The second Tour of Spain for Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux started this Friday with a team time trial in the streets of Utrecht. This race against the clock was ridden on an entirely flat parcours of 23.3 kilometer through the birth city of Boy van Poppel. The second team to start at 18h34 concluded the race in 26 minutes 05.
At the age of 22, Danish rider Julius Johansen made his Grand Tour debut in this opening stage. The former world champion and world record holder in the team pursuit guided his teammates through this particular exercise, which was organized in a Grand Tour for the first time since 2019.
« I really enjoyed the Grand Départ in Utrecht! In the first stage of my Grand Tour debut I could benefit from my experience in the team pursuit. Usually young riders like me listen to the advice of the more experienced teammates. But in the preparation towards this team time trial I received the responsibility to guide the team. Earlier this week, we trained twice on the Sportpark in Sloten Amsterdam to develop automatisms and we benefited from that today. Despite the wet roads in the beginning of our race we managed to limit the damage with our competitors for the general classification. I’m looking forward to the next stages, because I’m convinced about the chances of Gerben Thijssen. If we manage to stay together and to bring him to the right wheel like in the Tour de Pologne, everything is possible! »
