News: Double Gold for Sunweb in TTT Worlds

The Men’s and Women’s squads for Team Sunweb won both the Team Time Trial Titles in Bergen on Sunday

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News: Double Gold for Sunweb in TTT Worlds

Team Sunweb completed the double in the team time trial world championships today with the men winning gold with an incredible ride that saw them finish 8″ ahead of their closest rival in Bergen. The win comes after the women claimed gold earlier with an equally impressive performance.

Photo: @TeamSunweb

Men’s Event
Tom Dumoulin, Lennard Kamna, Wilco Kelderman, Soren Kragh Andersen, Michael Matthews and Sam Oomen made up the team and everyone knew what they had to do to get the best performance out on the road. Starting well and setting strong splits at all of the time checks, the team paced their effort perfectly only dropping to four riders in the final kilometres and then setting the fastest split at the finish.

A nervous wait, much like the women’s team endured this morning, was replaced with elation as the final teams came over the finish line unable to match the time of 47’50” set by Team Sunweb. The double wins are the result of hard work put in over the years in developing the best equipment and techniques to allow the riders to build and race to their fullest, and the gold medals are a just reward.

Photo: @TeamSunweb

Tom Dumoulin said after the finish: “It’s crazy, first the women this afternoon and then us. The team was so homogenous, it was absolutely amazing. Normally you’d say that I was the best time trialist on paper but with this team it was so smooth and we had a really good pace and kept it all the way to the line.

“We tried to keep it together especially on the long climb with around 10km to go which just worked out. We were all flying – I don’t have the words. It’s really unexpected but very nice. We knew that we were doing a good time trial but didn’t know the time splits until the finish. It was so close and so tense with BMC but we made it at the end. It’s the team event of the year and we pulled it off.”

Team Sunweb coach Adriaan Helmantel added: “What can I say – this is unreal and so amazing. Of course after the victory of the women it was already amazing, so we took that spirit and also some information into the men’s race. Yesterday, we chose to keep the meeting short as everything was clear – the guys just had to do it together. They really did it in an amazing way.

“From the beginning it was really smooth and the level was really homogenous, and I think we made a difference to the other teams here. We stayed actually until the last kilometer with six, where most others were riding with four. That was a part of our strategy as we knew that we could win a lot of time after the climb and that was also the main reason for the selection of the team. We knew that we needed strong TT riders but also strong climbers as there you could make a difference.

“Of course today is a really big day for the team, here with the men’s and women’s teams working together. It’s a big congratulations to the whole team, everybody who works so hard on all the details and that all fell into place today – it’s amazing.”

Women’s
Ealier in the day, the Women’s Team Sunweb riders won the women’s team time trial world championship. The team, with Lucinda Brand, Leah Kirchmann, Floortje Mackaij, Coryn Rivera, Sabrina Stultiens and Ellen Van Dijk, rode a perfectly paced race over the rolling 42.5km circuit, setting early fastest splits as the sixth team to start. The finishing time was hugely impressive but they had to wait nervously until one by one the other teams failed to better this.

Photo: @TeamSunweb

Ellen Van Dijk said after the race: “It was a really tough course and it was so important not to over pace on the climbs as you blow up the whole team so we really focused on that. That was our strength, we kept it really smooth and it was feeling good all the way. We used each others strengths all the way and we took the win which is incredible.

“This year we really didn’t expect to go for the win but when you do it really as a team like this and use each others strengths in such a good way it’s such a satisfying feeling. We were the underdog and now we’re world champions.”

Team Sunweb coach Hans Timmermans added: “It was an amazing race today. It really was ultimate teamwork to win a TTT in this way, especially looking how we paced it perfectly, giving some time in the beginning but bringing it back at the end. Every rider knew what to do, like Sabrina and Floortje went off on a certain moment for one last suicide pull, according to our plan, they did it to their very very best.

“Ellen was very strong but I have to say there was no weak link in this six rider team. We’ve trained and prepared a lot for this, the commitment was there and I think everybody believed in it. You could feel already in the last few days that everybody was confident and in the end getting this reward shows what we’ve done the whole year, that we’re the best team with a capital T.”

Result

MENS
1 TEAM SUNWEB GER 47:50.42
2 BMC RACING TEAM USA +8.29
3 TEAM SKY GBR +22.35
4 QUICK – STEP FLOORS BEL +35.20
5 ORICA – SCOTT AUS +1:03.21
6 MOVISTAR TEAM ESP +1:19.23
7 TEAM LOTTO NL – JUMBO NED +1:19.58
8 CCC SPRANDI POLKOWICE POL +1:44.05
9 TEAM KATUSHA ALPECIN SUI +1:45.58
10 BORA – HANSGROHE GER +1:55.10
11 ASTANA PRO TEAM KAZ +2:15.79
12 TREK – SEGAFREDO USA +2:49.61
13 JOKER ICOPAL NOR +3:08.09
14 SANGEMINI – MG. K VIS ITA +5:02.06
15 UNO – X HYDROGEN DEVELOPMENT TEAM NOR +5:09.74
16 TEAM FIXIT.NO NOR +5:21.45
17 TEAM SPAREBANKEN SOR NOR +5:30.47

WOMENS
1 TEAM SUNWEB NED 55:41.63
2 BOELS DOLMANS CYCLINGTEAM NED +12.43
3 CERVELO – BIGLA PRO CYCLING TEAM GER +28.03
4 CANYON SRAM RACING GER +1:04.79
5 TEAM VIRTU CYCLING DEN +2:51.52
6 FDJ NOUVELLE AQUITAINE FUTUROSCOPE FRA +3:23.04
7 BTC CITY LJUBLJANA SLO +3:46.58
8 BEPINK COGEAS ITA +4:07.29
9 HITEC PRODUCTS NOR +4:58.84

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