February 13, 2004 – The 32nd edition of the 5-stage Tour de Mediterranean began this week in the south of France. Although the event actually begins in San Remo (Italy), this race is an important early-season test for many French and Italian teams. This year’s edition sports no less than 12 Pro Tour squads of the 20 teams that stepped up to the line on Wednesday.

Today’s 36Km stage gave the spectators a great view of all of the teams as they were treated to the rare, but popular Team Time Trial event. Starting on a steep descent, the Navigators team got into their 7-man lineup (Shawn Milne abandoned after stage-1 due to illness) quickly and began their drive across the windy costal plains toward Berre L’Etang. The course proved to be challenging to the riders due to the alternating technical sections and the wide-open areas. In addition, the circular course saw the wind direction change several times as the riders negotiated their way around the bay.

This highly technical event is a good indicator of overall team strength,
as well as an indicator of a squad’s ability to communicate. Today’s
showing demonstrated both as the team rode to a solid 11th place
finish.

Although not on the podium, today’s result served notice that the slow start to the week of racing may be turning around, as the team lost only 1:47 to the well-oiled CSC squad of race-leader Jens Voight. In addition, the Navigators Insurance team finished ahead of powerhouse Pro Tour teams Phonak, Gerolsteiner and Cofidis, and only :01 behind Bouygues Telecom and :02 behind Quick-Step. Certainly in good company as the race heads into tomorrow’s final stage.

Stage 4:
1. Team CSC
2. Liquigas-Bianchi
3. Rabobank

Overall GC:
1. Jens Voight (CSC)
2. Franck Schleck (CSC) @ :49
3. Franco Pellizotti (Liquigas-Bianchi) @ 1:00
..
36. Chris Baldwin (Navigators Insurance) @ 5:51