Peter Sagan cheered up the home fans: He won the overall victory at Around Slovakia! – Športky.sk

TRNAVA – Slovak cyclist Peter Sagan became the overall winner of the 65th year of the international race Around Slovakia. He kept the yellow jersey of the leader of the overall ranking in Sunday’s final 4th stage, in which he took second place. Itamar Einhorn from Israel (Israel Start-Up Nation) won on the line from Trenčianske Teplice to Trnava, the third was Dutchman Cees Bol (DSM).

The 31-year-old Bora-Hansgrohe driver triumphed with an eleven-second lead over title defender Jannik Steimle of Germany (Deceuninck-QuickStep), who finished third overall, 17 seconds behind. Although Sagan did not claim a single stage success, in addition to the yellow one, he also won the green jersey as the winner of the scoring competition. “It was a special day, there were challenging races from the beginning. We wanted to make it as difficult as possible for the Deceuninck team, we had to put a lot of energy into it. We went full time with the whole team, we wanted to stay ahead. We made it to the finish line, focused I’m in touch with Jannik. I’m very happy that I won my first participation in Around Slovakia, although I didn’t win any stage. The overall ranking is more important, I was among the best from start to finish. ” said Slovak for RTVS.

On Sunday, a 159.2 km long flat route with three speed and three mountain premiums was waiting for the peloton. At the beginning, several groups tried to separate, but before the second mountaineering premium in Trenčianske Mitice (0.5 km, 6.4%) the peloton was buried. Bora-Hansgrohe and Astana-Premier Tech racers set the pace for him. The escape was created after 50 km and 25 competitors got into it. Sagan was also in it with three teammates Maciej Bodnar, Daniel Ossom and Frederik Wandahl, from Deceuninck-QuickStep only Steimle was in it. Sagan took advantage of the situation and won the speed bonus in Topoľčany, thanks to which he scored another three bonus seconds and increased his lead in the overall standings.

After the last mountain award, it was clear that the jersey for the best climber would be won by Andrea Garosio (Bardiani-CSF-Faizane), who also became the most combative cyclist of the whole race. The peloton had already lost 30 km before the tape to the leading group for seven minutes. Alexei Lucenko (Astana-Premier Tech) and Idar Andersen (Uno-X Pro Cycling) attacked from it, but they did not manage to create an advantage. In the final run, Steimle needed to defend the overall championship and win and hope that Sagan will finish in third place at best. However, the Slovak national team guarded its biggest opponent and Steimle finished only in fourth place.

Lukáš Kubiš was the second best in the overall ranking of domestic competitors. Before the last stage, he was in 15th place with a deficit of 20 seconds, but on Sunday he did not catch an escape and so he fell to the final 31st place. “Such an event with such competition is a great experience for me. However, I am extremely disappointed that it could have been around 10th place overall, but today’s stage really changed everything and not just me, but several competitors. I really missed it a bit. not even such a sharp pace, but it was blowing hard right from the start, which resulted in some groups constantly leaving.On about 50 km on such a small hill, one of the competitors of the Mazowsze Serce Polski team left a hole and a 25-member group left and “It came to the finish line. Each team had someone there, so no one wanted to move. It was equipped in five minutes.” he said.

results of the 4th stage (Trenčianske Teplice – Trnava, 159.2 km):
1. Itamar Einhorn (Izr./Israel Start-Up Nation) 3:27:40 h, 2. Peter SAGAN (SR / Bora-Hansgrohe), 3. Cees Bol (Hol./DSM), 4. Jannik Steimle (Nem ./Deceuninck-QuickStep), 5. Kaden Groves (Aus./BikeExchange), 6. Fabio Felline (Tal./Astana-Premier Tech), 7. Alexander Konyčev (Tal./BikeExchange), 8. Andreas Stokbro (Dan. / Qhubeka NextHash), 9. Alexej Lucenko (Kaz./Astana-Premier Tech), 10. Jakub Kaczmarek (Poľ. / Mazowsze Serce Polski) all the same time, … 30. Lukáš KUBIŠ +9: 03, 31. Tobias VANČO (both SR / Dukla Banská Bystrica), 33. Matúš ŠTOČEK (SR / Topforex-ATT Investments), 37. Erik BAŠKA (SR / Bora-Hansgrohe) all the same time

final ranking:
1. P. SAGAN 15:51:00 h, 2. Steimle +11 s, 3. Bol +17, 4. Roger Adria (Šp. / Equipo Kern Pharma) +22, 5. Idar Andersen (Nor. / Uno- X Pro Cycling) +24, 6. Casper Pedersen (DEN / DSM) +26, 7. Maciej Bodnar (POL / Bora-Hansgrohe) +27, 8. Lucenko same time, 9. Felline +30, 10. Niklas Märkl (Nem./DSM) same time, … 31. KUBIŠ +9: 33, 34. ŠTOČEK +9: 34, 45. Marek ČANECKÝ (SR / Dukla Banská Bystrica) +9: 38, 70. Juraj SAGAN ( SR / Bora-Hansgrohe) +14: 26

scoring competition: 1. SAGAN 58, 2. Alvaro Jose Hodeg (Col./Deceuninck-QuickStep) 34, 3. Steimle 32

mountaineering competition: 1. Andrea Garosio (Tal./Bardiani-CSF-Faizane) 37, 2. Adria 16, 3. Tomasz Budzinski (POL / Mazowsze Serce Polski) 13

best rider U23: Idar Andersen (NOR / Uno-X Pro Cycling)

best Slovak: P. SAGAN

the most combative rider of the stage: Daniel Oss (ITA / Bora-Hansgrohe)

the most combative rider of the race: Garosio

best team: DSM

• The author: © List
• VIDEO: TASR / Lukáš Grinaj
• Source: TASR