After the short 1.5-kilometer airport prologue, the riders today competed in a challenging 142-kilometer road stage on the rolling terrain of Croatia’s Istrian Peninsula. The weather was not on the participants’ side, as the entire distance had to be completed in the rain. Erik boldly joined two other riders in the day’s breakaway in the early kilometers. He managed to take the maximum points in the two mountain sprints. The peloton worked hard to reduce the gap, but the pace of the breakaway proved too strong. In the finale, he overtook his breakaway companions and crossed the finish line solo, with Mihajlo finishing 10th in the peloton thanks to his excellent positioning. In addition to the stage win, Erik also secured the coveted overall leader’s jersey, the mountains classification jersey, and the points classification jersey.
In the two remaining stages, the team will now focus on defending these jerseys. The 22-second lead in the overall standings gives them great confidence and they are fully prepared to support Erik.
Erik commented on the day as follows:
This morning I didn’t feel like it was going to be a special day, but a very good coffee immediately changed my mind. Today was actually quite random, but after the start I tried to stay in front the whole time, always in the top twenty. Right at the beginning there was a roundabout, which everyone approached very cautiously due to the slippery roads in the pouring rain. I managed to get through it with momentum, and then I pushed for minutes as hard as I could without looking back. Two others were able to come with me, and together we managed to get completely away from the peloton.
The plan was always to have a TUS rider in the breakaway today, but it wasn’t necessarily assigned to me. Today was a constant battle all day, I often rode alone at the front, but eventually we completed the last 75 kilometers in pairs with a Hagens Berman Jayco rider. Today was a tough, teeth-gritting stage, but it felt amazing to finish first. I trusted myself and my experience that I really had a chance to win on such a rainy, windy, technical course. I feel comfortable in these conditions, and I think I showed that today.
From now on, our goal is to keep the jersey, and I think if I could do it alone today, we’ll be even stronger with six of us tomorrow. I’m very optimistic.
Erik was very clever today, and the whole team raced excellently. Mihajlo also managed to position himself well, he came in at the front in the sprint. But Erik really went brutally today, he rode smartly, maturely, used his abilities, and this led to a characteristic victory.
Based on the forecast, we were already expecting bad weather and that there would be a high pace because of it, with many attacks, chaos in the peloton. Yesterday’s prologue only created differences of a few seconds, so everyone had reason to race aggressively and actively. Therefore, the task was for the guys to pay attention, react to everything, and be more aggressive than in Porec or Umag (our previous two races), even take the initiative themselves. And in the end, if it came down to a sprint, Mihajlo had to be helped.
We knew before the season that our team was strong and everyone was in good shape, so we built on that in the previous races. I paid particular attention to ensuring that everyone started with sufficient confidence, motivation, trusting in themselves and the team. Today is the fruit of this attitude.
Tomorrow’s goal is to defend the jersey, the team has the strength for it, I trust that we will have at least as lucky a day as today.
Photos: Gergely Schöff