Andrea Guardini broke his two-year drought in the European races when he won today's second stage of the Tour of Denmark. However, the Italian is not satisfied with his current outcome and still hopes to win another two stages.
Andrea Guardini has been through a very tough time since he beat Mark Cavendish in a sprint at the 2012 Giro d’Italia. Apart from a few wins in the Tour de Langkawi, the Italian has been unable to win in Europe and his many near-misses had caused a lot of frustration for the Astana sprinter.
Today he finally broke his drought when he won the second stage of the Tour of Denmark in a bunch sprint. As expected, it all came down to a battle between the fast men in Aarhus and here he beat Gerald Ciolek and local hero Matti Breschel into the minor positions.
Guardini won a fierce sprint in Aarhus with key assistance from stagiaire Maksat Ayazbayev on the finishing circuit, and Daniil Fominykh and Alexey Lutsenko in the closing kilometers. A breakaway group of six riders entered the final three circuits of 4.4km with almost a minute advantage on the peloton – leading Guardini to send Fominykh to the front to start the chase.
After one lap the breakaway was still at 20 seconds, and Guardini sent Ayazbayev up to help close the gap. In the final lap Lutsenko stayed with Guardini on the last climb, and then accelerated over the top to bring him to the front with 1k to go.
At the corner Guardini turned right at full speed with the rest of the sprinters. In 400m he chose the correct wheels, and with 200m to go he delivered his birthday present to his girlfriend wrapped in a victory bow.
“Today is my girlfriend’s birthday and when I saw on the calendar that I would be at a bike race instead of with her, I decided that I would try and give her a good present," he said.
"Today was pretty hard because it was always up or down," he told CyclingQuotes at the finish. "On the finishing circuit, a few riders were ahead. I decided to send my team to the front. It was hard to find a good position but Danilo [Napolitano] was ahead of me and then I accelerated with 250m to go.
"There are still two stages for mes. I want to win the morning stage on Saturday and the final stage."
Jakob Fuglsang crashed during the race, with deep trauma to his left wrist, mild trauma to the right elbow and abrasions on his back. The Danish rider was in a group of riders who went down in a traffic barrier on the right side of the road.
Astana Pro Team medical staff treated Fuglsang immediately with ice, and after the race examined him fully. Despite some soreness and lost skin, there appear to be no bone fractures, and Fuglsang is ready to start stage three at the Post Danmark Rundt.
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