Nobody is happy at INEOS, including Arensman and surprise Sheffield: "20 to 30 watts below normal"

The INEOS Grenadiers team must have watched Saturday's individual time trial in the Tour of the Algarve with mixed feelings. The British team had high expectations for general classification rider Tom Pidcock and specialist Filippo Ganna, but while they fell somewhat short, Magnus Sheffield managed to impress with a second place. Thymen Arensman finished twelfth.

Pidcock, who earlier this week announced he wanted to test himself in the time trial, finished a minute and a half behind winner Remco Evenepoel over 22 kilometers, placing him 26th. Ganna finished sixth, 47 seconds behind Evenepoel. A considerable gap for the Italian, who clearly didn't have his best legs. "Not the best feeling, but it's okay. It was just a tough time trial," he very briefly concluded in his interview with Eurosport.

Arensman commented on his twelfth place, 1.04 minutes behind, via his social channels. "Well, that was a bit disappointing. I started off well, but after the first section, my left leg cramped up. My crash on Friday certainly didn't help. Knowing that I was twenty to thirty watts off my normal plan, it means the new time trial position is quite fast. Thanks for that, INEOS! We still have everything to play for in the final stage on Sunday."

Sheffield surprises with second place in Algarve

Sheffield was understandably much happier when he spoke to the press after his time trial. Finishing seventeen seconds behind Evenepoel, he was the only one who could come anywhere close to the Belgian. "There are a lot of good time trialists here, so I can be happy with my performance and the process. We've made some changes to the setup, with new sponsor Gobik. Leading up to the Olympics, every time trial is now an important test, so I want to ride each one as well as possible."

The fact that he ended up finishing just behind Evenepoel was a bit hard to swallow. "I am a bit disappointed, but it's up to me now to work hard and beat him next time. I love time trialing and really get satisfaction out of it. I put a lot of work into it, so I also want to perform. I was close this time, but it wasn't good enough yet."