Two podiums on one weekend for Azerbaijani team
By Amina Nazarli
The Synergy Baku Cycling Project celebrated a successful
weekend, as Matej Mugerli finished second on the final stage of the
East Bohemia Tour, and Samir Jabrayilov third on the last stage of
the U-23 Giro della Friuli held in Italy on September 12.
Mugerli and teammate Markus Eibegger were part of an early break
group in Bohemia. The group took a four minute lead going into the
four laps of the difficult closing circuit. On the last lap,
Mugerli was still in the small leading group, from which one rider
escaped to take the win. The Synergy Baku rider finished second,
only six seconds down.
Eibegger was sixth at 56 seconds, and Maksym Averin tenth,
finishing in the pack in the same time as Ioannis Tamouridis.
“Markus and I went in the break today with seven other riders,”
Mugerli said. “My legs were good today. With a little more luck we
could have won.”
On Saturday, Jabrayilov was also in an early attack group of seven
riders in the closing stage in Friuli. He was able to keep the lead
despite four climbs and push hard in the final, when the bunch
quickly cut the gap to the escapees.
The small group broke into pieces on the last climb with just 1.5
kilometer to go. Jabrayilov took the slipstream of the two fastest
colleagues, reaching the finish line behind them but 3 seconds
ahead of the main group.
“It was a really fast stage, with a breakaway from the start,” said
sport director Andrej Hauptman . “Samir was never entirely
comfortable as the last five km were a climb, and the chasing group
was rapidly approaching. It was a good test for him for the World
Championships.”
“I am very happy with this result, and now feel I am on the right
way for the World Championships race in Richmond,” said the
21-year-old from Baku, after his best result this season.
Jabrayilov will take part in the U-23 Worlds road race.
Synergy Baku Cycling Project (UCI Team Code: BCP) is an Azerbaijani UCI Continental cycling team managed by Jeremy Hunt and sponsored by Synergy Group.
--
Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on
Twitter: @amina_nazarli
Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz