- Team BMC have been one of the,
if not the, dominant force in team time trialling
over the last few years,
and we have the privilege of following them today
as they prepare for the opening team time trial
at La Vuelta.
(upbeat electronic rock music)
Here now with Marco Pinotti,
who is known as The Professor as a rider.
He's certainly living up to that name since he's retired,
now a key part of the performance team here at BMC.
- Yes, I work as a coach,
and I specialise in time trial training and team time trial.
That's why I'm here in Spain.
- So you just have kindly let us follow the team.
They've done a couple of efforts
in the team time trial formation today.
Give us the idea behind those efforts
in today's training ride.
- Yeah, the basic idea is just to remind them
the type of race they are going to do next Saturday.
We do these a lot in training camp
and other moments during the year.
But those rider in particular, they have never been together
so it's good to have those feelings again of going hard
and technical skill.
Just a short reminder.
And then we get an idea of the line, as well.
Even if the course of Saturday is more technical
than the one we use today, because the traffic is open.
- You love a good time trial, don't you?
Both individual and team time trial.
Very successful at both,
but what are the secrets behind a good team time trial?
- Well you have to start fast but not stupid.
So it's really about measuring your effort as a team,
and really its about keeping everything smooth ...
fast. Say if its through a corner or up a hill,
making sure ...
it's like a team's pursuit.
You wanna go as fast as your slowest rider,
and if you have to finish with four
you go as fast as your fourth rider.
- Does that mean you have to hold yourself back sometimes
when there's some non time trialling climbers in the squad?
- Yeah, there's a fine line of say I might pull longer
and someone else pulls shorter,
but the key is to basically everyone gets to the finish
just as buckled as one another.
Everyone does the same amount of work as each other,
relative to your specialty.
- Through training we've seen that also what we've found
was not so strong.
They played an important role and we have across the team.
Most of the riders that were winning
at team time trial with us.
So, that means that we don't win
because we have certain riders
and because we train a lot.
- One question I'm interested to know the answer to.
Here at La Vuelta all your guys are quite big,
but sometimes a big discrepancy in the size of riders.
So in that situation
how do you decided the order on the road,
cause of course a tall rider's not going to get much benefit
from drafting behind a small climber.
- Yeah, it depends on the course,
but let's say on a straightforward, flat course.
In extreme cases we even decide the rider not to pull,
Like we had last year.
Most of the time was just sitting up,
and the last position.
Other time where an average rider like,
or consider a climber like Caruso.
They can do a pretty good job, and just do a shorter pull,
or play a certain role in some part of the race
was sitting up on the others.
(upbeat electronic rock music)
- I have to say, it's very impressive up close.
I mean, it's all very well banning about these numbers
like 60 k's per hour on the flat,
but that is actually what we are doing on the speed out here
at the moment on a completely flat road just in training.
But it's like poetry in motion, they're just so smooth.
(upbeat electronic rock music)
This is Jurgen Landrie.
He's actually a former teammate of mine from 2004,
quite a long time ago now.
He's now performance mechanic,
and he only works on these time trial bikes,
which I think is something fairly unique
even in the world.
So when did that come about, Jurgen, that you transferred
from working on all bikes to just the TT bikes?
- Well it started a few years ago,
because it's always difficult when you have a Grand Tour
and you have the time trial bikes in the truck
and they take too much space.
So for me my job started
as just travelling with just the time trial bikes,
and then you get into the details with all the bikes,
and then I got that job from the team,
only to focus on time trials.
- Cause as the bikes become increasingly aerodynamic
and slick-looking,
presumably they get slightly harder to work on as well.
- Well it is because all the cables there inside.
Of course that's an advantage for aerodynamics,
but the problem is, you don't see what's happening inside
so it's really something that you have to focus on.
- All our bikes are perfectly looked after by Jurgen.
And really, well ...
we can't be any more better off
when it comes to equipment.
We've got the best wheels we could possible have,
and the bikes have been ...
They've been working on them for four years
in the wind tunnel to develop this new time machine, so,
we've got no excuse.
Behind the scenes they work really hard
just to make sure the bike is fast
and especially with myself they've done a lot of testing
in wind tunnels, on the track,
for helmets, skin suits, and everything.
So I've got no excuse
except for I haven't trained hard enough.
- With the specifics of this course on Saturday
Rounding very technical in the beginning
a couple of corners at the end as well.
So there's not that much of an opportunity
for the riders to really put the power down.
So what will be the strategy for something like that?
- Yeah you made a good point.
First of all, we want to see the course
when it's closed on Saturday,
because it always looks more technical than it is.
But this is a course where you never find the rhythm
it looks like.
So it will be ...
I think the margin will be smaller
between the teams,
and we need to maybe use more riders
who have good riding skill with the time trial bike.
- One final question
In Rohan Dennis you've got one of the strongest
individual time trialists in the world.
Can that sometimes be problematic
to have such a strong guy on a team time trialist spot.
Can he put the others into the red?
- Let's put it this way,
I'd rather have Rohan Dennis than not having him.
(chuckles)
- A huge thank you from GCN Team BMC for allowing us
to follow them for the morning.
I hope you found that fairly fascinating as I did.
Incredible watching them out on the road in full flow,
even in training mode I have to say.
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