Later this summer Tiago Machado will make his debut at the Tour de France as he is set to be one of the NetApp-Endura leaders in the race. This week he is fine-tuning his condition in the Tour de Slovenie and he showed that he is ready for his upcoming challenge by taking fourth in the opening time trial.

Tiago Machado took fourth place in the opening time trial of the Tour of Slovenia. At the end of the 8.8-kilometer course, the Portuguese rider from Team NetApp – Endura missed a podium place by as little as one second. Michael Matthews (Orica GreenEdge) set the fastest time, and his win also made him the tour leader. He won out over Kristijan Koren (Cannondale) and Diego Ulissi (Lampre Merida). Three more of the team's riders, Paul Voss (11th place), David de La Cruz (14th place) and Blaz Jarc (16th place), were also among the Top20.

"The fourth place for Tiago is a great result. It's a shame that he just missed the podium – he would have deserved it today. But Tiago didn't want to take any risks this close to the highlight of our season. It was a relatively slippery cobbled surface in the final section and he decided to play it safe. Of course his position in the overall rankings puts us in a confident mood for the rest of the tour. Overall, it was a really good showing by the team. When you get four riders among the top sixteen you almost have to be sorry that there wasn’t any team time trial today," said Christian Pömer, Sport Director of Team NetApp – Endura.

The second stage tomorrow will take the riders over 160 kilometers of demanding terrain from Ribnica to Kocevje. The riders can expect a category 3 climb just 12 kilometers after the start of the stage. Around 40 kilometers before the finish there is a category 1 climb which can bring a selection into the peloton.