Grischa Janorschke reports from Argentina - stage 4.

Hello!

Today was a rather relaxing day for me, especially mentally. Of course, the same can’t be said for the time-trial specialists or someone having an eye on the overall classification. They had to focus hard in order to give 100% and come up with as good a performance as possible.

We went for an hour-long ride after breakfast to loosen up our legs. After a light lunch, each rider adjusted his schedule based on his starting time. The nicest thing about the time trial at the Tour de San Luis is that the starting line is right in front of the hotel and the finish line is just 800 meters down the street. That means you can go directly from your hotel room down to the parking garage to get your bike, warm up, ride over to the starting ramp, attack the 19.5-km course, ride a few meters after that, put your bike away and then you’re back in your room again. It’s a very pleasant arrangement for all the competitors, since time trials usually involve a lot of logistical effort. You're usually just as much “underway” for only a “few” kilometers as you would be for a short stage. 

For someone like myself who doesn't specialize in time trials or goes for the general classification, the stage today was less significant. Our most important men today, Timon and Markus, had respectable finishes: 25th and 27th, respectively. There were quite a few specialists competing today, and for the South American riders the tour here is simply the absolute highlight of the season. 

Speaking of winners, this year’s time-trial champ was Levi Leipheimer with a time of 22:33. Since the route has stayed exactly the same for the past three years, it's of course possible to compare the times, if you don’t take the outside conditions too much into account. In my view, the three times that I've competed in the time trial here have all had similar conditions.

Xavier Tondo, to whom the time trial was dedicated this year and who also was given a tribute during the presentation with a couple of interview excerpts and video images, won here last year with a time of 23:23, i.e. 50 seconds slower. In 2010, Vicenzo Nibali won with a time of 24:18, making him nearly two minutes slower than Levi this year, which is almost unbelievable. I think this improvement demonstrates very clearly the heightened level of athleticism at the tour and the great importance the race has for the riders competing in it. The “big” names are well-prepared for it and, just like everyone else, they intend to score their first wins here. In any case, the tour has very little to do with taking a comfortable ride at the start of the season. ;-)

Tomorrow’s agenda includes the next mountain finish. But there aren't any major topographical challenges waiting for us before we get there.

Best regards,
Grischa