Photo Credits: Cor Vos

After yesterday’s foray into the desert and the echelon action that ensued, today the bunch were met with a 13 kilometre long pan-flat individual time trial; and the team’s first outing on their Scott Plasma TT machines. Although it featured sweeping turns, the nature of the open roads meant that riders were able to take a lot of the corners in their aero tuck and keep the power down, which resulted in a really fast effort against the clock.

One-by-one the team headed down the start ramp, testing themselves and setting solid times at the end of the course, with Thymen Arensman and Florian Stork producing good efforts. Last to leave the start house for the team was Nikias Arndt, with the experienced German rider setting the best time of the day for the team; stopping the clock in 14 minutes and 43 seconds, a time that would see him end the stage in a respectable 16th place.

Tomorrow sees the bunch back on open roads, with the first summit finish of the race atop Jebel Hafeet.

“It was a very short and intense time trial today,” explained Arndt at the finish. “My feeling before was quite good and I was trying to get a good result in for the team. It was very intense and the legs were quite good but in the end there was just a little bit missing to get that good top ten result. All in all, I’m quite happy about how the time trial went and we’ll see what the next days bring for us as a team.”

Team DSM coach Luke Roberts added: “It was a nice parcours for the time trial today, on a cycling track just outside of Abu Dhabi. It was really fast with sweeping bends and no real corners, which made for a really fast race and high speeds. All of our guys went out there and tested themselves. We had a solid ride from Nikias but we just fell short of a top result but it was a good ride nonetheless.”