Alex Dowsett helps Team Sky win as he secures his first professional stage win – Cycling Update
Alex Dowsett showed a wonderful display of his skills at stage 5 of Tour du Poitou-Charentes after he launched the attack and sprinted his way across the finish line claiming the first professional victory of his career.
Dowsett has won the Under-23 British National Time Trial Championships in 2008-09 including a win at the Under-23 European Time Trial Championships in 2010 as he rode for American Trek-Livestrong with a silver medal to his credit during the Commonwealth
Games.
Team Sky rider finished the 171.4 kilometre stage 5 at first position in a total time of 4:03:15 with 25 points ahead of his team-mate Davide Appollonio who finished second and Moreno Hofland of Rabobank Continental team at the third position.
Alex commented about his win as per the team Sky’s website, “It all started with the intermediate sprint after 24 km; the bunch was all still together and Jez [Hunt] and Appo absolutely roared off the front and got about 50 metres on the peloton which gave
me the three seconds that bumped me up to third on the GC.”
He further commented that the win is a result of the good start that he got right from the beginning of the stage and he managed to build on the lead which resulted in his first professional career win.
Team Sky’s directeur sportif Nicolas Portal was glad on Alex’s performance as he commented on the young rising star of his team, “The guys carried it out perfectly and it was a super ride from Alex, a very special win for him.”
He further mentioned that all the players in the team are in great form as Davide and Alex have also claimed the stage wins including Lars-Petter and Michael Barry who have helped their team mates at crucial times and also Michael Rogers who is showing improvement
and is coming up as a better cyclist every day. Nicholas commented that it has been a great week for himself and Team Sky and everything looks good when you are winning but he was mostly inspired by the fighting spirit of his team throughout the tour.
Team AG2R is leading the stage 5 Teams classification as Team Radio Shack is at second and Saur-Sojasun is at third position with Sky Procycling and Movistar Teams at fourth and fifth positions respectively.
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