Thanks to a long and very fast sprint, Jack Rootkin Gray from Great Britain won the third stage of the Under-23 Peace Race, which led around Jeseník. The overall winner is the 22-year-old Frenchman Antoine Huby, who won by just four seconds ahead of the young Dane, Simon Dalby.
The final act of the race for young hopefuls was a great exhibition for the Czech riders. Milan Kadlec, on the roster of the DSM development team, finished second in the main group in the demanding mountain stage, where the competitors climbed 2682 metres over the 166.1 kilometres. Jakub Ťoupalík, one of the World Tour talents of the Education EF team, finished the stage fourth.
"There were two of us on the sprint, me and Kuba (Ťoupalík). We should have agreed during the stage how we would do it. In the end I was going well, but there was a bit of confusion at the last roundabout. We rode round it before the stage on the outside, in the end I went round it on the inside, but it turned out well," said Kadlec, second on the stage, whose father represented the Czech Republic in track cycling.
Huby finished second on the second stage of the race, and on Sunday managed to stay in the main group, thus defending his yellow jersey for the overall winner. "It was a very demanding stage, something like on Saturday," said Huby of the several steep climbs. "The French team worked perfectly, I have to thank the boys for that. I like the Czech Republic, I have a lot of friends here and I like racing here," he added.
The best of the Czech riders was Karel Camrda, ninth overall. "I am happy and extremely satisfied to finish in the top ten. Today it was very tough, it was full on right from the start, and when the Norwegians went for the climb to Rejvíz, the riders were very strung out. Fortunately, there were enough of us at the front," said Karel Camrda, the son of a former Czech representative in cyclocross, of the stage. "It's my best race this season. I could prove myself here, I will get another chance," said the rider of the ATT Investments team.
Second-placed Dalby took home the green jersey for winning the points competition, and the 20-year-old from the Uno-X Dare Development team stepped up to the top in the battle for the white jersey for the best youngster. Dutch cyclist Mike Schuch became the king of mountain climbers. The Peace Race team competition was won by Portugal, which is also at the top of the Nations Cup standings.
