Following the recent win by Russell Downing in the Tour de Wallonie, Team Sky is aiming to take another stage race victory in the days ahead. Morris Possoni is sixth overall heading into today’s third stage of the Vuelta a Burgos, having achieved the same placing on yesterday’s leg to Miranda de Ebro.
He crossed the line nine seconds behind the stage winner and new overall leader Samuel Sánchez, who has clearly shrugged off the injuries he suffered in the Tour de France.
Possoni has shown strong form of late, netting eighth overall in the Tour of Austria and then finishing as runner-up in the Brixia Tour. Directeur sportif Shane Sutton is very pleased by his condition, and also by the way the 26 year old Italian performed yesterday.
“I'm really pleased because it was a great performance from the team, and Morris in particular,” he stated. “He doesn't normally like short, punchy climbs like that at the end there, but he totally committed himself to help bring López back, and when the others really went for it with about 300m to go, he still had enough left in the tank to kick again with them. You can't ask for any more than that.
"The rest of the boys had done a good job to protect him from the wind before it came to that and they're working really well as a unit.”
That group will have a chance to show just how well they gel in today’s team time trial. On paper they should ride very strongly in the discipline, although the absence of Chris Froome could hamper them slightly. However they will be motivated by the realisation that if they bury themselves and put out a great performance, they could seize the purple leader’s jersey.
"We've got the team time trial and as I said yesterday, we're man down due to Froomey's illness,” said Sutton. “But hopefully his absence won't make a massive difference over the 21.3km. If we can post a really good time, Morris might well be up there.
"John-Lee [Augustyn] and Dario [Cioni] are only another 17 seconds behind him as well, so there's the potential to get us right in the mix.”
Possoni has nine seconds to make up on Sanchez. If he succeeds in taking over at the top, the team should be able to keep things together for tomorrow’s lumpy stage to Sallas de los Infantes. Sunday will be a real battle, though, with a number of tough climbs culminating in the gruelling ascent to Laguna de Neila.
Possoni showed strong climbing legs in the Brixia Tour and Sutton believes that he will be in contention. "It's all going to go down to the final stage,” he stated, knowing that whether Possoni is in the lead or simply within striking distance, it will be all about getting everything out by the line.
“There's a massive summit finish which usually sorts the men from the boys, but Morris will be confident after today because he's much more suited to those types of climbs.”
If Possoni manages to pull it off, it would be Team Sky’s third stage race victory of the year. Ben Swift won the Tour de Picardie in May, while Downing triumphed in the aforementioned Tour de Wallonie on July 28th.
It would also give the team a big morale boost prior to lining out in the Vuelta a España later this month.