Marianne Vos spearheads a strong Rabo Team in today's team time trial but admits that big favourites Specialized-Lululemon will be hard to beat. Vos does, however, draw confidence from the fact that they recently got closer than ever before at the Swedish world cup and hopes that a surprise may be in store.

Marianne Vos is used to entering most events as the outstanding favourite but when it comes to today's team time trial at the world championships, she finds herself in the unusual situation of being an underdog. Reigning world champions Specialized-Lululemon have dominated team time trials all season and are expected to continue that trend in today's race.

In the Open de Suede Vargarda team time trial on August 16th, Vos' Rabo Women Team finished 2nd, just 38 seconds behind the American super team. Vos draws confidence from that performance and hopes that's a good omen ahead of today's race where she tries to improve on last year's 4th place.

"Of course Specialized-Lulelemon are the favourites," she told CyclingQuotes.com at the end of her final recon ride. "At the last World Cup we came closer than we've ever been so we take confidence from that. But we have to do our own race and see how far we get."

While the road race course has been described as very hard, the time trial courses are of a completely different nature. Being entirely flat, the route offers long straight roads in the beginning before a more technical sections when the riders get closer to the finish in Florence.

Being up against Specialized's powerful time trial specialists, Vos hopes to benefit from the final section

"It will be really, really fast," she said. "It's really interesting when you pass Piazza Duomo. That's technical. We have a team with good technical riders so we have to take advantage of that part."

The race kicked off at 10.00 CEST. Rabo Women will roll down the ramp at 10.32.30, only followed by last year's top 2 finishers, Orica-AIS and Specialized-Lululemon.