Polish rider Stanisław Aniołkowski from BDC team won final stage of La Coupe du Président de la Ville de Grudziadz after sprint finish in Grudziądz. Estonian rider Siim Kiskonen finished second and Dutch rider Maurits de Waal (Willebrord Wil Vooruit) was third. Max Kanter from Rsc Cottbus team finished safely in the bunch and won the race.
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| Aniołkowski wins final stage in Grudziądz |
The final stage of the race around city host, Grudziądz was basically flat and usually ends up with a bunch sprint. Despite many tries in the first kilometers, peleton stayed together for almost thirty kilometers. Aniołkowski managed to win first int sprint and scored valuable three seconds.
Soon after the first sprint seven riders rode away from the bunch: Bastian FLicke (Rsc Cottbus),
Filip Deja (SMS Żyrardów),
Maurits De Waal (Willebrord Wil Vooruit), Jurgis Taucius (Lithuania), Rob Gray (HMT Academy JLT Condor), David Klatik (Slovakia) and Karl Patrick Lauk (Estonia). They managed to reach 30 seconds gap at most and contested second inter sprint where Bastian Flicke won. Around 50 kilometers from the finih the leaders were caught and peleton rode together again.
At the third int sprint in Grudziądz Staniosław Aniołkowski won again and scored another three seconds bonus. Right after that peleton let two riders go: Szymon Krawczyk (KTK Kalisz) and Daniel Staniszewski (SMS Żyrardów). They kept small gap over the bunch untill ten kilometers to go when their attack was finished. The final bunch sprint won Aniołkowski and Max Kanter sealed his overall victory finishing in the bunch.
Results (Stage 4):
At the third int sprint in Grudziądz Staniosław Aniołkowski won again and scored another three seconds bonus. Right after that peleton let two riders go: Szymon Krawczyk (KTK Kalisz) and Daniel Staniszewski (SMS Żyrardów). They kept small gap over the bunch untill ten kilometers to go when their attack was finished. The final bunch sprint won Aniołkowski and Max Kanter sealed his overall victory finishing in the bunch.
Results (Stage 4):
The first stage race of the season is now over so it's time for some of my thoughts. I've bet on Max Kanter as overall winner and he reached my expectations. Right from the great TTT ride by his team, Rsc Cottbus, until the final stage in Grudziądz he was always in right place at right time keep his overall lead in safe. He proved to be a strong rider and I'm sure we will hear again about him this year.
With such a strong field Polish riders should be proud of themselves. The managed to win two sprint stages and placed two riders in final podium. I was a little bit surprised by Alan Banaszek as he didn't perform as well as I predicted but his teammate, Stanisław Aniołkowski took his place and rode a great race. The TTT was the key again and BDC team lost quiet a lot of time and despite scoring a lot of bonus seconds it wasn't enough to beat Kanter in GC. Hopefully Aniołkowski will have more chances to shine this season.
Mathias Norsgaard should be happy either. He won the queen stage in style and if he hadn't miss the move on first stage he could win the whole race. Team Kel-berg had Honore in that move but he crashed on the next day and Danish team hopes for GC were over. Still, they proved to be one of the strongest teams in junior scene.
Finally, remember the name: Siim Kiskonen. Estonia team was far back at the TTT but Kiskonen proved to be a great sprinter finishing 3rd,2nd,2nd and 2nd in sprints! Great performance, keep an eye on him for the rest of the season.
Next up: The Tour de France for juniors, Course de la Paix.
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