After Fabian Cancellara (Trek Factory Racing) set an unbeatable time early on, the final individual time trial stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico would end up being a battle of the seconds between the GC riders. Our Steven Cummings started the day 9th on GC but by finishing 8th on the stage, the Brit managed to secure a credible 6th overall.
The first Team MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung rider to really make an impact on the leader board today was Edvald Boasson Hagen. Eddy crossed the line in 11’49” over the 10km course, which would be good enough for 10th position on the stage. By the time the GC riders got going, Cancellara, Adriano Malori (Movistar) and Vasil Kiryienka (Team Sky) had all but decided the stage podium respectively.
With less than a minute between 2nd & 10th on GC before the stage start, a number of teams were waiting at the finish line with calculator in hand. The biggest move was to be made by Steve as his 8th position on the stage saw him leapfrog from 9th to 6th. Stevo was just 1 second behind Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) and 40″ from the overall victory, a fantastic result for our African team in our first World Tour race of the year.
Nairo Quintana (Movistar) held on to his overall lead to win the tour outright ahead of Bauke Mollema (Trek Factory Racing) and Rigoberto Uran (Etixx-Quickstep).
Jens Zemke – Head of Performance
Huge respect to the boys!!