Following a gold medal in the Women’s Team Time Trial World Championships, the men’s team followed up with an equally impressive double by winning their Team Time Trial Championships this afternoon. It was another superb display of pacing over the 42.5km course that saw the team finish 8″ ahead of their nearest rivals.

Tom Dumoulin (NED), Lennard Kämna (GER), Wilco Keldermann (NED), Soren Kragh Andersen (DEN), Michael Matthews (AUS) and Sam Oomen (NED) formed the six rider team that raced around the circuit in Bergen in a time of 47’50“.

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 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.

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 (NED) 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.“

MEDIA CENTRE

Access our media centre to download
copyright free photos and video content.