Tinkoff-Saxo’s Roman Kreuziger rode to victory on stage 6 to Fort Collins, Colorado. After a full day in the breakaway followed by a well-timed attack and subsequent flat-out chase, Kreuziger was able to outsprint his rivals. “I’m very happy to finally raise my arms”, says the stage winner after, what he describes as difficult days of adjusting to the altitude. 

After five tough days for Tinkoff-Saxo at USA Pro Challenge, where the squad has fought to acclimatize to the high altitude racing, Tinkoff-Saxo decided to go for all or nothing, as Roman Kreuziger embarked on a long-distance attack. The effort paid of, as Kreuziger claimed the stage win from a small group.

“I’m very happy to finally raise my arms and win. I haven’t been on top of the podium, since I won Amstel Gold Race, so this is naturally a very special moment. Over here, we had two goals. We missed out during the GC but now we’ve managed to get the stage win that we aimed for. All of us have suffered a lot on the first days as we had to adapt to the altitude, but we kept the morale high and I have personally made good progression. I felt strong today, as if my body was able to cope with the thin air and it’s just great for the entire team that it ends in a win”, says Roman Kreuziger after claiming the stage from the six-strong breakaway.

Adding about the stage win, Kreuziger notes that he decided to opt for an intensive finale rather than waiting for the sprint.

“We were a really good group and we worked well together to keep the peloton behind us. With 25km to go we had a steep climb and we decided to work together instead of starting to attack. It was risky because it meant that everything had to be decided in the absolute finale. So with four kilometers to go I decided to attack and Nathan Brown went with me. I was a bit nervous because he wasn’t pulling that much, while the group behind kept up the chase. But I knew that I had to make the finale as hard as possible”, explains Kreuziger before adding:

“The four guys behind us caught up with us with around 600 meters to go after nearly four k’s of full speed chasing. So everybody was on the limit and I decided to follow straight away, as the first riders started his sprint. He effectively led me out and I started my sprint with 300-400 meters to go. It was a big relief seeing that nobody had passed me, as I crossed the line. It’s an important and hard fought win for the team and I want to use it to keep up the momentum ahead of the Canadian World Tour races that will be my next goal. I’ve had a very hard race program but this win proves that it was not too ambitious and now I want to finish it off in the best way possible”.

Lars Michaelsen, sports director of Tinkoff-Saxo congratulates Kreuziger, as he notes about the team’s approach on the stage.

“We had a crystal clear strategy this morning. We had to put all of our eggs into one basket and go for it in the breakaway. That we ended up winning the stage and fulfilling our goal is something that we couldn’t expect. But from the beginning of the stage I saw the determination that Roman rode with. We had crosswinds from the get go and the team did a good job to ensure that we would have a guy in the front group. It’s a relief to meet our goal for the race on the penultimate stage and we all congratulate Roman for his victory today”, finishes Lars Michaelsen.