Cycling: Fabian Lienhard (IAM – Excelsior) celebrated his first win of the season in Croatia. The Swiss was able to assert himself at the Poreč Trophy in the sprint of a four-person and purely German-speaking breakaway group.
Switzerland, Germany & Austria in the top group
German was spoken at the Poreč Trophy yesterday. Four German-speaking professionals dominated the Croatian one-day race over 147 kilometers from Poreč to Tar. After 60 kilometers, a quartet has formed with the Swiss Fabian Lienhard (IAM – Excelsior), the Austrian Patrick Gamper (Tirol KTM) and the Germans Florian Stork (Sunweb Development) and Christopher Hatz (Herrmann Radteam) formed. The group of four harmonized splendidly, so that the peloton was not able to reconnect until the end. In the sprint, Fabian Lienhard left his companions behind. The peloton arrived 55 seconds later. Like last year, he celebrates his first win of the season early on. At that time he won his first race with the first stage of the Tour de Normandie.
After a difficult winter, Lienhard is looking ahead again
For Fabian Lienhard everyone was happy on Saturday. Even the defeated opponents were satisfied with their performance in the end and congratulated the likeable Swiss. Lienhard has not had an easy time. First he had to look for a new team in the winter after US second division team Holowesko left, then his father died after a long battle with cancer. Now the 25-year-old from Steinmaur is looking positively ahead again - such a start to the season can only help.
🗣”We were trying to create a good breakaway and in the end I made it into a strong four man break that made it to the line.”#PorecTrophy reactions from Florian Stork👇
💻https://t.co/vpyxmCG6KR pic.twitter.com/DbKJJelA3E
— Team Sunweb (@TeamSunweb) March 9, 2019