cycling: In the end, the yellow jersey wearers were able to maintain their lead on the final day of the Afxentia stage race defend. Florian Vogel had stiff competition in Henrique Avancini and Stephane Tempier but secured the overall standings with his second stage win. the same gilt for Annika Langvad, who was alone in the front early on and won ahead of Margot Moschetti and Kathrin Stirnemann at the Mantra tou Kampiou picnic area in Cyprus.
Five riders still had their legs in the overall standings before the final cross-country race. The pace was very high right from the start. Maxime Marotte (BH-Sr Suntour-KMC) was the first of the quintet to let the lead group go.
Six riders including Grant Ferguson (Betch.nl Superior Brentjens) and Olympic Champion Jaroslav Kulhavy (Specialized Racing) were in front. Defending champion Fabian Giger was the next to give up the fight for overall victory. He lost contact.
In the end, three drivers remained. Leading Florian Vogel (Focus XC) controlled, Stephane Tempier (BH-Sr Suntour-KMC) was hanging on his rear wheel and Henrique Avancini (Cannondale Factory Racing) made multiple attacks. "In the climbs and in the downhill", said the Brazilian. “But Florian was simply the strongest today. He is a deserved winner.”
Florian Vogel was able to counter all attacks, while Tempier ran into problems on the penultimate lap. He conceded a few seconds and was unable to catch up again. "It was too hard for me today. Henrique and Florian were just better, no question. I gave everything. I suffered a lot on the last lap, but in the end third place is okay for me. It was the first race of the season and it was definitely good training."said the Frenchman.
In the last lap, the door to overall victory was still open for Avancini. He had to lose 17 seconds to Vogel. But it was the Swiss himself who became active. With two kilometers to go, Vogel charged and escaped.
"Sorry." Vogel tapped his competitor on the shoulder at the finish "I wanted to make sure that Stephane didn't come back. If I had fallen, I could have lost everything.”
Es war certainly not necessary for his second stageexcuse victory. Avancini was satisfied. "I didn't win, but it was four good days for me. I'm in good shape, but there are still things I can improve.", concluded the South American.
Florian Vogel came with 20s seconds ahead of the finish and celebrated his first Afxentia overall victory. “The legs were really good again today. I could also drive tactically. I then became offensive when I noticed that Tempier has problems on the climbs. Yesterday he was so strong in the downhill that I wanted to be sure. It went really great for me”, explained the two-time World Cup winner from Switzerland. Just eleven seconds had separated him and Tempier before the final stage.
In the end, Olympic champion Jaroslav Kulhavy had his best of four days and finished the cross-country race in fourth place. "Today was better. Overall I was too tired, but as a training it was okay.
Austria's Karl Markt finished fifth after a long seventh position. It was also the best result at Afxentia 2015 for the Haibike Ötztal rider.
For the women, it was only the 5,4-kilometer starting lap when a leading group was still on the road together and the tension in the fight for overall victory remained.
Then Annika Langvad decided (Specialized Racing) To accelerate before entering a singletrack. "I knew I had to be there first. From there it went pretty well, I was able to ride my own rhythm. When I heard that I had 1:40 minutes on Margot, I decided not to risk anything anymore. I am in very good shape and have a very good base for the Cape Epic”, Langvad was delighted with her third overall victory in the Afxentia stage race after 2010 and 2012.
Jolanda Neff (Stöckli Pro) who was just 37 seconds down before the stage was unable to contend for the overall standings. "It was okay for the first 20 minutes, but then the back pain got too bad, I just couldn't accelerate anymore"said Neff at the finish line, his face twisted with pain. The 22-year-old overall World Cup winner lost more and more positions and time, so that in the end she also lost second place overall to Margot Moschetti.
According to Neff, the reason for the back pain is that she would ride their new Stöckli bike for the first time. “I knew it wasn't perfect preparation, but I was so excited to race here. I've had back pain for the past few days, but not as bad. But ok, I had a good time here”, explained Neff, after only finishing 13th of the day. In the overall standings, Neff finished third, right in front of her compatriot
Kathrin Stirnemann (Haibike-Ötztal). The Eliminator World Champion finished third on the final stage and was very pleased. “It was even better than yesterday and that is a good signal. Now it's all about recovering for the Cape Epic", So Stirnemann.
There Gunn-Rita Dahle-Flesjaa (Multivan-Merida) becomes hers be a teammate. The 42-year-old nine-time world champion from Norway got off to a bad start, but then managed to move up to fourth place. “I had problems in the starting phase and then it was difficult to overtake. At this time of year I just have a diesel, but I think it was okay.", said Dahle-Flesjaa.
Fifth place of stage four went to Yana Belomoina (Betch.nl Superior Brentjens) who had her best performance on the final day.