Over the winter Jonas Ahlstrand has worked hard on his endurance with the Giant-Shimano coaches and today the work paid off when he used a rare chance to sprint for himself to win the morning half-stage in the Circuit Cycliste Sarthe. The young Swede was happy to reap the fruits of his effort after timing his sprint in the very fast finale perfectly.

Jonas Ahlstrand has sprinted to his first professional victory for Team Giant-Shimano on the morning stage of the second day of racing at Circuit Cycliste Sarthe. After losing teammates and being out of position for the sprint on yesterday’s stage, Ahlstrand made up for it today taking a well-earned victory in front of a quality field of riders.

The second stage of the race was always going to be a fast one at just 88km in length, and a bunch sprint looked on the cards throughout. A small break of three got away early on but never got much distance between themselves and the chasing bunch.

The race came back together in the final 6km and Team Giant-Shimano set about working to get Ahlstrand in position at the front and ready for the sprint finish. He executed this in fine form to savour his first professional win and the team’s 16th of the season so far.

Much like many of the young talented riders on Team Giant-Shimano before him, Ahlstrand is showing the fruits of the hard work that he and the team staff put in and that the way the team operates results in progression and victories on the road.

At just 24, Ahlstrand is still young and progressing as he develops under close guidance of the team’s coaches. Having joined the team in 2013, Ahlstrand has worked hard on his sprinting and his finish, and the experts have studied what type of rider he is and tailored his training to develop his strengths and work on his weaknesses.

A very happy Ahlstrand said after the finish:

“At last! That felt good. The finish was really fast today, with a downhill run-in. The team did a good job in getting me to the front with three kilometres to go and from there I followed the FDJ train.

“It was a technical finish and they had the numbers so I followed them and coming out of the last roundabout I was in about sixth position. We were at over 60kmh and I knew that if I came from behind with speed they wouldn’t be able to come past me.

“I jumped just inside 300m to go and gave it everything to the line. I was confident that I was feeling good after yesterday’s stage already and we knew this was a good opportunity. The team were great and it feels so good to finally get the win.

“I had a good winter and worked a lot with the trainers on my strength and also on being fresh for the sprint at the end of a race. Winning is a nice reward for the hard work we have put in and I thank the team for helping me to get here.”

“It’s great to see Jonas get his first win and show the talent that he has as a sprinter,” said a proud coach, Christian Guiberteau.

“The plan was similar to yesterday, to focus on keeping Tobias Ludvigsson out of trouble and then help Jonas at the end for the sprint.

“He showed great compusure to stay in the wheels and then timed his sprint perfectly.

“The racing is far from finished here as we will now focus on a strong time trial this afternoon and see how the guys are sitting overall this evening.”