Androni Giacattoli-Sidermec rider Egan Bernal once again put in an impressive day in the saddle, as the Columbian rider captured his second stage victory in the same number of days to retain the yellow leader's jersey going into the final stage.
The penultimate stage of the 2017 Sibiu Cycling Tour saw a frenzied start, as a crash in the first 15 kilometers split the peloton into two groups.
Joris Blokker (Monkey Town Continental) was able to stay in good position early and beat out Carlos Alzate (UnitedHealthcare) and Simone Ponzi (CCC Sprandi Polkowice) on the first intermediate sprint of the day in the town of Orlat.
Soon after the sprint in Orlat, a five-rider group consisting of Francesco Canepa (GM Europa Ovini), Moritz Fussnegger (0711 Cycling), Damian Luscher (Roth-Akros), Cameron Piper (Team Illuminate), and Andrea Borso (Adria Mobil) attacked off the front and had put a 2 minute 20 second gap on the chase pack by the 28 km mark.
By the time the lead group reached the climb to Jina, 40 kilometers after the stage departure, they were riding 6 minutes 20 seconds ahead of the peloton.
Moritz Fussnegger won the race to the summit in Jina, as Piper, Borso, Canepa, and Luscher followed closely.
86 kilometers into the stage, Damian Luscher beat out Cameron Piper and Moritz Fussnegger at the intermediate sprint in Sebes.
Fussnegger once again dominated on the climbs, as he was the first to reach the top of the climb at Dumbrava, followed by Piper and Borso.
With 70 kilometers to go the peloton began to track down the lead group as the gap shrunk to 4 minutes 30 seconds.
Damian Luscher captured the final intermediate sprint of the day in the town of Martine at the 142 km mark, ahead of Fussnegger and Piper.
As the lead pack made their second climb up to Jina of the day, the peloton quickly closed in on the break, riding only 2 minutes behind. Damian Luscher, winner of two intermediate sprints on the day, was dropped from the break group early on the ascent to Jina.
The remaining four riders began to string out on the climb, as Francesco Canepa put a surge in ahead of Fussnegger, Borso, and Piper.
Francesco Canepa was able to capture the mountains points for his surge on the climb to Jina, as Fussnegger, Piper, Borso, and Stussi followed around 30 seconds behind.
With 20 kilometers remaining, Borso and Simon Pellaud (Team Illuminate) had separated themselves from the pack with a 1 minute lead, as the remaining riders were brought back into the peloton.
Early in the final climb up to Paltinis, Pellaud dropped Borso, as he held a 2 minute cushion on the chase pack.
The chase pack had been whittled down to 10 riders by the time they reached the foot of the climb up Paltinis, as the group set up to test their legs on the day's final ascent.
Egan Bernal, Colin Stussi, and Cristian Raileanu (Differdange-Losch) separated themselves from the chase pack with 3 kilometers left on the climb, with Bernal putting in a major attack in the final kilometer.
Ultimately, Bernal would capture his second stage of the 2017 Sibiu Cycling Tour in consecutive days, as Stussi finished 11 seconds behind Bernal and Raileanu crossed the finish 10 seconds later.
After another massive day for Bernal, the Columbian rider will hold leads in the general classification, points classification, and youth classification going into the final stage.
Moritz Fussnegger was rewarded for his early climbing, and hold the lead in the mountains classification by a comfortable margin on the final day.
Stage 4 will mark the final day at the 2017 Sibiu Cycling Tour, as the peloton will begin their day in Sibiu once again before making a 148.4 loop through the Transylvania countryside and finishing in the Sibiu city center.
Comments
Post a Comment