Omega Pharma - Quick-Step Cycling Team showed their strength on Wednesday in the 32km Giro d'Italia Stage 4 team time trial in Verona, finishing in the top five, and just seconds outside the podium.
"Fantastic job the boys did today," Sports Director Rik van Slycke said. "We are very happy. This confirms what we thought, that we have a strong, solid team with a few young guys who have possibilities to do very well in the time trials. We could see that already a little bit in the prologue, because 3 or 4 of our riders classified well. We convinced them yesterday that we can do very good if we stay together and don't kill each other, and that's what they did perfectly."
Omega Pharma - Quick-Step completed the time trial 24" back from stage winner Garmin-Barracuda (37'04"), but a mere two seconds behind third and fourth place teams Astana and Team Saxo Bank.
"Just two seconds from third place, that would have been amazing," Van Slycke said.
Van Slycke said the team trained on the course during yesterday's rest day, and the tactics they practiced worked out well.
"We tried to set a few things right in training," Van Slycke said. "Today we did that again by telling them who has to lead in the hill of the course, and then who has to turn in the corners, if it was possible. It was a technical course today, with smaller roads and some dangerous corners. We had to be very attentive."
The impressive performance of Omega Pharma - Quick-Step Cycling Team has also done wonders for rider morale.
"Now they have proven to themselves that they are on a good level, that they can do good things in the Giro," Van Slycke said. "We tried to convince them, but now they have convinced themselves that they can have very good performances. It makes them stronger in the head for sure. We hope to see more in the coming days. We have to be very careful, as these are all young men who want to use their energy, which we have to calculate when to use it. But in the coming stages we can do something for sure. We will see how our young riders do. They are doing very well so far."
Ramunas Navardauskas (Garmin-Barracuda) now wears the Maglia Rosa, taking the jersey from Taylor Phinney (BMC Racing Team) by winning the team trial and besting BMC Racing Team (10th place) by 31 seconds.