The prologue of the Tour of Szeklerland was held next to the Sepsi Arena and Stadium. The 1300 meter prologue was extremely technical: the competitors had to complete almost 10 corners.
The one and a half minute ride was completed the fastest by Norbert Szabó, a rider for the Romanian national team. However, the TUS victory was not far away! The second place was taken by the recently signed sprinter, Nikiforos Arvanitou. He was only 8 tenths of a second behind the winner Szabó. Mihajlo Stolić was not far behind either: our Serbian sprinter finished in 6th place, 4 seconds behind. The best Hungarian was Erik Fetter with 8th place, also 4 seconds behind.
Tomorrow will be the first proper stage of the Tour of Szeklerland. The peloton will ride from Sfântu Gheorghe to Miercurea Ciuc, during which they will have to overcome almost 1000 meters of elevation gain and two categorized climbs.
Nikiforos Arvanitou after his second place:
“I checked the circuit, all the corners, many times very carefully. My plan was literally to sprint from the start until the finish line. I am a bit disappointed with my second place. I was leading the race until the last minute but that’s cycling… This gives me motivation to go as hard as I can in the next few days. I expect me and my team to make the race as hard as possible on the climbs and then we go for a reduced bunch sprint and win!”
Erik Fetter – who might have a good chance at the general classification – had this to say:
“We can prepare for a prologue by doing a track walk, that’s how we can get to know the most crucial corners. One or two corners were particularly technical, we rode the course multiple times and practiced the most important points. (..) I would like to finish high in the overall standings, but there are quite a few of us in the team who can win the GC. Niki (Nikiforos Arvanitou) is in good shape and rides well in the mountains. Of course, our goal is to win the general classification. We’ll see which of us will be the best. We’ll decide on tomorrow’s tactics before the stage, but I think we’ll go for the sprint. We have two good sprinters, and one of them came second today, he’s in a good place in the GC, we have to go for the win.”