that is almost identical to the one they had in Switzerland and they should again be among the best. In fact, they have a very homogeneous roster with lots of time triallists and no really weak links and they are probably the most complete team for this event.

 

Anton Vorobyev will be the main powerhouse while Ilnur Zakarin, Maxim Belkov, Sergei Chernetskii and Alexander Porsev will also deliver a significant amount of firepower. However, the course is less suited to the Russians than the one in Romandie as there will be no climb. In Switzerland, they mainly made the difference on the late ascent and this course may be a bit too flat for them to take the win.

 

BMC are the reigning world champions and as usual they have a very strong team for this discipline. However, Silvan Dillier is the only rider who was part of their winning ride in Ponferrada and they don’t have their biggest specialists at their disposal. Nonetheless, rising star Stefan Küng will be on the start ramp and he should find this course to his liking. Brent Bookwalter, Rick Zabel and Philippe Gilbert can all do well in this kind of event too but the rest of the team may not be strong enough for the Americans to realistically contend for the win. Due to his injuries, Gilbert has lowered his ambitions but it will still be important for them to be close to the top to keep the pink dreams alive.

 

In the past, Etixx-QuickStep have dominated the team time trials but for once we can’t expect them to be in contention for the win. In this race, Rigoberto Uran and Tom Boonen are the only real specialists in this kind of event and they don’t have the amount of firepower they have had in the past. Pieter Serry was part of the roster for last year’s Worlds and like Maxime Bouet and Petr Vakoc he can do a decent time trial but they are no real specialists. However, no one expected a great performance by the team last year in Belfast and back then they were still among the best. They are unlikely to win the stage but they should be capable of a good ride.

 

Astana have a formidable line-up of climbers but the team also have a couple of strong time triallists. Dario Cataldo, Tanel Kangert and Luis Leon Sanchez are all contenders in most TTs and they should be able to make sure that Fabio Aru gets the race off to a solid start. The Kazakh team always do well in team time trials and this year they should again be among the best. There are too many climbers on the roster for them to win the stage but Aru should be able to limit his losses.

 

Finally, we will select a few jokers. On paper, Movistar rarely have a very good team for team time trials but they usually end up among the best. They have always put a lot of emphasis on the discipline which is dear to manager Eusebio Unzue’s heart. This means that they should again be in the mix in this stage but they will probably not be in contention for the win. Their biggest specialists are all absent and even though Andrey Amador, Ion Izagirre, Benat Intxausti and Giovanni Visconti are all strong time triallists, they need a hillier course to really shine.

 

IAM have never been known as a team for team time trials but for this race they really have a strong team. Sylvain Chavanel has always been one of the best in this discipline and Stef Clement seems to have rediscovered the TT legs that he had lost. Heinrich Haussler, Aleksejs Saramotins and Roger Kluge can all ride very fast on the flats and they really have a significant amount of firepower for this flat course. The Swiss team may be capable of a surprise ride along the Ligurian coast.

 

While most teams have an eye on the GC, Trek are here mainly to support Giacomo Nizzolo. This means that they have a team mostly made up of led-out riders who have the speed to ride fast on the flats. This means that they are perfectly suited to this course. With Kristof Vandewalle as the big leader, they can also rely on the in-form Fabio Felline, Nizzolo, Marco Coledan, Fabio Silvestre, Eugenio Alafaci and Boy van Poppel. Only Felline and Vandewalle may be real TT specialists but on this kind of course the sprint-heavy team should do well.

 

CyclingQuotes’ stage winner pick: Orica-GreenEDGE

Other winner candidates: Team Sky, Tinkoff-Saxo

Outsiders: Katusha, BMC, Etixx-QuickStep Astana

Jokers: Movistar, IAM, Trek