Cycling: Jolanda Neff from Switzerland and her compatriot Florian Vogel won the first stage of the 19th Afxentia stage race. Neff beat Denmark's Annika Langvad by just 1,8 seconds over the five kilometers, while Vogel was 12,2 seconds ahead of France's Stephane Tempier.
"Oh wow", Jolanda Neff exclaimed in astonishment as she looked at the list of results. Only 18 seconds separated her and Annika Langvad after the time trial. “I felt good but in the first race you never know”, she said with a laugh and was happy about her first victory in the new Stöckli team outfit. She decided very late to start in Cyprus. “I postponed my preparation for a month because the World Cup doesn't start until May. But the form came quicker than expected. That’s why I just wanted to go racing”, she explained.
Annika Langvad said she hadn't done any intensive training in preparation for the Cape Epic stage race in South Africa. “I've been working on my basics, but I know that I can also be fast if I only train basics. But sure, it's always difficult at the beginning of the season because you have no comparison.", said the marathon world champion. "If I had known how close it was, I could have gotten a few more seconds", she said laughing.
Annie Last in third position was a bit of a surprise. She lost 54,3 seconds to Neff (16:29,1) but it was a strong start to the season for the Brit. Eight seconds behind her, Gunn-Rita Dahle-Flesjaa was leading a group of riders who were very close together.
Dahle-Flesjaa was passed by Langvad, which started a minute later, and was accordingly cautious in commenting on her competition. "I'm not a fast starter", she said, but pointed out that it was sort of a "historic moment" for her.
"It's the first time in my career that I've raced on a full-suspension bike", according to the nine-time world champion.
With an impressive race, Florian Vogel landed his first stage win on Cyprus. The former European champion from Switzerland managed the same feat as his compatriot Jolanda Neff: In the first race after his team change from Scott-Odlo to Focus XC, he was right at the top of the podium for his new team.
When he crossed the finish line, he was still a bit critical. "I tried to pick up the pace, but in my opinion, I was too fast at the beginning", Vogel explained. "And I couldn't fulfill my team manager's requirement to catch up with the driver who started in front of me." Matthias Beck, who was meant, laughed and so did Vogel.
In the end, Vogel won twelve seconds ahead of Stephane Tempier. The BH-Sr Suntour-KMC team Frenchman appears to be in good form. "Yeah, it was good, especially considering it's the first intensive session. I gave everything and then got into some trouble on the downhill”, explained Tempier.
Grant Ferguson (Betch.nl Superior-Brentjens) in third position was a bit of a surprise, on the one hand. On the other hand neither. The Brit is not yet one of the absolute world-class drivers, but he is known to be a very good sprinter.
As a result, he was able to cross the finish line in a time 21,57 seconds slower than Vogel's (13:57,2 minutes), just a mere 0,28 seconds quicker than Brazilian Henrique Avancini and 0,35 Seconds than Frenchman Maxime Marotte (BH-Sr Suntour-KMC).
Photos: © EGO Promotion © Armin M. Kuestenbrück