Maestri flies: 2nd in the time trial, 6th overall in the Tour Poitou Charentes

Only the defending champion Waerenskjold could beat Mirco Maestri in the Tour Poitou Charentes time trial. The captain of Team Polti Kometa, one of the last riders to start from Menigoute among the GC leaders, completed the challenging 29.2 km to Fontaine-le-Comte in 32’05” and had the thrill of sitting in the hot seat for a few minutes.

After finishing on the final podium in last year’s edition, Mirco is now 6th overall thanks to this brilliant 2nd place. Tomorrow’s ending stage will start from the same finishing location as today and will conclude in the regional capital Poitiers: anything can happen, both due to the particular course layout and the various intermediate sprints that count for time bonuses.

On the header it’s Mirco Maestri, here in the photogallery are the other 6 Polti Kometa athletes

Maestri: “This performance leaves us super satisfied, I’m feeling good and have delivered some of the best numbers of my career. I thank sports director Zanatta behind me for pushing me to my limits. I only regret a few seconds lost on the opening day, however the standings are tight and we’ll need to think about both attacking and defending.”

Stefano Zanatta and Giovanni Ellena were thrilled from the team car: “He flew from the first push out of the blocks and kept a steady pace throughout the race! His average speed was 54.6 km/h, only an ITT monster like the Norwegian from Uno X could do better. Tomorrow, we’ll try to further improve our classification.”