Strong start at UAE Tour

UAE Tour stage one: Al Hudayriat Island (team time trial), 16km

Team Sky got their UAE Tour challenge off to a strong start with fourth place in the opening team time trial.

The seven-man team worked well together across the 16-kilometre course, setting a time 14 seconds back on stage victors Team Jumbo-Visma.

Slotting in right amongst the top teams, it was Michal Kwiatkowski who drove the team across the line in his first race of the season.

Matteo Tosatto

Every rider put in a good shift. We started well and you could see the guys were concentrating hard.

Reaction

- Matteo Tosatto

"We’re happy with the start. We talked about it in the team meeting and the objective today was a good top-five start and we achieved that. There are a lot of top teams here who you’d expect to be up there in a TTT – but the guys performed very well today.

"Every rider put in a good shift. We started well and you could see the guys were concentrating hard. It was a good start and we go into the next stage in good spirits. It’s a flat stage and we have Kristoffer (Halvorsen) who can be up there in the sprint. Everyone knows we need to be careful of possible crosswinds. So it creates opportunities but it’s important for Gianni (Moscon) and Kwiato that we don’t lose any time on GC."