Giant-Shimano have become famously known for their excellent lead-out train and today the team again showed their skills when they delivered Luka Mezgec to his first season win in the Handzame Classic. The Slovenian was happy to pay back his teammates and see a dedicated effort to improve his sprinting skills pay off.

Luka Mezgec (SLO) took an impressive sprint victory today at the Handzame Classic (1.1) in Belgium, finishing off a great display of racing by Team Giant-Shimano.

This is Mezgec’s first win of the season, picking up from where he left off at the end of last season where he took his first WorldTour victory of his career at the Tour of Beijing. This victory marks Team Giant-Shimano’s 10th victory of the season.

Having fallen ill during the Ruta del Sol last month, Mezgec struggled to find his sprinting legs and worked hard to get back into the rhythm of the fast finishes.

The first half of the race saw the peloton split up and come back together on a couple of occasions, with the race at one point broken into four groups. The action calmed down and three riders clipped off the front forming the day’s breakaway.

The team helped control the race behind these riders and eventually closed the gap in the closing stages before setting Mezgec up for the sprint finish.

“It’s great to get the first win out of the way and also to thank my teammates for their help today with a victory as they set me up perfectly and I had the easy job of finishing it off,” said a very happy Mezgec after the finish.

“It was really hectic early on with lots of attacks and crosswinds splitting the race into echelons but we always had guys in the front group so it was under control. We let the three guys go when we hit the circuits later on and controlled with a few other teams.

“We caught the break on the last lap and the guys then set me up perfectly for the sprint at the end. The legs felt good and sprinting on the Giant Propel is awesome, it feels so fast. It’s a nice reward for the team’s faith in me and their hard work today.”

"I'm really happy," he added to Directvelo. This is my first win of the season. The team put me in the best conditions all day. Despite the circumstances and the wind, I was still pretty confident in my sprint today. 200 m from the line, I jumped onto the wheel of a Lotto rider and then I gave everything. Last year, I took 7th place after leading Tom Veelers out. This year it was the opposite. This may be a sign of a better season."
 

Team Giant-Shimano’s Scientific Expert commented on Luka’s progression since last year:

“The development target for us with Luka was to keep developing his skills as a sprinter. He worked really hard on this over the winter and made some big improvements. It’s great to see the hard work pay off.”

Coach, Rudi Kemna added: “Everything went to plan today and Luka did a great job at the end. The plan was always to control the race using as little energy as possible and set the sprint up.

“Even when the race was splitting up in the crosswinds we were always in control and the guys never panicked. Once the last break was brought back, the guys came to the front and led it out from 1500m out. It worked out perfect and the guys can be proud of the job they did today.”