The final day of the Tour of Hellas was a sun-drenched, 147 km blast from the port of Piraeus to the historic heart of Athens. Racing in what our staff described as “typical Greek” weather, the peloton enjoyed clear skies and 23 degree warmth as they prepared for a grand finale at Syntagma Square. The tactics were fluid from the start: Tomáš Přidal initially jumped into the early breakaway, but as a protected rider high in the standings, the group refused to cooperate with him. Recognizing the stalemate, Tomáš sat up to wait for the bunch, shifting our full focus to delivering Nikiforos Arvanitou to a home victory.
As we entered the technical city laps, the tension was palpable. The team worked tirelessly to control the pace, with Veljko Stojnić and Zsombor Palumby putting in massive efforts at the front to reel in the escapes. We successfully neutralised the break by the final lap, but the conclusion was anything but predictable. In the last 1 km, a rider from Swatt Club capitalized on a moment of hesitation in the pack and launched a solo flyer. A gap opened up in the final corner when an Atom 6 rider lost his wheel, and with the sprinters momentarily boxed in, the attacker held on to take the win. Despite the chaotic finish, we conclude the week with Tomáš Přidal in 14th place overall and three hard earned podiums across five days of racing.
Niki’s home run
Today the final was really unexpected. In the last corner I had the best position when the guy that won started to pull very hard, so it was the ideal situation. Then all of a sudden the rider from Atom 6 lost his wheel. The gap started to grow and nobody wanted to pull, so the winner got home. All of this in the last 800 meters. It was very unexpected! I am not happy, but it’s not the end of the world. I know I could have won today, but the situation was not ideal in the last meters.
It was my home race with my family and friends watching, and it was really unique passing Syntagma Square in Athens with all these people. I feel better now: every stage I managed to find my legs slowly, and this way I will be ready for Tour de Hongrie. The first two stages suit me a lot, so we should go for it. I will sprint against big names and that’s really exciting. I want to show that I belong to the top league with them.
Veljko’s Serbian engine
It was quite a nice week. Of course, it would have been better to win some stages, but with three podiums, it’s not bad either. I saw today that none of the teams were pulling to close the gaps, so I went to the front and just drilled it until I managed to do so. Zsombi also joined me at some point and did some good pulls as well. I feel really sorry for Niki that I couldn’t close them all: some other inexperienced riders came to help us, but they had no clue how to actually help with closing gaps like these… and all these efforts made me drop on a slight uphill because I was very cooked and couldn’t recover properly.
It was a nice experience being here as the national champ of Serbia. Many of the fans greeted me warmly and with a smile. we have a mutual history and respect each other as nations. For future races, I still don’t know which I will be doing: I have some in mind, but the team will decide. The next big appointment for me is my wedding in two weeks! 😄
