Kristijan Durasek, 27 years old from Croatia, gave LAMPRE-MERIDA a victory in the 2nd stage of the Tour de Suisse thanks to the mix of very good condition and a cool tactic in the finale-
The blue-fuchsia-green climber reached the summit of the last climb (Michaelskreutz, 13 km from the finish) in the front group of 9 riders whose members were all top riders (Dumoulin, leader of the overall classification, Spilak, Moreno, Fuglsang, Lopez, Arredondo, Pinot and Thomas), and he waited for the best moment to make the winning attack. He attacked with 600 meters to go, getting an advantage of 30 meters which were enough to cross the finish line in first position.
The sport directors Simone Pedrazzini and Bruno Vicino were also satisfied with the amazing performance of the young gun lUKA Pibernik (21 years old) who was protagonist in the main breakaway.
The team also had good results with Conti (24th) and Niemiec (28th), both in the third chasing group, 1'01" behind Durasek.
In the overall classification, Durasek is 8th, 18" behind Tom Dumoulin.
"This is my first victory in a World Tour race, I'm happy and proud becaus a very good season is going on in the best way after the victory in the Tour of Turkey," Durasek said. I'm satisfied that I finished off the good performance of the whole team with a win. The presence of Pibernik in the breakaway allowed the other team memeber to be in the bunch and to save energy so that they could support me in the two run-ins to the climb of Michaelskreutz whose road was narrow.
"My legs gave me positive feedbacks in the crucial moments, so I could make extra efforts to attack since I was aware I was not the fastest rider in the front group. The final attempt gave me the victory."
It is the sixth success in Durasek's career and the16th victory for Team LAMPRE-MERIDA in 2015.
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