Marc Hirschi (UAE Crew Emirates) received stage 2 of the Czech Tour on the summit end of Pustevny, taking on the general race lead within the course of.
The Swiss rider scored the sixteenth victory of his professional profession on the prime of the mountain, heading up a UAE one-two with teammate Diego Ulissi, who completed 11 seconds additional again. Sergio Higuita (Purple Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) rounded out the highest three at 14 seconds down.
Hirschi made his profitable transfer with a kilometre to go of the 173km stage, which included two ascents of the Pustevny climb. His transfer noticed him carry again Kevin Vermaerke (DSM-Firmenich PostNL), who had gone clear heading into the ultimate 2km.
Hirschi pushed on previous the American, with a number of different prime riders, together with Higuita, chasing additional again. But it surely wasn’t to be for the boys pursuing Hirschi, who held a strong hole heading in the direction of the end, the place he held on to take his second win of 2024.
Vermaerke ended up in fourth place at 17 seconds together with a choose group of chasers, together with Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep).
Hirschi now leads Ulissi by 15 seconds on the final classification with two of the 4 levels accomplished. Higuita lies third general at 20 seconds, whereas Vermaerke is fourth at 27 seconds.
Earlier within the day, a breakaway quartet of Charles Paide (TDT-Unibet), Javier Serrano (Polti-Kometa), Michal Schuran (ATT Investments), and André-Pier-Côté (Israel-Premier Tech Academy) had damaged clear to kind the breakaway of the stage, albeit after a flurry of assaults that crammed the opening kilometres of the day.
The group did not construct an enormous lead on the peloton, nevertheless, and so they’d be introduced again into the fold on the primary of the stage’s two ascents of Pustevny, some 40km from dwelling.
Assaults on that climb got here from Paul Double (Polti-Kometa), Andreas Leknessund (Uno-X Mobility), and Ben Zwiehoff (Purple Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), with a number of others coming throughout the hole after the climb.
Nonetheless, with Soudal-QuickStep taking the lead on the head of the peloton, and solely a small hole to the attackers, the transfer was short-lived. On the base of the 9.5km, 5.7% climb to the end, a lowered peloton led the way in which in the direction of the battle for stage victory.
On the climb it was Tudor Professional Biking who had managed the tempo, trying to arrange a transfer from their climber Michael Storer. The Australian made his assault 4km from the end, however could not fairly break clear regardless of his assault. His transfer was countered by Vermaerke, whose soar arrange the stage finale.
Outcomes
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