From total dominance to a desperate chase, the team loses its lead but keeps the GC fight alive after a scorching day in the mountains.
The second stage of the Tour of Bosnia and Herzegovina proved how quickly fortunes can shift in the peloton. Covering 121 km from Mostar to Ljubuški in 30 degree heat, the race saw a blistering average speed of 48 km/h. The day started well with Márkó Tóth winning the first intermediate sprint and Erik Fetter taking second, but the tactical landscape changed on the main climb. An 8-man breakaway escaped without a TUS presence, and as Director Sportif Dejan Percic put it: “Yesterday we won everything, today we lost everything.” By the time the race reached the finish, the team had lost every single leader’s jersey. Mihael Štajnar (Pogi Team Gusto Ljubljana) won the stage, but a massive 50 km pursuit by the team managed to reduce a 75 second gap to just 17 seconds by the line.
Erik’s assessment about today
Since essentially every leader’s jersey was with us, the whole field was racing against us. There was no problem with this, we controlled the events well. Our first goal was to get time bonuses with Márkó at the first intermdiate srpint, this was successful, we took the first two places. It wasn’t easy, there was a big fight for it, but we pulled it off.
Our next goal was to keep the field together until the KOM, so Barni could secure the mountains classification. The control was successful, but it cost us a lot of energy. Taking advantage of this, they attacked us on the mountain, and an eight man group was able to break away, which we were not in. Immediately the whole team stood at the head of the field and we started the chase. Their advantage only grew for a while, but in the last kilometers we managed to get closer and reduce the loss. It was a great save from the team!
So tomorrow remains open, anything can happen. On the first stage everyone starts with a clean slate, but if a team dominates the results list this much, the next day the whole field joins forces against them. This is what happened today. Despite this, we worked well together all day, however in cycling everything can collapse in a moment. This almost happened today, but finally we managed to bring ourselves back into the race. One day up, another day down: we’ll be back tomorrow!
Zsombi’s engine room report
On the mountain, where the KOM was, we wanted to keep the field together for Barni, but the group unfortunately fell apart, and eight riders left at the top: without us. From there their advantage very quickly became 50 seconds, then 75 seconds, even though I think we organized quickly, and six of us started the chase.
50 kilometers on end we went full gas and by the end we managed to minimize the loss: finally we arrived 17 seconds compared to the winner’s time. Tomorrow this disadvantage is still workable, but we have to do a hard race again.
Otherwise, we went very well in the first 69 kilometers, we were active throughout, and we kept the group together until the first intermediate sprint, where Márkó was first and Erik was second. There was a momentary lapse today on the mountain, and this led to the fifty-kilometer pursuit race.
I felt my legs a bit weaker today compared to yesterday, and the heat also took a lot out of me, it became 28 to 30 degrees today, but I stayed focused and was able to squeeze the maximum out of myself. Tomorrow I will also be there with all my strength so that we work off the disadvantage and get the trikók back!
Photo: Márton Sitku / https://www.instagram.com/marchives.raw
