Kristijan Durasek was once again very competitive in the Tour de Suisse. The Croatian rider managed to stay in the front group in the sourth stage, 193,2km from Flims to Schwarzenbach with the 2nd category climb of Wildhaus and a hilly finale with three laps of a circuit with the steep hill of Husenstrasse-Kirchberg.
The pure sprinters were dropped from the bunch by the high pace so LAMPRE-MERIDA could not count on Cimolai who's improving his form in view of the Tour de France. Conti and Pibernik tried hard to stay in the group, but they had to give up during the final passage of the climb so Durasek had the responsability of the blue-fuchsia-green colors.
"I had good feedbacks from my legs, so I wanted to exploit these great feelings," he said. "Considering that there were still riders faster than me like Matthews, Sagan and Van Avermaet, my project was to try an attack in the final kilometer. Unfortunately, a rider from Movistar [Rojas] crashed and so I lost the opportunity to make my attempt. We were in the last three kilometers, that's why the situation in the overall classification did not change".
Durasek was 29th after the stage was won by Matthews. The overall classification is led by Dumoulin, Durasek is 8th at 21".
LAMPRE-MERIDA lost Xu Gang. Taking into account the future participation in the important appointment of the Tour of Qinghai Lake, the Chinese rider agreed with the team doctor to quit the Swiss race in order to rest the leg which was injuried in a crash on the 2nd stage.
30.03: The Bueng Si Fai |
30.03: Gran Premio Miguel Indurain |
30.03: Volta Limburg Classic |
31.03: Ronde van Vlaanderen |
31.03: Ronde van Vlaanderen |
29.03 - 01.04: Ster van Zuid Limburg |
01.04: Gran Premio del Perdono |
01.04: Ronde de Mouscron |
01.04: Giro del Belvedere |
02.04: G.P. Palio del Recioto |
Luke CRIDLAND 37 years | today |
Seung Gil JU 37 years | today |
Jukka VASTARANTA 40 years | today |
Piotr KIEBLESZ 35 years | today |
Nicolai STEENSEN 34 years | today |
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