Team Tinkoff wins the team time trial, Kvasina defends overall lead.
After a monster climb for stage four, April 23. 2016 was also a rough day on the slippery road from Poreč to Umag. It was the fifth stage of Tour of Croatia, a 40.3 km Team Time Trial in which Tinkoff arrived at the finish line with the best time of 49:36, in front of Gazprom RusVelo (+04), and CCC Sprandi Polkowice (+10).
Despite a late crash involving Juraj Sagan, Tinkoff came out on top. Matija Kvasina’s Synergy Baku Cycling Project team finished fourth on the stage, 31 seconds down on Tinkoff. Like the stage winners, they too suffered a late crash on the dicey wet roads, but Kvasina was at the front when the fall occurred and kept out of trouble. The result kept the Croatian in the lead.
Kvasina now leads Hansen on GC by 32 seconds with one stage remaining in the race. Riccardo Zoidl’s Trek-Segafredo team finished outside of the top ten in 12th place, 2:21 down on the winners, effectively ending the Austrian’s chances of winning the race overall.
Zoidl had come into the stage second on GC, 19 seconds off Kvasina’s leader’s jersey but on the wet undulating coastal roads the American-registered team failed to mount a serious challenge, and when Zoidl began to dangle off the end of the team in the closing stages, the writing was on the wall. The Austrian dropped to seventh overall as a result 2:09 off the lead.
CCC Sprandi Polkowice’s tough ride saw them move two riders up the leader board with Victor de la Parte tied at the same time as Tinkoff’s Hansen and Felix Grosschartner up into fourth, at 55 seconds.
Tomorrow’s final stage is to be ridden from St. Martin on Mura to Zagreb, a 177.5 km stage with a pretty flat road, with just a few climbs, and one of them just before the finish line on St. Mark’s square in Zagreb. It is a chance for Croatia’s own Matija Kvasina to get the biggest win of his career, and he will count on some help not just by his team, but some other including domestic riders.
If you have a chance, get to the track and give Matija and all the other riders some support, they deserve it after giving us a great sport event to remember.
Tour of Croatia; Overall Classification after stage five:
1. KVASINA Matija CRO 19h43′58″
2. HANSEN Jesper DEN +00′32″
3. DE LA PARTE Victor ESP +00′32″
4. GROSSHARTNER Felix AUT +00′55″
5. ROGINA Radoslav CRO +01′24″
6. NOVAK Domen SLO +01′55″
7. ZOIDL Riccardo AUT +02′09″
8. POZDNYAKOV Kiryll RUS +02′19″
9. EIBEGGER Markus AUT +03′40″
10. DAVIES Scott GBR +03′46″
