Fabian Cancellara was fourth last of 175 starters in the short 5.4-kilometer sprint time trial that kicked off Tirreno-Adriatico Wednesday. As he pushed off the start ramp he knew the time to beat was that of Adriano Malori (Movistar) who had set a blistering benchmark of 6:04 (53.407 km/h).

Coming into the final 500 meters Cancellara knew it was close; he grimaced and stomped the pedals as he tried to squeeze out every last ounce of power he could, but when the clocked flashed as he flew over the finish it read 6:05 - a sizzling speed, also over 53km/h, but one second shy of Malori. 

It was close, but not enough.

“I am not so happy about my performance since I did not deliver what I expected of myself,” said Cancellara in a rare admittance that his time trial was not his best effort on the day. “I don’t want to say I made mistakes, but I did not do everything perfectly like I could.  I won’t go into details.  Let’s just say I gave everything - of course - but the way I gave everything does not make me satisfied today.

“Maybe with a win things would be different…I know where I lost this one second and even with a win I would not be totally satisfied. Today was a performance with pure power, and of course I pushed the maximum but there were a few things that did not make me happy.”

“But at 5.4kms this is such a small distance, it’s easier to lose than on 10kms. On this distance more riders have a chance…it is not often that I say that I am disappointed, but for today I can say that I am not happy with my performance.”

Other notable performances from Trek Factory Racing were Markel Irizar in 18th place  (+10”), Jesse Sergent in 23rd (+11”), and Stijn Devolder in 36th (+13”).

“It was a nice course – fast corners – and I felt good until the last 2k where it was a straight piece of road to the finish,” Sergent explained. Sergent was a late addition to the team with the injury of Jasper Stuyven in Strade Bianche Saturday. “There was a little wind and I felt I couldn’t get any more out of myself there. But coming from Three Days of West Flanders I don’t think I was super fresh and on a course like this freshness is really important. But there are still 6 more days of racing and a lot more to focus on and look forward to then just today.”

Trek Factory Racing’s undisputed leader for the WorldTour event is Bauke Mollema, who may have benefited more with the original team time trial that was yanked and replaced with the prologue a few days ago. Mollema finished with a respectable time of 6:19 (+15”), good enough for 50th place.

“Last week I was really looking forward to the team time trial because that is something I like to do and we have a great team here for that; perhaps we could have fought for the victory in the TTT,” Bauke Mollema said about the last minute change organizers made to the opening day. “But we knew the change two days ago, and then we also changed our focus. The warm-up is the same, and the only difference is you have to do it by yourself. But in the end it does not matter so much because the differences in the uphill finishes will be a lot bigger than today.”

Jesse Sergent echoed Mollema’s words: “Coming here and then finding out we are doing a 5k individual prologue instead of a 22k team time trial…no one really had the time to prepare or focus on it in training, and there was only a day and half to change the mentality from that of doing a TTT to a TT. 

“It was probably was not the best change for Bauke who may have profited more from a TTT since we have a really good team here for that.  In 22k he may have made some time on some of the GC guys.”

In the end Mollema finished four seconds faster than overall favorite and no shyster in the race against the clock Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo); a small margin, but a nice omen that he is ready for the week ahead.