Pozdnyakov second on Slovakia Queen Stage
Kirill Pozdnyakov finished second on the Queen Stage of the Tour of Slovakia. After the difficult mountain stage, the Russian riding for the Synergy Baku Cycling Project has moved up to third overall, Azerbaijan Cycling Federation reported.
Pozdnyakov attacked on the penultimate climb and joined a lead
group, with 15 km to go. The group stayed away until the end.
“The team helped me a lot during the stage,” Pozdnyakov said.
“Maksym Averin and Samir Jabrayilov made good tempo on the climbs.
On the second to last climb I attacked with (eventual winner) Mauro
Finetto and we held the gap until the end.”
“The final climb wasn't hard enough to make a difference,” he
added. “On the sprint I was sitting in third position, but the guy
before me left a gap. I went around him but it was too far up to
Finetto.”
With three more stages to go, two of them with climbs, Pozdnyakov
is sitting comfortably in third place overall, nine seconds
down.
Friday’s stage three is the longest of the race, at 170.1km from
Strbske Pleso to Zuberec. There are four ranked climbs, with two
coming in the first 40 km.
Synergy Baku for the Tour of Slovakia: Elchin Asadov, Maksym
Averin, Samir Jabrayilov, Kirill Pozdnyakov and Alex
Surutkovych
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