Filippo Zana of Italy wins this year’s Peace Race U23 Grand Prix Jeseník. On today's difficult and sunny final third stage, which started and finished in Jeseník and covered 168 kilometres, he safely protected the lead that he built up on Saturday's stage ending on Dlouhé stráně. The stage was won by Axel Laurance of France, followed by Wessel Krul of the Netherlands and Lukáš Kubiš of Slovakia. Of the Czech riders, the best was Mathias Vacek in 11th place. In the final overall classification of this Nations Cup event, Vacek occupied sixth place.
In recent years, the order has generally been shaken up a lot on the final stage, but not this time. Although the riders again faced some unpleasant climbs, and there were very few places where they could relax, a relatively large group of riders fought for the stage win.
During the difficult kilometres, there was nothing to indicate this. The riders were very active, the peloton was continually being stretched out, divided, but then coming together again. The Norwegians lost the race on Saturday's stage and today they wanted to make up for it. In every break away they had the largest number of riders, and they kept attacking. Pavel Bittner and Petr Kelemen lagged behind in the second climb bonus, but in the end, they also managed to get to the front, and Kelemen even went for the final blue jersey for the best climber. On the final hill-climb bonus, he got one point for fifth place and Hessman of Germany got ahead of him.
Around thirty kilometres from the finish, a six-member group gradually formed, in which the Norwegians had three riders, but on the final climb to Rejvíz, the main group overtook them and no one built another lead in the downhill run to the destination city. It was therefore clear that a mass sprint would decide the stage and the Czech team bet on the winner of the first stage, Bittner. He built up a promising position, but in the final bend one of his competitors sent him into the protective fence, and his hopes were dashed. "It was a hard impact, but luckily I didn’t end up on the ground," said an unhappy Bittner.
Mathias Vacek was also in the leading group, which meant he maintained his position in the top ten. "The first half of the stage in particular was very nervous and was quite hard. There were continual break-aways, but the Italians controlled it. On the second hill-climb bonus a group broke away in which we didn’t have a rider and we had to go it alone. I am extremely satisfied with how my first U23 event turned out," commented sixth-place finisher Vacek.
Team coach, Tomáš Konečný, was also happy. "We wanted to win a stage and have someone in the top ten. We achieved both, so I feel very positive about the event. In addition, we have a very young team and all the boys can ride again next year. It is an extremely demanding stage race, and until the finish line is crossed, nothing is decided," said Konečný.
