Few expected the first European victory of a star-studded Radioshack line-up to be won by a 20-year-old neoprofessional. Nonetheless, just that happened yesterday when Bob Jungels soloed to an amazing win in GP Nobili Rubinetterie, and the young Luxembourger was overwhelmed by the success.

Hayden Roulston got Radioshack's season off to the perfect start with his victory in the New Zealand national championships in January, but since then stars like Fabian Cancellara, Andy Schleck, Andreas Klöden and Chris Horner have failed to follow up on that initial success. With his solo victory yesterday 20-year-old Bob Jungels took things into his own hands to finally deliver that elusive victory for the Luxembourg super team.

Jungels has long been regarded as a major talent, and with last year's U23 Paris-Roubaix, Fleche du Sud and Luxembourg elite TT championships his signature was wanted by plenty of team managers. He promptly delivered on his promises and found it hard to believe his own performance.

“This was a race where we had no real leader, so (sports director, ed.) Kim (Andersen, ed.) told us to try something. It’s an amazing feeling.  I was hoping to have a win some time this year, but I never expected this.  I am overwhelmed.  It’s good for the team and I am so happy.”

Jungels laid the foundations for his victory by joining an early 4-man breakaway in the opening kilometers of the race. On the second and final time up the race's main climb he left his companions behind, and being a strong time triallist he single-handedly held off the might of Team Saxo-Tinkoff and Movistar who chased desperately to set up sprinters Daniele Bennati and Francisco Ventoso, respectively.

“It was a really hard day.  Everyone on the team kept trying to go in the breakaways, and I finally made it with (Marco, ed.) Haller, (Eloy, ed.) Teruel and (Edwin, ed.) Avila. We worked well together most of the day and got over nine minutes. The first time up the climb we still had seven minutes, and I saw that I was the strongest in the group.  We were three guys by the second time on the climb (Teruel had been dropped, ed.), and I attacked at the bottom.  That was my only chance, so I time trialed to the finish against a strong headwind. I kept hearing Kim’s voice from the car behind me, and I couldn’t believe how long those 15k felt.”

The team's star Fabian Cancellara used the race as his final preparation for Milan-Sanremo on Sunday and chose to abandon. Even if Jungels will not join him on Sunday, the performance of the Luxembourgish talent will surely do a lot to motivate the Swiss star ahead of his exploits along the Mediterranean coast.

You can follow Cancellara's efforts live on CyclingQuotes.com/live on Sunday starting at 14.30. Until then you can prepare for the race by studying our preview.