Angelo Furlan wins first stage 2011 Tour de Serbie: Cycling News
Christina Watches-Ofone team’s Angelo Furlan showed his tremendous performance in mass sprint in the second stage of 2011 Tour de Serbie in Ruma Vrdnik on Monday, June 13.
The 33-year-old Italian took a total of 2 hours, 33 minutes and 52 seconds to cover the distance of 111.6 kilometres.
Tom Meeusen of Telenet – Fidea was the runner-up and Alexej Lyalko of Astana Track finished third.
Michael Rasmussen of Christina Watches-Ofone was also in good form, but failed to gain a lead and grabbed the 19th spot in the stage.
After finishing the stage, Michael said, “I think that the team ran well today. It was a classic sprinter stage where there were three men leave early. Half way we set up and run-te them. On the last lap we got handed Angelo perfect. It's really nice to
start with a victory.”
Recently, Angelo won Tallinn-Tartu GP and also took the first stage of Tour de Serbie. He also won the second stage of Criterium du Dauphine Libere in 2009.
The two riders from BSK Banja Luka team, Srdan Babic and Dragisa Jovic were disqualified.
In the beginning of the stage, a group of four riders made their first breakaway which included, Martin Grasev (Bonitas), Esad Hasanovic (Partizan Powermove), Martin Lind (Christina Watches-Ofone) and Sebastien Jullien (CMI-BSI).
They gained an advantage of few seconds over the peloton. Martin was in good form and maintained his pace in the first and second sprint of the stage.
In the final sprint, Esad Hasanovic tried his best to catch up, but Martin again won the third sprint with 5 points.
Angelo Furlan also took overall lead with a timing of 2 hours, 33 minutes and 42 seconds. Martin Grasev was the runner-up with 1 second behind Furlan.
Tom Meeusen was in the third spot with a difference of 4 seconds, while Michael finished in the 23th spot.
Michael further added, "Now there are two stages where it is I who must deliver. After the stage tomorrow is probably not very many left in the standings. I hope to be one of them."
Esad Hasanovic won the Mountain classification with 6 points ahead of Martin Grasev with 2 points.
The next stage will start in Banja Koviljaca and end in Pale. All the riders will cover a distance of 166.5 kilometres.
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