The opening day of the Tour of Hellas was a high speed introduction to the Greek roads, characterized by an average speed of 50 km/h and a nervous energy that lasted from the flag drop in Ioannina to the technical finish in Agrinio. The 172 km route was contested under ideal racing conditions with temperatures sitting at a comfortable 21 degrees, though the morning started with a grueling 84 km transfer through narrow, winding mountain passes.
The tactical plan for Team United Shipping was clear: hunt for the first mountain points with Michal Schuran and then deliver Nikiforos Arvanitou to the line for a home soil sprint. While the breakaway proved difficult to pin down and the mountain points slipped away, the team remained cohesive. DS Dejan Percic noted that the final 10 km city circuit was particularly challenging, describing it as a chaotic mix of narrow roads, roundabouts, and roadworks. Despite the technical nature of the finish, which featured a slight downhill stretch after the final roundabout, our lead out train for Niki was moving well until the closing kilometers. Unfortunately, the race was marred by late crashes: Zsombor Palumby went down with 5 km to go, and Niki was boxed in by another incident shortly after. Mathis Avondts from Azerion / Villa Valkenburg eventually took the stage win, while Niki crossed the line in 14th place, showing he has the speed if the road stays clear.
Zsombi’s encounter with the barrier
I had a minor crash today, but luckily nothing serious happened. At the end, during the city circuit, we were flying on a pretty narrow and winding road. I was next to Niki, and he said, let’s go to the front, so I started bringing him up on the right side of the peloton with a good speed difference. A sharp left turn came, which I started on the outside line, but a guy from Burgos wobbled or slipped a bit, and so did I. My front wheel slipped, but I still felt I could take the corner. Then the line started to get really bad, it was sharper than I thought: I pulled the brake, and so I slid straight out of the corner, into a set of stairs, and then fell between the guardrail and a pole.
It could have been worse, but I only got a puncture and lost a bit of skin on my shin. From there, I rolled in alone after I got a wheel from Ádi. Otherwise, I felt good, I was in a breakaway before the first small climb that looked viable for a few minutes with that weird handlebar Dutch breakaway specialist and three other guys. Then I tried another breakaway halfway through the race, but it didn’t work out.
It was a very fast stage, I felt good all the way through actually. It is good to race at this level again, the peloton is quite cultured even though it is quite strong. Training went well at home, so I hope the next few days will be good too. Difficult stages await us, the exact plan is still evolving, but of course we will help Niki and Tomas everywhere.
Michal’s hunt for form
To be honest, I’m still finding my form this season and I don’t really know why yet. Today, I wanted to get into the breakaway or go for the first KOM, but my legs weren’t good enough. I hope that in the coming stages, my feeling will get better and better. I am racing here in the Tour of Hellas because I won’t be starting in Hungary this year, so I hope I can do something nice here: or at least be there for Tomas or Niki as much as possible.
We worked well and had to stay active in the race because the bigger teams weren’t too interested in today’s stage. I sent Zéti to the front to pull with ATT in order to catch the breakaway: then, at the end, Veljko and I did the last pull to bridge the final gap. Unfortunately, there was a crash within the last 2 km where Niki got caught behind, so he couldn’t do much today.
From my side, the goal is to win a stage with Niki. This is his home race, and it would be great. I would also say a top 5 in the GC with Pridal would be excellent, but a top 10 would be good as well. These are the main goals, and personally, I will try to go for the KOM jersey in the next few stages.