Stage 1 - 2012 Giro d'Italia

Today’s stage held in Herning, Denmark was a short 8.7km test over flat terrain but the riders had to negotiate nearly 20 corners on the technical circuit. Team Sky nearly took the victory, however Team BMC’s young American, Taylor Phinney, just beat Team Sky’s Geraint Thomas by nine seconds.

Stage Results:

1. Taylor Phinney, Team BMC 10:26
2. Geraint Thomas, Team Sky 0:09
3. Alex Rasmussen, Garmin-Barracuda 0:13
56. Bernhard Eisel Team Sky 0:46

Race Summary by the Numbers:

Wattage: 430W avg
Speed: 46.6kph
Max Speed: 59kph
Training Stress Score: 9.4
Body Weight: 78kg

Eisel stayed safe and showed solid fitness by placing 45th after having averaged 433W for just over eleven minutes. Eisel paced the time trial well by having averaged nearly exactly 430w for the entire race. His heart rate rose steadily throughout the event having averaged 165bpm the first half versus 173bpm the second half.

Sports director Steven de Jongh described today’s course. "The first part of the course was very technical, with a lot of corners, and then after 5km they were much bigger and more straightforward roads.”

Given the technical nature of the course we can see how Eisel had to accelerate hard out of the numerous corners. By viewing his SRM power file it’s easy to see the 600-800W sprints which took place as he exited the turns. Once he accelerated back up to speed (maximum speed was 59kph) he settled into his race pace of 430w.

Team Sky’s results left Sports Director Steven de Jongh happy with the first day's efforts as he told us: "G (Geraint Thomas) produced a really good display and did his best – unfortunately Phinney was faster on the day.”

Eisel will play a key role in Team Sky’s strategy to try and have Mark Cavendish win a possible six stages in this year’s Giro. Winds will play a big part of the next few days as the Giro criss-crosses Denmark before heading back down south to Italy for a team time trial on stage 4.

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