Stage 2 of the Tour of Hellas was a high stakes game of cat and mouse across 158 km of Greek terrain. Starting in Karpenisi under cloudy skies that eventually gave way to the sun, the team’s strategy was to keep a constant presence at the sharp end of the race. We wanted a man in every move, and the boys delivered. Veljko Stojnić was active early on, jumping into the initial break to represent the team in the mountain sprints. Later, Michal Schuran joined a formidable breakaway that built a gap of over 4 min, nearly making it to the finish. Even a puncture for Nikiforos Arvanitou 50 km from the line couldn’t derail the momentum, as he rejoined the pack with ease after a swift wheel change. The catch finally happened just 3 km out as the peloton organized for a bunch sprint. In a frantic dash to the line, Dušan Rajović (Solution Tech NIPPO Rali) took the win by a narrow margin, leaving Niki with a hard fought 2nd place. It was a day of brilliant tactics, though our home favorite was left hungry for that top step.
Niki’s raw honesty
I am not happy at all with 2nd place. Last week I was very sick and couldn’t ride my bike at all. I only had two days of normal training before the start of the race. My condition is far from the usual, and I didn’t deliver a good sprint today because I didn’t have the legs.
The team positioned me well in the final kilometers, and I tried to stay at the front to be in a good position for the sprint. Stages 3 and 4 are for Pridal, not for me. I will try to help him, and it would be great if I could hang on, but there are many climbers here and I’m not one of them. I’m looking forward to the last stage: there will be another opportunity for me there.
Michal’s tactical chess
A bit unlucky today: I wasn’t in the best breakaway for KOM points. I thought we could make it all the way, but a slight headwind was against us… Nevertheless, the collaboration in the break was really good: everyone thought we could reach the finish line, so we worked well together.
I’m still not feeling great, at least not during high-intensity efforts on the climbs. My breathing was problematic, and I assume allergies might be the reason. I feel good at tempo/FTP intensity, so being in the breakaway suited me, but they still caught us with 3 km to go.
I also knew we had Niki behind, so I had the luxury of not needing to ride at my absolute limit, which meant I wouldn’t be useless in the sprint if the break did stay away. It was a perfect set of cards to play. Earlier, Veljko was also in a breakaway, so it was a ‘double break’ day for us.
The scenery at the top of the climbs was beautiful and I enjoyed it, but the pace on the descents was so fast that gaps started to form, so the scenic part was only a short highlight of the race.
