Team Bronze for Durbridge and GreenEDGE
Western Australian cyclist Luke Durbridge has won bronze with GreenEDGE cycling in the team time trial at the 2016 UCI Road World Championships in Doha.
ORICA-BikeExchange continued their excellent history in the Road World Championships on Sunday by taking third place in the elite men’s team time trial in typically hot Qatari conditions.
The Australian outfit crossed the line in 43minutes and nine seconds for the pan flat 40kilometre course, producing an outstanding performance in the heat of the desert behind winner Etixx-Quickstep.
Every member of the six-man team contributed, with Sport director Matt White praising the efforts of the squad and hailing their achievement.
“Really great result and an outstanding effort from the team today,” said White. “Everyone stepped up to another level as soon as we were down the ramp especially Michael Hepburn and Luke Durbridge.”
“Luke was doing one minute turns on the front and really made the difference in the finale whilst the track boys, Michael and Alexander Edmondson switched immediately into competition mode despite the different preparation they had after the Olympics.
“Big Svein Tuft, Daryl Impey and Michael Matthews were also outstanding and as we expected the whole team rode as a tight unit and produced the goods.
“We can hold our heads very high and be happy with our achievement, it was a very fast course with changing wind directions, but to be honest it was a fairly light wind and everyone had to deal with the same conditions.”
How it happened:
As anticipated, hazy and hot conditions welcomed the riders to the start ramp in the Qatari desert with a flat 40kilometre course ahead.
A strong tail wind favoured the teams over the first half of the course with Team Katusha setting the best early time of 44minutes 33seconds.
By the second time split ORICA-BikeExchange had set the fastest time and were on course to achieve a good result.
The technical finish around the man made island, The Pearl, included traffic islands and plenty of road furniture for the riders to negotiate making the maintenance of top speed a real challenge.
Team-Sky nudged Katusha out of the hot seat with 43 minutes 26seconds before ORICA-BikeExchange crossed the line 17seconds faster to take the top spot with Etixx-Quickstep and BMC still to finish.
Etixx-Quickstep took the win and the gold medal by 12seconds ahead of BMC in second place, with ORICA-BikeExchange securing third and the bronze medal.
Road World Championships TTT:
1. Etixx-Quickstep 42:32:39
2. BMC Racing Team 00:11:69
3. ORICA-BikeExchange 00:37:12
– GreenEDGECycling