The finale in the 1st stage of the PPC Cycling Tour of Greece was exciting. In the mass sprint that took place in the port of Heraklion, Stanislav Aniolkowski of Human Powered Health narrowly crossed the finish line ahead of the Portuguese Yuri Leitao of Caja Rural and celebrated the fourth victory of his career. Tyler Steich of the U23 USA team finished third in the stage.
In the first group of athletes who covered the 187.7 km of the first stage in 4 hours and 35 minutes, the holder of the blue jersey, Aaron Gate of Bolton Equities Black Spoke, was also found, and thus he managed to maintain the first position of the general classification.
In second place, nine seconds behind, his teammate, Rory Townsend, was also maintained, while Aniolkowski climbed to third, as with the ten second bonus he got for his victory in the stage, he reduced his gap with Gate from 22 to 12 seconds.
The white jersey was also kept by Logan Carey, also of Bolton Equities Black Spoke, while the red of the points is now worn by Remy Lelande of Team Legendre and the orange, for the mountain classification, by the Polish Tomas Buczynski of Mazowsze Serce Polski.
Cypriot champion Andreas Miltiadis is in 6th place in the general ranking and Giorgos Bouglas is in 35th place, first among the members of the Greek national team.
The evolution of the fight
The pre-start of the race took place at the Karteros Beach Sports Center. The weather conditions were not favorable for the cyclists, with light rain in places, strong winds of up to six Beaufort, which were sometimes favorable, sometimes against and sometimes sideways.
As the terrain began to climb, the breakaway of the day was created, with Remi Lelande (Team Legendre), Nils Sinchek (Abloc CT), Vincent Dorn (Bike Aid), Jeroen Meijers (Polygon Cycling Team) and Miltiadis Giannucci of of the Greek National Team, who were also caught a little later by the Pole Tomas Budzinski (Mazowsze Serce Polski). This six did not manage to separate more than 3′:40” from the peloton.
When it came time for the first climb sprint (category 2), Germany’s Dorn took the first six points, followed by Meijers (4pts), Budzinski (2pts) and Giannoutsos (1pts).
In the first intermediate sprint on the straight, it was Lelande’s turn to cross the line first to take the first three points, followed by Budzinski (2) and Sinchek (1). In the second sprint the trio was Dorn-Budzinski-Lelande.
A short time later the breakaway group split in two, with Budzinski and Dorn going ahead and Giannuzzo and Sinchek following.
The top two became… one, with Budzinski giving his lone race with less than 33 kilometers to go. The Pole took maximum points from the second climb sprint and claimed the orange jersey, which was clearly his goal in this first stage. He was followed in the second climb sprint, also category 2, by Cypriot Andreas Miltiadis, Bingoal’s Johan Mains and Team Cottatec’s Davide Baltacini.
At 14 kilometers before the finish line, the peloton “swallowed up” Budzinski as well and all the teams started to prepare for the final sprint, which emerged as the big winner Stanislav Aniolkowski.
The statements of the protagonists
Stanislav Aniolkowski: “An amazing job was done by my teammates and I just had to finish this effort. Bolton Equities Black Spoke controlled the stage from the start but we aimed to hit the final sprint.
I’ve been waiting for this season for two years, so this is a great day for me. We came to win the stage, but also the overall, as now the difference is small and we will chase the bonus seconds afterwards”.
Aaron Gate: “It was a good effort from the group that went ahead, but my team worked well to defend the blue jersey.
It was more difficult than we expected and we “sacrificed” some of our team members.
Rory Townsend had a flat tire at the end and missed the final sprint, but fortunately that happened in the last three kilometers and his position in the general classification was not affected.”
Logan Curry: “It was a good day for us. Nothing is finished yet. On the uphills we might be able to neutralize Aniolkowski.
The race is very good and Greece is beautiful. I will definitely come with my partner for a vacation.”
Tomas Bujinski: “When I saw the difference between the peloton and the cyclists who had “stuck away”, I chased the orange jersey. My goal is to keep it”
Remi Lelande: “It’s the first time I’ve taken part in a race in this category and it’s great that I managed to make the red jersey my own.”
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