Brilliant performance for Katusha Team in the second stage of “Eneco Tour”, a 18.9 kilometers long team time trial around Sittard: the Russian team stopped the clock at 21’10”, in third position, 2” far from Orica-GreenEdge and 1” far from Omega Pharma-Quick Step. In general classification, Jens Keukeleire (Orica-GreenEdge) is the new leader, thanks to the performance of his team in today’s stage.

“I’m very happy with today’s performance – said Valerio Piva, Head of Sport Directors – I saw our riders very focused during the trainings, so somehow I expected it. Anyways, we lost a good chance to win, both for bad luck and for some mistakes we made due to inexperience. It was very windy, and two metal barriers fell exactly when we were passing through. Moreover, I think we kept a very high pace, as proved by the fact we made the best performance in the first part of the route, and not everybody in the team could handle it: we have to be more careful to manage our energies in these kind of races. Anyways, we lost for just 2”, and we have a very strong potential: this team, with some more trainings together, can become a strong power in team time trials, since we’re already between the best teams, as our results proved”.