Etixx - Quick-Step rider Michal Kwiatkowski was confident on his first individual time trial of the road season on Friday, thanks to his condition and his Specialized Shiv bicycle.
The Polish Time Trial Champion finished 2nd, with a time of 20'11", to Adriano Malori (Movistar). Malori crossed the finish line of the 17.4km ITT at 20 minutes and seven seconds. Hugo Houle was 3rd, 5" down on Malori and 1" down on Kwiatkowski.
Kwiatkowski happily spoke about his performance, in which he rode at an average speed of 51.726km/h.
"I'm really happy with my result," Kwiatkowski said. "Four seconds behind a guy like Malori is something I can be happy with. But regardless of the result I felt right on the road, from the start until the end. That's proof that I was well prepared until now. I did some basic training during the winter and I'm actually on the good level. That's pretty surprising for me. But that proves I am going in the right direction at the beginning of the season. It was also really hot today, and I had to warm up inside which meant it was even hotter. But OK, I dealt with it and did my best on the parcours. As for the race, the first part was a descent at always 1 or 2 percent, and a tailwind. So I reached 70 kilometers per hour at times. On the way back it was really hard. There was a headwind and it was slightly uphill. But I could really push on the pedals at that moment. I actually felt really good on the hard part. I also have to say that my feeling on my Specialized Shiv was really good. I felt comfortable and the bike gave me full confidence on all aspects of the course. I am very satisfied today. I don't want to race outside myself at my current condition during this Tour de San Luis, but in a time trial you always have to try to make a progression and use it as a fitness test. My performance shows everything is good at this part of the season. This is just a first step of my season."
Etixx - Quick-Step looks next to 117.5km Stage 6 on Saturday. Though the stage is the shortest distance of all the road races, it has perhaps the most difficult climb of the stage race at the end. Filo Sierras Comechingones (7.8% average gradient) is about 15km in distance, and has ramps between seven and 10 percent. It also finishes at more than 2000 meters.