“Looking back at these days of racing, I think we can be happy”
44º Tour of the Alps
Stage 5: Valle del Chiese / Idroland – Riva del Garda (120.9 km)
The end of the route, in Riva del Garda. Next to the lake of the same name, in the lands where Davide Bais usually rides, closed an intense edition of the Tour of the Alps without final prize for an EOLO-KOMETA Cycling Team that leaves with a great work completed during the whole race and with Erik Fetter (25th) as his best man in the final general classification. Another step forward as a team with a view to the next Giro d’Italia.
Márton Dina could not defend the blue leader’s jersey he won in the previous stage. Dina fought to get into the breakaway and score more points, but his attempts were unsuccessful. Local rider Bais also tried his luck. In the breakaway of fourteen riders that did make its way, later sixteen, Alessandro de Marchi entered. De Marchi, third in the finish line today, added to his tally on the Passo Duron and finally regained the blue jersey. The breakaway reached the final circuit with a couple of minutes to spare and out of the breakaway came stage winner Felix Großschartner of Austria.
Márton Dina: “Looking back at these days of racing, I think We can be happy. Twice I managed to be in the day’s breakaway, I wore the leader’s jersey of the KOM classification for one day: of course, I didn’t keep it for long but this is a more important race than the Coppi & Bartali. I couldn’t expect more, I think I reached all the goals I had set for myself so yes, I’m happy. Thinking instead about today’s stage, it was really difficult to defend the jersey: if I have to be honest, already in the warm-up I realized that my legs were not working well, they were not going as in the two previous days and yesterday’s effort was important and I felt it. At the beginning I tried to follow Thompson and De Marchi who were close to me in the KOM ranking but as soon as the road started to climb I started to suffer and I fell off. De Marchi attacked at the right time and went really strong, I really think he deserved to win the jersey. The future? I don’t know: the next days will be of rest, the next races I don’t know yet. We’ll see what will happen…”.
[ PhotoGomezSport]
