Our next installment of our "Best Moments" series is perhaps the most gratifying for OPQS. After suffering a near devastating blow by losing by less than a second in the Tour de France Stage 4 Team Time Trial, the team had a chance to avenge its loss in Florence for the UCI World TTT Championship.
The 57.2km course came down to the final section to decide who would win between ORICA Green-EDGE and OPQS. ORICA-GreenEDGE, after trailing OPQS for the first parts of the course, managed to pass the third checkpoint 1.45" faster than the OPQS team consisting of Peter Velits, Michal Kwiatkowski, Niki Terpstra, Sylvain Chavanel, Tony Martin, and Kristof Vandewalle. But OPQS saved its best for last. They won with a time of 1:04:16.81 (53.402 km/h). The win was by a difference of .81 seconds.
"The last 10 kilometers were really a test of how deep we could dig," Three-time UCI World TT Champion Tony Martin said. "We took risks to shave time, between our effort and our approach in the corners. Because of our great preparation we knew exactly how to attack those corners. I give all the credit for our preparation to our sport directors. They rebuilt our morale in the final moments with great encouragement — especially Tom Steels. The combination of our parcours knowledge and the cheering of our sport directors was what made the difference in the final section. I'll always remember how the staff gave us that extra boost."
"The last five kilometers were really about what we had within all of our guys, not about their legs," Steels said. "All six guys are great time trial riders, but sometimes the best team doesn't always win in a time trial. It's the guys who give every ounce of energy — that includes pushing when you feel you have nothing left to give. That part is more mental than anything. I may have helped them win their second straight World TTT Championship, but all I did was prepare them and draw out of each of the riders what was already there to begin with. For sure, this victory was particularly special because of what happened at the Tour de France. But it was also special because of how hard we had to work for the gold medal. We had a true competitor in ORICA-GreenEDGE and I think that 'rivalry' really made the cycling world pay attention that day. It was a beautiful win all around."