San Benedetto del Tronto, Tuesday 16th March – A 3rd place in the overall for Team Bahrain Victorious and rider Mikel Landa. Among the strong contenders who participated in this prestigious and 56-year-old race, the team leader Mikel Landa battled from day one until the last time trial kilometer in San Benedetto del Tronto.
Tirreno-Adriatico was the first stage race for Mikel Landa, who is preparing for his significant goal of the season – Giro d’Italia. This race is one of the races where riders test their performance before the Grand Tour in Italy. Landa came into the race with ambitious goals, despite him only starting racing in mid-March.
After the first flat stage along the Tirreno coast, the battle began in the Tuscany hills. The famous queen stage started to make a time difference among riders, and Mikel succeeded in climbing up Prati di Tivo and retaining 4th in the GC, and making time up against his rivals for the podium. That gave him confidence the next day when it was the most challenging stage due to the rain and cold. Mikel showed that he and his team-mates would be dangerous contenders for the battle of this year’s Giro moving Mikel up to 3rd. The penultimate stage seemed easy, but a mechanical problem made it a bit stressful. The team worked well together in bringing Landa back up to the Peloton. It was the final stage where Mikel proved his strong form putting on a solid display in the Time Trial to retain his GC position.
After the final individual time trial stage on the Adriatic coast, Mikel Landa commented on his success: “I’m very happy. Before starting the race, we knew that it could be difficult to be also in the top ten as there were very good contenders here and so to finish on the podium is great. The hardest stage was the fifth one due to rain, cold weather, and the final tough circuit, and the queen stage in Prati di Tivo was where I built this podium.
Today, in the end, I felt well, but at the beginning of the time trial, I couldn’t find a perfect pace. Anyway, I’m happy because I succeeded in keeping the podium. My next race will be the Itzulia (Basque Country), and my goal will be to be on the podium again and, if possible, to win a stage.”
Team Sports Director Gorazd Štangelj concluded the race with the comment: “The expectations need to always be high as those we put in this race. Our goals were high, and day by day, we moved up in the GC with Mikel. It was not easy at all, and we suffered a bit in the last few days. Also, the time trial could be a tricky one. But in the end, we did it. It was an open race, with two outstanding guys on the podium, but for the third place, the battle was big, and we showed that both as a team and as Mikel, we did a great job from the first to the last day”.
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