CYCLING – TEAM Bahrain Victorious rider Daniel Skerl battled into the top five yesterday in the second stage of the 83rd Tour de Pologne in Poland.
Skerl was part of a large group in a sprint to the finish at the end of the 150.1-kilometre leg. He took an impressive fifth after crossing the line inches behind stage winner Jonathan Milan of Lidl-Trek, who triumphed in three hours five minutes and seven seconds.
Skerl’s fellow-Italian Alessandro Borgo was Bahrain Victorious’ second-best rider yesterday in 26th, while Slovenian Matevz Govekar finished 34th. Colombian Santiago Buitrago was 53rd, Italian Edoardo Zambanini was 58th, Belgian Alec Segaert came 90th, and Slovenian Roman Ermakov finished 92nd.
Following yesterday’s action, Govekar remained Bahrain Victorious’ top-ranked member in the race’s general classification despite dropping two positions to 29th, while Borgo climbed 11 spots to 30th.
Skerl remained 12th in the points rankings, while the Bahrain Victorious squad rose three spots to ninth on the teams’ standings.
This year’s Tour de Pologne features seven stages in all, starting on the Baltic coast before travelling south along the country’s western side and finishing with an individual time trial near Krakow. The elite men’s road race is composed of a total of 1,110.7km and over 2,800m of climbing on the hardest mountain stages. Today’s third stage covers 193.5km.
Meanwhile, also yesterday, Portuguese rider Afonso Eulalio was Bahrain Victorious’ best finisher in the 165km opening stage of the 48th Vuelta a Burgos in Spain.
He finished as part of a trailing group 12 seconds behind leg winner Matthew Brennan of Team Visma-Lease a Bike, who had a finishing time of 3:35:54.
Amongst Bahrain Victorious’ other riders, Spaniards Pau Miquel and Pello Bilbao were 27th and 28th, respectively, yesterday, Dutchman Max van der Meulen was 31st, Briton Oliver Stockwell came 129th, Dutch Mathijs Paaschens finished 138th, and Slovenian Zak Erzen came 149th.
This year’s Vuelta a Burgos comprises five stages, to be held across 842km and a total elevation gain of approximately 12,000m. Stage two will be held today, covering 178km.