Kvasina second in Tour of Serbia after 2nd stage
Matija Kvasina finished third on the second stage of the Tour of Serbia to move into second place overall. The Croatian riding for the Synergy Baku Cycling Project was the initiator of a stage-long break group which stayed away until the end.
It was a top day for the team, with three riders in the top ten
of the stage. Ioannis Tamouridis came back from a crash to lead the
peloton home and finish sixth, with Matej Mugerli eighth.
Tamouridis is now 8th overall and Mugerli 12th.
In addition, Kvasina took the mountain jersey and the team retained
its hold at the top of the team ranking.
Kvasina was the first to attack on the opening 18km long climb, and
four other riders joined him. Their largest gap was three minutes,
but they were able to stay away until the finish line.
The short stage, only 108 km, was full of climbs “and lots of
headwind. I was not feeling at my best today, and in the end ran
out of energy. The race profile we had seen wasn’t correct and did
not fit the situation, so I didn’t know there was another 2 km
climb only 5km before the finish. One of the others attacked there
and soloed in to the finish. I was about at the end of my power but
managed to pull out a third place on the stage, and second
overall,” Kvasina said.
It was the first race for the 34-year-old since the Tour
d'Azerbaidjan last month. “The long break from racing has made my
body lazy but every day I feel better. Maybe tomorrow we will try
to do some more damage!”
DS Andrej Hauptman also commented that “at the end was a short
steep climb which was not in the race book. One of the others
attacked and Matija did his best with what was left in his legs. We
are pretty happy because for all of them except Alex Surutkovych,
this is their first race since Azerbaijan.”
Tamouridis had a heavy crash today after receiving a tire from the
neutral service car. The tube was not glued, and on the descent the
tire came loose from the rim, and he crashed. The Greek rider was
not injured.
SYNERGY BAKU CYCLING PROJECT FOR THE TOUR OF SERBIA: Elchin Asadov,
Matija Kvasina, Matej Mugerli, Josip Rumac, Alex Surutkovych and
Ioannis Tamouridis
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