BORA – ARGON 18 time trial specialist Jan Barta has demonstrated his skills on the fourth stage of the Tour of Bavaria. The 30-years-old Czech, third in the time trial of the last Tour de France, posted the third best time on the course over 26.1 kilometers in Bavarian Hassfurt. He was beaten only by his former teammate Tiago Machado (Katusha) and the current holder of the Hour Record Alex Dowsett (Movistar).

With this result, Barta placed himself also in third place overall ahead of tomorrow's final stage of the single German professional stage race. After his two stage wins Sam Bennett leads the sprint classification of the tour.

Barta had definitely planned on a better position today but was fine with his result in the end: "I am not really happy with this third place. The course wasn't so easy to ride. Unfortunately I didn't have enough strength for a first or second place. But if I can defend my third place overall, this result shall be ok for me." 

"Jan rode a very good time trial. He started very quickly and has kept the fast pace to the finish. He made no mistakes. It’s OK, that two riders were even faster. We are absolutely satisfied with his performance. Given the fierce TT competition here, for us it was clear that you have to be in an absolute top form to win. For this, the preparation was not optimal for Jan. After his illness we had to change the program and he has thus left out a lot of races. Jan is not at 100% yet", says Enrico Poitschke, sports director of BORA – ARGON 18.

"Tomorrow, we’ll focus to defend the third place in the overall standings. Since the gaps are very tight both at the top as well as at the third place one can expect a hard-fought day for the bonus seconds until the final sprint", predicts Poitschke.