First Stage of Tirreno-Adriatico Ends Well for Canadians
Canadians battle the rain and avoid crashes to finish well in stage 1 of Tirreno-Adriatico.
Racers contested the first stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico stage race today battling a cold rain in the last 50 of the 148 kilometers from Livorno to Risignano Solvay. This seven-day Italian stage race features two well-known Canadian cyclists: Michael Barry of Team Sky and Ryder Hesjedal of Garmin-Transitions.
Both riders finished the day solidly in the field, Hesjedal finished in 32nd place and Barry finished just behind in 47th place. Today’s stage was won by Linus Gerdemann of Team Milram.
About today’s stage, Barry says the day played out as he expected it would, “It was a fairly straightforward race. There was a breakaway, the peloton set into a paced pursuit and the race more or less ended in a group sprint. The wet weather is what complicated the race slightly as it made it a little trickier and there were a few crashes.”
Hesjedal had similar thoughts on this first stage, “Today was cold and wet as expected.The team was hoping for a bunch sprint for Tyler. Unfortunately a small group snuck away on the last climb and was able to hold it off. I stayed out of trouble and believe I was on same time as the main GC riders. One day down! Stage two should be more difficult with a harder circuit at the end. I will be making sure I stay near the front.”
Tomorrow’s stage, says Barry is, “tough with a hard climb which we will ride up four times. Our goal will be to help out Thomas Lovkvist, Juan Antonio Flecha and Edvald Boasson Hagen as the three of them have a good chance of doing well on, or even winning, the stage and the overall classification.”
