The first day at the Critérium International included a half-stage in the morning and a short individual time trial in the afternoon. A break-away duo dominated the mostly flat stage over 93 kilometers and the two riders could save a lead of 39 seconds till the finish line.

The GC riders of Bora - Argon 18 crossed the line with the main field, thus heading into the individual time trial over 7 kilometers with no time loss to the favorites. Jose Mendes and Patrick Konrad convinced with a very good result in their fight against the clock. Before the mountain stage tomorrow, they are ranked in 15th and 17th place respectively with a gap of 44 seconds to the leader in the general classification.

”The morning stage didn’t go as expected. After his strong result at the Classica Corsica, the team was focused in Shane today. Patrick prepared the sprint again and Shane had the right wheel for the sprint from the field. Unfortunately someone blocked him so he had to break like a full stop. That happens but in that case you can’t realize any result any more“, comments Bora - Argon 18 Sport Director Christian Pömer the morning stage to the Bora website.

“Instead, the time trial went really great. We invested almost three hours to recon the short course. That was essential so Jose could race risky but extremely save from a technical point of view. It was almost a ride on the level of the pure time trial specialists. Patrick proved again that he is an absolute complete rider. Both aren’t time trial experts, so their results are really great ones. That’s a promising sign for tomorrow”, Pömer continues.

The closing stage of the short tour on Corsica will cover 190 kilometers tomorrow. The day includes six mountain classifications before the riders must conquer the final climb up to the Col de l’Ospedale which is 14 kilometers long.

“We target to finish the race in the Top10 with Jose or Patrick. Both are in a promising position and both are in the shape to climb with the best ones. They will receive the support of the complete team”, Pömer looks ahead to the Sunday.