Team Time Trial – World Championships 2016 [FULL RACE + Ceremony Awards]

October 09, 2016
Team Time Trial – World Championships 2016 [FULL RACE] – Doha – 40 km (TTT)

The UCI world championships are annual competitions promoted by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) to determine world champion cyclists. They are held in several different styles of racing, in a different country each year. Championship winners wear a white jersey with coloured bands around the chest for the following year. The similarity to the colours of a rainbow gives them the colloquial name of “the rainbow jersey.” The first three individuals or teams in each championship win gold, silver and bronze medals. Former world champions are allowed to wear a trim to their collar and sleeves in the same pattern as the rainbow jersey.

Etixx-QuickStep claimed victory in the men’s team time trial at the Road World Championships in Qatar, ousting defending champions BMC Racing, who finished in second with a perfectly drilled performance on the technical 40km course.

Etixx-QuickStep stopped the clock with a time of 42:32, covering the 40km course at an average speed of 56.426km/h. BMC started last as defending champions but struggled to match Etixx’s pace. They eventually finished 11 seconds slower in a time of 42:44. Orica-Bike Exchange was third at a more distant 37 seconds. Team Sky finished fourth at 54 seconds, with LottoNL-Jumbo taking fifth at 55 seconds.

After a protest by the WorldTour teams with the UCI about travel costs, only 10 squads from the 18 WorldTour teams competed. The rest of the rather short start list contained little-known teams from Europe and Asia. As a result, no WorldTour points were awarded.

The Etixx-QuickStep riders and staff celebrated as soon as BMC failed to beat their time, hugging each other in celebration. The Belgian team won the first two editions of the team time trial world title in 2012 and 2013 but their run of success ended with BMC winning in 2014 and 2015.

BMC was arguably the favourite again after winning the recent team time trial at the Eneco Tour, but Etixx added some extra speed and power to the squad this season with the arrival of former Junior time trial world champion Marcel Kittel. Also in the six-rider line-up were Bob Jungels, Yves Lampaert, Tony Martin, Niki Terpstra and Julien Vermote.

The lesser teams started off first in the 40km time trial, with each team taking it steady on the many corners around the Lusail shooting centre. The long, straight 15km section south to Doha proved to be vital, with some riders spinning a 58 chain ring to push their average speed above 60km/h. However the team time trial is also about control.

Movistar’s chances of a medal faded when they had to wait for Jonathan Castroviejo to change bikes. Other teams lost riders too early; with speed, rotation and recovery of six riders the key to success.

Etixx was fastest at the first time split, indicating they handled the early corners well. BMC was four seconds down but then pulled equal, with both teams on 27:56 after 27km. They both switched to a risky four-rider strategy for the many curves and corners on the Pearl, and it was Etixx who found the extra speed and unity to carve out their 11.69 second winning margin. Tony Martin and Marcel Kittel did huge turns to drag the team home so they could celebrate their first world title of the week.

Results :
1 Etixx – Quick Step 0:42:32
Bob Jungels
Marcel Kittel
Yves Lampaert
Tony Martin
Niki Terpstra
Julien Vermote
2 BMC Racing Team 0:00:12
Rohan Dennis
Stefan Kueng
Daniel Oss
Taylor Phinney
Manuel Quinziato
Joseph Rosskopf
3 Orica-BikeExchange 0:00:37
Luke Durbridge
Alexander Edmonson
Michael Hepburn
Daryl Impey
Michael Matthews
Svein Tuft
4 Team Sky 0:00:54
Vasil Kiryienka
Michal Kwiatkowski
Nicolas Roche
Ben Swift
Geraint Thomas
Danny Van Poppel
5 Team Lotto Nl – Jumbo 0:00:55
Victor Campenaerts
Wilco Kelderman
Thomas Leezer
Primož Roglic
Timo Roosen
Jos Van Emden
6 Movistar Team 0:01:11
Andrey Amador Bikkazakova
Jonathan Castroviejo Nicolas
Alex Dowsett
Imanol Erviti
Nelson Filipe Santos Simoes Oliveira
Jasha Sütterlin
7 Team Giant – Alpecin 0:01:26
Søren Kragh Andersen
John Degenkolb
Tom Dumoulin
Chad Haga
Georg Preidler
Ramon Sinkeldam
8 Team Katusha 0:02:01
Sven Erik Bystrøm
Alexander Kristoff
Viacheslav Kuznetsov
Michael Morkov
Nils Politt
Anton Vorobyev
9 Astana Pro Team 0:02:21
Dario Cataldo
Jakob Fuglsang
Andriy Grivko
Tanel Kangert
Alexey Lutsenko
Gatis Smukulis
10 Veranda’s Willems Cycling Team 0:03:39
Sander Cordeel
Jan Ghyselinck
Aidis Kruopis
Christophe Premont
Elias Van Breussegem
Stef Van Zummeren
11 Ag2R La Mondiale 0:03:43
Gediminas Bagdonas
Ben Gastauer
Alexis Gougeard
Patrick Gretsch
Hugo Houle
Christophe Riblon
12 Cycling Academy Team 0:04:25
Guillaume Boivin
Dan Craven
Mihkel Räim
Guy Sagiv
Daniel Turek
Aviv Yechzkel
13 CCC Sprandi Polkowice 0:04:26
Víctor De La Parte
Felix Grossschartner
Nikolay Mihaylov
Lukasz Owsian
Maciej Paterski
Branislau Samoilau
14 Kolss BDC Team 0:05:04
Andrii Bratashchuk
Vitaliy Buts
Mykhaylo Kononenko
Andriy Kulyk
Sergiy Lagkuti
Andriy Vasylyuk
15 Skydive Dubai Pro Cycling Team – Al Ahli Club 0:05:44
Soufiane Haddi
Adil Jelloul
Francisco Mancebo Perez
Murad Tarek Obaid
Andrea Palini
Marlen Zmorka
16 Vino 4-Ever Sko 0:06:31
Stepan Astafyev
Zhandos Bizhigitov
Yevgeniy Gidich
Alexandr Shushemoin
Alexey Voloshin
Oleg Zemlyakov
17 Stradalli – Bike Aid 0:07:24
Joschka Beck
Daniel Bichlmann
Patrick Lechner
Dominik Merseburg
Timo Schäfer
Meron Teshome Hagos