Timofey Kritskiy wins fourth stage as Martin Grashev retains lead in Tour of Bulgaria 2011
Itera-Katusha team’s Timofey Kritskiy showed a brilliant performance in the fourth stage of Tour of Bulgaria 2011 on Tuesday, September 13. Martin Grashev maintained his overall leader’s yellow jersey.
The race started in Shumen and ended in Dobrich. The 24-year-old Russian cyclists took a total of 3 hours, 35 minutes and 27 seconds to cover the distance of 135 kilometres.
In the final kilometres, Itera-Katusha team controlled the situation of the stage and with the help of his team Kritskiy easily beat Svetoslav Tchanliev Kirilov with the same timing as the Russian.
With a few kilometres to go, the five cyclists made their first breakaway lead including, Timofey Kritskiy (Itera-Katusha), Svetoslav Tchanliev Kirilov (KTS), Nikolay Mihaylov (Bul), Tino Meier (LKT Team Brandenburg) and Danail Andonov Petrov (KTS).
All of them worked hard and built a lead of a few seconds over the other riders. Tino Meier and Danail Andonov increased their pace and launched an attack but failed to catch the trio. With few kilometres to go, Nikolay Mihaylov was unable to hold the pace
and Kirilova and Kristskiy got away.
Kirilova tried his best to take a lead but the Russian was in good form and crossed the finish line without any difficulty. Nikolay Mihaylov was in third place with a difference of 16 seconds and Tinor Meier finished fourth with the difference of 18 seconds
ahead of Danail Andonov Petrov. Ivaïlo Gabrovski (Bul), Loic Aubert (Switzerland) and Erik Mohs (Germany) was in tenth, eleventh and twelve place respectively.
Previously, Kristkiy took sixth place in Tour de Bretagne and prologue stage of Five Rings of Moscow. He also took second place in Mid-August Breton.
Martin Grashev (Bul) maintained his overall standing with a timing of 12 hours, 46 minutes and 21 seconds. Spas Gyurov was in runner-up spot with 1 minute and 24 seconds down to Grashev and Valery Kaikov finished third with a difference of 1 minute and 27
seconds.
However, the stage winner Kritskiy was in 51st place with a difference of 2 minutes and 21 seconds.
The next stage will start in Dobrich and end in Slantchev Briag as all the riders will cover the distance of 183 kilometres.
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