After a long break, Team United Shipping has returned almost at the highest level. The CRO Race is packed with WorldTour and ProTour teams, and in previous years names like Jonas Vingegaard have stood on the podium here.
The opening stage of the CRO Race was a tricky one with plenty of short climbs. Team United Shipping was represented in the six man breakaway through Michal Schuran! The stage included three intermediate sprints with bonus seconds and two categorized climbs. Michal went all-in for the KOM points – and how! Our Czech rider won both climbs, taking the green jersey for leading the mountains classification.
The breakaway had promising chances until the final 10 kilometers, but eventually the riders became tired on the punchy stage, and the sprinters took over. The sprint was won by Paul Magnier. The best TUS finisher was Mihajlo Stolić in 23rd place.
Michal after his successful day:
“Finally on the podium – today I am very happy! Over the last three weeks, since the Tour of South Bohemia, I have been training very hard, so I am glad I could prove it here. I felt good and quite fresh. I expect the next stages to be even better – at least I hope so. It was a great feeling to be on the podium. From now on, our goal is to keep the jersey until Zagreb. That means tomorrow I would like to go for the breakaway again, then on the third day take it a bit easier before the queen stage, where I will have to attack because there will be an HC climb with a lot of points.”
Erik Fetter on the start:
“It was a fast but relatively calm day. Fortunately, everything went well. There was a small crash that was also on TV, but I quickly got back into the bunch afterwards. Michal rode very strongly today. Our goal is to keep the KOM jersey in the coming days – that’s one of our priorities. I was struggling with an illness recently, and since then I haven’t quite found my form again, so I am taking it day by day. I don’t have big expectations for myself right now, but I hope that I will be stronger day by day.”
