Guillaume Martin wins first stage of Course De la Paix Juniors 2011 – Cycling news
French cyclist Guillaume Martin won the first stage of the Course De la Paix Juniors 2011 in Litomerice.
Guillaume took a total of 2 hours, 17 minutes and 26 seconds to cover the distance of 95.5 kilometres.
The Frenchman kept the race under control in the last kilometres. Guillaume powered across the line comfortably ahead of Slovenia’s Matej Mahoric.
Matej Zahalka of Czech Republic put in an excellent performance to claim the third spot behind Mahoric. Pierre-Hen Lecuisinier of France was in fourth place 12 seconds behind Zahalka. Matteo Cigala, Olivier Le Gac and Aksel Nommela were in fifth, sixth and
seventh places respectively.
The group of five riders including Olivier Le Gac, Aksel Nommela, Martin Otonicar, Roman Ivlev and Martijn Tusveld made an early break in the race but they never gained an advantage of more than three minutes.
There were two sprints and three mountains in the stage. The first sprint of the race covered 25 kilometres. The group of three riders, Florian Senechal, Marko Pavlic and Vojtech Nipl took a lead but after a few kilometres, Florian Senechal gained five points
and won the first sprint.
However, in the final sprint after 28 kilometres, Sondre Enger from Norway came first with five points. The group of five riders Vojtech Nipl, Silvio Herklotz, Soren Kravc Andersen, Alexis Gougeard and Antonio merged together in the mountain stages but in
the final 71 kilometres of the race, Vojtech took a lead ahead of the other riders.
Guillaume Martin was also leading the overall classification of the race and was followed by Matej Mahoric who was in the second place behind the Frenchman.
Matej Zahalka was in third place while Sondre Enger from Norway finished fourth.
The next stage will start in Lom and end at Litvinov. All the riders will cover the distance of 99.2 kilometres. It will be interesting to see who wins the second stage.
Ranking points:
1
Guillaume Martin
France
25 pts
2
Matej Mahoric
Slovenia
20 pts
3
Matej Zahalka
Czech Republic
16 pts
4
Pierre-Hen Lecuisinier
France
14 pts
5
Matteo Cigala
Italy
12 pts
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