“It's tricky and you have to find a good balance between taking risks and not losing time. It will be a really nice worlds”
Twelve months after winning gold in both the individual time trial and the team time trial at the world championship, Tony Martin has said that he likes the look of Sunday’s TTT course.
“It's a really nice parcours,” said Martin after he and the other five riders on the team rode the 57.2 kilometre course on Saturday. “There are three points you really have to know, especially at the finish where it gets tricky. There are small roads there. It's tricky and you have to find a good balance between taking risks and not losing time. I think it will be a really nice Worlds. It’s pretty fast.”
Martin and the rest of the team were quickest last year, beating the BMC Racing Team and Orica GreenEdge to the gold medal. He names those two as rivals, as expected, but will do his utmost to help his team-mates win. He believes that they have a chance of defending the title.
“I think BMC and Orica are the top teams, but for sure we are as well,” he said. “We are the defending UCI World TTT Champions. For me, we are one of the best teams, but we still have to consider other teams are working hard for the success here. To win is not sure, but we are pretty confident in our abilities.”
Martin has shown fine form this year, although he had a knock to his morale in the Vuelta a España when he was beaten by Fabian Cancellara (RadioShack Leopard) in the Tarazona time trial.
Martin has won the last two editions of the individual time trial at the worlds, but will face competition from the big Swiss rider, who previously dominated the event.
The team time trial is the first focus, though, with the riders going to concentrate on that before thinking too much about the later events.
According to the team’s sport and development manager Rolf Aldag, they should have the best technical help on Sunday.
“As for the equipment and material, it is the best we can have for this moment,” he said. “We checked every little detail, and not only the bike but the clothes — like the high quality skinsuits by Vermarc. We are really 100 percent. This is not something you want to take risks on. You can always have good luck or bad luck, and for sure we don't want to take any risks with new equipment.
“We will try to also take advantage of the data collected in Zolder a few weeks ago, in the tests we did with Specialized. We think the great work of Specialized and our mechanics in Italy in the last two days has prepared us very well, so thanks to them for their effort.”
Two of Martin’s team-mates also gave their thoughts on the course. Niki Terpstra described it as a ‘super fast parcours,’ and said he believed that the difference would be made in the first part, on the climb and in the last part in the city. He sees the mid second as mainly been about keeping the momentum going.
As for Peter Velits, he too describes it as a very good parcours and says he believes that it is ‘absolutely not boring.’
“After the first part there is a climb, then there are a long stretches that are completely flat. But then there are also roundabouts and small corners, so you have to always stay focused,” he explained.
“Also it is really nice when you are arrive in the final and enter the city of Florence. It is quite technical. It will be important to switch the mind from long distances of flat and not very technical to a technical final.”
The women’s TTT will also take place Sunday, on what is the opening day of this year’s worlds.