Pinotti Wins Italian National Time Trial

Italy, 22 June 2008 - High Road’s Marco Pinotti won the Italian national time trial championships for a third time in his career on Sunday. The 32-year-old covered the 33 kilometer course in Montichiari, northern Italy, in 39 minutes 30 seconds, 1 minute and 22 seconds clear of runner-up Luca Celli.

“To be honest, I can’t say I was too surprised because I’ve never finished outside the top three of this particular event in the last five years.” Pinotti said. “After finishing the Giro D’Italia, I’d continued to stay focused, doing a couple of races in Germany and then going training in the Alps with [High Road team-mate Kanstantsin] Sivtzov.”

“The course was quite technical, with a small climb about a kilometer long half-way through, and there were some long straights at the end, which helps to explain my high average speed.” - an impressive 50.278 km/h. To view and download Pinotti's SRM file please click here.

Pinotti further explains how the course affected his power output, "The normalized power is a bit less than my Giro stage win (click here to view Pinotti's Giro report and file); there were many turns and the race was a bit longer."

In fact, if you view Marco's race file you will see how he averaged 350 watts for 39 minutes, compared to 374 watts for 32 minutes in his Giro d'Italia stage victory. Besides the national championship course being longer, the heat also affected Pinotti's power output. “I found the heat was a real factor in this race - 35 degrees Celsius. It wasn’t easy to concentrate.”

Pinotti is now focused on preparing for the final few months of the season, which will see him compete in the World Championships, Tour of Missouri and the end of the year classics.