Tony Martin and Sylvain Chavanel, in a challenging 5 corner, 5.7km time trial course with rain slicking the roads, both finished in the top 10 in the Critérium du Dauphiné Prologue on Sunday.
Martin finished 5th, 5" back from stage winner Luke Durbridge (Orica-GreenEDGE), while Chavanel took 8th, 6" back. Gerald Ciolek also took 16th (+09"). Martin left the start house with the first group of riders, while Chavanel went later.
Bradley Wiggins (Sky ProCycling), one of the last riders to leave the start house, finished 1" back. Andriy Grivko (Astana Pro Team) was 3rd, 3" back.
Dries Devenyns finished the time trial despite his wheel slipping on a corner, causing him to crash.
"We took a little bit of a risk with Tony," Sports Director Brian Holm said. "Looking at the forecast it looked like the weather would be better in the beginning of the race. Tony did a good time trial. We are really happy, and even Chavanel at the end did one of his best performances against the clock. We finish this day with a good mood and a good feeling. Dries Devenyns crashed in the roundabout trying to do his best, but fortunately without consequence. So we are pretty happy about the team performance today, and we are looking foward for the next races this week. It will be an important week for us."
