Fifth podium in four days for Bahrain Victorious at CRO Race, as the GC leader Jonathan Milan sprinted to second place in Crikvenica, in front of his teammate Matej Mohorič, 3rd under pouring rain.
The Italian rider, who will turn 22-years-old tomorrow, impressively retrieved positions after a rider from Bardiani crashed in front of him on the slippery road in the penultimate bend with 350 m to go. At that moment, Jonathan was in the third position, following Mohorič, who was perfectly leading him on the tricky final circuit: “When the guy crashed in front of me, I had to avoid him, and my chain went down. I tried immediately to restart and to move on as much as possible before the finish line. But it was too late, and Axel Laurance (B&B Hotels) made an amazing sprint. He was one of the best, so congrats to him. I’m happy because I also tried my best on a tricky final”.
Jonathan Milan defended the red jersey excellently and managed to increase the gap to Jonas Vingegaard. The Tour de France winner is now 10 seconds behind, thanks also to the three-second bonus he won on the first intermediate sprint in Sukošan, 10.8 kilometres after the start in Biograd na Moru.
“We planned to try to take the bonus, and the team did it perfectly”, Bahrain Victorious SD Gorazd Stangelj explains. “It was only at the beginning of a stage that once again we controlled excellently. The breakaway could be dangerous today, as we didn’t want to take risks with the rain in the finale. But the peloton could catch the 6 attackers with 14km to go. I have to praise each of the guys because everyone did a fantastic job in the crucial race phase, especially in the tricky final circuit. We still have the jersey with two stages to go, and the goal is to defend it. Tomorrow is the toughest stage of the race. If Milan can’t survive the climbs, we have a good option with Mohorič”.
The Slovenian rider is in third place GC, 14 seconds behind the leader Milan, who is also still leading the points and young rider classifications.
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