Shane Archbold today sprinted to his first professional win on the second stage of the Czech Tour beating Daryl Impey (Mitchelton-Scott) and his BORA – hansgrohe team-mate Erik Baška into second and third places respectively.
The second stage of the Czech Tour took the riders from Olomouc to Frydek-Mistek over 187 demanding kilometres. The course featured four climbs and three sprints, the last one on the final circuit. The peloton remained as one until, after around 40 kilometres of racing, a group of four riders broke clear of the main bunch.
BORA – hansgrohe helped take control over the pace in the peloton and after the last climb of the day, with the gap dropping steadily it was all back together with 25 kilometres to go.
Heading onto the final lap, BORA – hansgrohe started their lead-out for Shane Archbold, who normally leads Sam Bennett to victories. The New Zealander put in a great performance and was brought into position perfectly by his teammates.
Archbold put in an impressive turn of speed in the finishing straight to take his first professional victory ahead of Impey and Baška. Following Archbold’s victory, he now leads the points classification and will wear the green points jersey tomorrow.
Shane Archbold – “I am super happy, it is my first professional win. Thankfully, we did not have to pull the whole day, due to Mitchelton-Scott leading the peloton. The course was tough, a lot of climbing and cold due to the rain but at the end it was a good day for us with Erik sprinting to third and after the team brought me into position perfectly I was able to celebrate on the top of the podium and take the sprint jersey. I am very grateful and happy about the team’s performance.”
