Yesterday Rusvelo and Roman Maikin made their WorldTour debut when they lined up for the first stage of the Tour de Pologne and they showed how far they have come by taking second in the sprint. However, runner-up Maikin was left slightly worried by a possible knee injury sustained in one of the many crashes.

On the very first day of the very first World Tour race in its history RusVelo team makes it to the top-3. Roman Maikin came in just a fraction of a second behind the experienced Byelorussian sprinter Yauheni Hutarovich (AG2R La Mondiale). The lead-out by Timofey Kritskiy was instrumental in his RusVelo teammate’s high placing.

The stage was held in extremely difficult weather conditions, starting in broiling heat, then coming through the hail- and thunderstorm, with some severe gusts of wind. The breakaway of the day reached a maximum gap of around 11 minutes, but it was caught by the peloton before it hit the final 7km circuit. There were numerous crashes on the wet roads, one of the most serious of them in the last kilometer. Then the storm of applause by a huge crowd, stronger than the thunderstorm some time before, met the finishing riders.

Roman Maikin said:

“It was an extraordinarily eventful day. The atmosphere before the start felt just amazing; it is my first time that I see such a big and enthusiastic audience from within a peloton. You feel a part of a great cycling festival, there were even fighter aircrafts above our heads like at the Tour or the Giro.

"First it was really, really hot, around +37 C; then a storm came that let us breathe easier, but didn’t help the race safety. As soon as we hit the final circuit, there was a crash, I braked in time and avoided it, just to be brushed off by another rider. It was a poorly prepared fall on my knee and elbow; there was no time for licking the wounds though, I jumped on my bike and started chasing. 

"I came back to the front , there was a violent pull on a 1.5 km-long drag 3 km to go, and after a sharp turn there were about ten of us with a small gap. I watched every move of Hutarovich as I saw he had good legs today and was ready for the sprint as a top favorite.

"The descent before a slight uphill for the line was so fast and slippery that we could barely pedal; all of a sudden I heard Timofey shout my name, he flew by like a bullet but I somehow managed to catch his wheel. He delivered me to the very front flawlessly, the only thing left for me to do was a head to head with Yauheni; it was an aggressive battle, and I was left with little space for maneuver.

"Yes, it was dangerous, but that’s what a sprinter’s life is all about. After all, to finish second at this level is not a bad result at all. On the negative side, I feel a knee pain now, I hope we can sort it out with the team doctor before the next stage so that it wouldn’t compromise my chances in the next stages”.

Sergey Honchar, RusVelo DS, said:

“Thumbs up to the guys, Kritskiy rode a smart and powerful finale and Maikin now has all the confidence it takes for a bunch sprint; physically he has been ready for quite a while.

"On the other hand, I can’t help worrying about the conditions of our three riders who crashed today in a weather I for one never happened to race in during my long career as a rider. Time alone will tell whether it will influence their performance”.