photo credits @ Iam Cycling
Sonder Holst Enger (IAM Cycling) won the sixth and final stage at the Tour of Croatia today, after beating Edward Theuns (Trek-Segafredo in a two-up sprint), while Timothy Dupont (Veranda’s Willems) rounded out the podium after crossing the finish seconds later.
“The final climb was steep,” the young Norwegian rider explained. “I am an explosive rider, and so my strengths were well suited to this incline. I had to wait until the last moment to produce my top effort. This victory was a clever mix of tactics and explosiveness. Fortunately, my teammates were around me the entire day. This is what allowed me to be still pretty fresh by the foot of the last climb.”
“We resolved to work for Sondre Holst Enger,” explained Lionel Marie, directeur sportif alongside Eddy Seigneur. “It was a demanding final with a 700 meter long cobbled climb that had 10% ramps. We knew the terrain could be favorable to him. Sondre is a good circuit rider. He is a young man who has a lot of qualities, which he readily proved again today. This was a tough victory. He attacked at the base of the climb and caught Edward Theuns. Sondre was not intimidated by the Trek rider.”
Meanwhile, Matija Kvasina (Synergy Baku) won the overall title after moving into the lead on the fourth of six stages. He finished with an overall lead of 24 seconds on Jesper Hansen (Tinkoff Team) and 34 seconds ahead of third placed Víctor De La Parte (CCC Sprandi Polkowice).
“Yesterday I had an emotional day with the team time trial to keep the lead and today the team fought really hard and used their last legs to defend this lead,” Kvasina said in a team press release.
“I am happy for them and will be forever grateful. Now I need to take some rest mentally, not physically, as I am really ready for the Tour d’Azerbaidjan next.”
Top 20 Finishers
1 Sondre Holst Enger (Nor) IAM Cycling 3:45:14 2 Edward Theuns (Bel) Trek-Segafredo 3 Timothy Dupont (Bel) Veranda’s Willems Cycling Team 0:00:02 4 Markus Eibegger (Aut) Team Felbermayr – Simplon Wels 0:00:03 5 Laurens De Vreese (Bel) Astana Pro Team 6 Brecht Dhaene (Bel) Veranda’s Willems Cycling Team 0:00:05 7 Jordi Simon (Spa) Verva ActiveJet Pro Cycling Team 8 Nicola Boem (Ita) Bardiani CSF 0:00:08 9 Karol Domagalski (Pol) ONE Pro Cycling 0:00:09 10 Coen Vermeltfoort (Ned) Continental Team Join-S de Rijke 11 Maciej Paterski (Pol) CCC Sprandi Polkowice 12 Ivan Savitskiy (Rus) Gazprom-Rusvelo 13 Jetse Bol (Ned) Continental Team Join-S de Rijke 14 Radoslav Rogina (Cro) Adria Mobil 15 Jay McCarthy (Aus) Tinkoff Team 16 Felix Grosschartner (Aut) CCC Sprandi Polkowice 17 Scott Davies (GBr) Team WIGGINS 18 Jesper Hansen (Den) Tinkoff Team 19 Domen Novak (Slo) Adria Mobil 20 Víctor De La Parte (Spa) CCC Sprandi Polkowice 0:00:17
Final general classification after stage 6
1 Matija Kvasina (Cro) Synergy Baku Cycling Project 23:29:29 2 Jesper Hansen (Den) Tinkoff Team 0:00:24 3 Víctor De La Parte (Spa) CCC Sprandi Polkowice 0:00:32 4 Felix Grosschartner (Aut) CCC Sprandi Polkowice 0:00:47 5 Radoslav Rogina (Cro) Adria Mobil 0:01:16 6 Domen Novak (Slo) Adria Mobil 0:01:47 7 Kirill Pozdnyakov (Rus) Synergy Baku Cycling Project 0:02:19 8 Markus Eibegger (Aut) Team Felbermayr – Simplon Wels 0:03:26 9 Scott Davies (GBr) Team WIGGINS 0:03:38 10 Riccardo Zoidl (Aut) Trek-Segafredo 0:03:50 11 Jordi Simon (Spa) Verva ActiveJet Pro Cycling Team 0:03:53 12 Daniel Pearson (GBr) Team WIGGINS 0:05:01 13 Jay McCarthy (Aus) Tinkoff Team 0:05:39 14 Richard Handley (GBr) ONE Pro Cycling 0:05:42 15 Maksym Averin (Aze) Synergy Baku Cycling Project 0:06:15 16 Brecht Dhaene (Bel) Veranda’s Willems Cycling Team 0:06:54 17 Enrico Barbin (Ita) Bardiani CSF 0:07:27 18 Emanuel Kiserlovski (Cro) Meridiana Kamen Team 0:07:28 19 Marko Pavlic (Slo) Cycling Academy Team 0:07:45 20 Karol Domagalski (Pol) ONE Pro Cycling 0:08:19
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