All Lampre-Merida riders approached today's stage of the Tour of Qatar with a different aim: Bono, Richeze and Mario Costa who were all trying to recover from some health problems, did not use too much energy; Ferrari and Modolo did not push too much because they aim to be protagonists in the remaining stages; Pozzato, Plaza and Oliveira tried to do their best with the aim of checking the feeling on their TT bike.

Pozzato's and Plaza's performances were quite good and they obtained 17th and the 18th position respectively: the Italian rider's time was 14'38" (average speed 44,692 km/h) and the Spaniard posted a time of 14'39" (average speed 44,642 km/h).

Pozzato's performance was 35" slower than the one of the winner Terpstra, who's also the new leader of the overall classification.

Unfortunately, Oliveira was still suffering from the contusions that were caused by the crash he got involved in during yesterday's stage. Nonetheless, he finished in the top 30, obtaining the 28th position (+46" on Terpstra).

"We got good feedback from those of our riders who raced the time trial trying to do their best," sports director Philippe Mauduit explained. "Pozzato had a very interesting approach, he did a good warm up and during the race he pedaled fast. For Plaza it was a debut on the Merida Warp TT in a race. That's why it was important for him to check the feeling with the bike: considering that the course was not completely suitable for his characteristics, he can be satisfied with his performance."