Synergy Baku rider takes over race lead in Serbia
Matej Mugerli soloed in to win the third stage of the Tour of Serbia and take over the yellow jersey of the race leader. It is the fourth season win for the Synergy Baku rider.
In addition, Matija Kvasina is third in GC and wears the
mountain jersey, and the team still leads the teams ranking.
Josip Rumac was in the first break group of the day. Later Mugerli
escaped with Clemens Fankhauser of Tirol Team, and the two slowly
pulled away. They had only a three minute gap on the chasing group
which held all the top sprinters. With less than 40 km to go, the
other rider crashed on a descent, leaving Mugerli alone in the
lead. He held on for teh remaining thirty-plus kilometers and flew
in to the finish line, 2:31 ahead of the field.
Mugerli’s last win this season was stage three of the Tour
d’Azerbaidjan. He also won stage 3 of the Istrian Spring Trophy and
the Porec Trophy.
“It was not such a long stage, but hard and for me a very intensive
race,” Mugerli said. “I did 100km in the breakaway, and the last 30
km alone after my mate from Tirol crashed. From teh beginning, we
pushed, there was no real tactic, just going full gas.
“I am happy with this victory and also to be in the yellow jersey
on my birthday tomorrow. And of course many thanks to the Synergy
Baku team, which controlled the race behind me.”
“This was another amazing day for our team,” said DS Andrej
Hauptman. “The first part of the stage was really hard. Matej and
Fankhauser attacked before the first climb. Then he won the first
intermediate sprint and picked up six seconds.
“Behind them, we controlled the yellow jersey group. With 50 km to
go, the gap was three minutes and the others started to chase. It
was not easy, but today, Matej was the strongest. We still face
three difficult days, but as always this season, congratulations to
the whole team.”
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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