Course de la Paix 2016: Evgeny Kazanov wins the queen stage, Chris Blevins new leader

Evgeny Kazanov from Russia won the queen stage of Course de la Paix 2016 from Teplice to Altenberg. Vadim Pronskiy from Kazakhstan finished second while Jaka Promozic from Slovenia took third. Fourth today, Chris Blevins is the new race leader.

Kazanov wins solo (photo: Patress.cz)

Despite many attacks peleton stick together at the bottom of first of two ascents to Komáří Vížka. Kazanov was one of the first to attack and quickly gained a solid gap over shattered group. Behind the Russian group of ten riders formed with Blevins and Pedersen. Leader Brunel was 35" behind the chasers. On the descent two groups combined but Kazanov already had over 2:30 gap.

The final ascent was too hard for both Pedersen and Burnel as they struggled to keep the pace of group who was chasing Kazanov. Chris Blevins attacked after 1,5km of the climb and was joined by Primozic and Pronkisy. The trio worked well together but didn't manage to catch Kazanov who won the stage solo with 11" over Pronvisky and 13" on Primozic. Blevins was right behind them and thanks to attack on the first stage and TT he took the leaders jersey.

Blevins on his way to the yellow jersey (photo: patress.cz)

Alexys Brunel put a great effort but couldn't keep the pace with the best especially with his team struggling with injuries from previous stage. He finished 26th over five minutes down.

Full results

In general classification Blevins leads with 24" on Kazanov and 33" on Pronkiy and Primozic. Tomorrow riders face the final hilly stage around Terezin.