Barbier powers to second, starts in green tomorrow.
An eventful stage in the Sibiu Tour today, during the second stage. ISN saw riders crashing, Rudy Barbier finishing second, getting the green jersey, and two railway crossings being closed during the race.
After the stage, the Factor Bikes has gone through a wet edition of Paris-Roubaix. The SwissStop logos on the bottom bracket were barely visible anymore, so were the BlackInc letters on the wheels. They definitely needed a bike wash with Morgan Blue at the hotel.
A group of five riders got space from the peloton, shrank to four after the first climb, and saw their lead of maximum five minutes slowly shrinking until a railway crossing closed just in front of the peloton. And guess what? A few kilometers after it happened again.
However, the seconds bonus the break got from the Romanian railway service wasn’t enough to maintain their lead till the finish line.
A hectic final, starting on the final climb of the day and followed up by a super-fast downhill, followed.
The peloton was split into several pieces after multiple crashes. Both Matthias Brändle and Mihkel Raim hit the deck. Miku and Brändle are okay, but lost some skin and have quite some bruises.
Without his luxurious lead-out man Räim, Barbier contested the victory in the final straight. Guy Sagiv helped him perfectly, but Barbier was a little bit too far back to be able to beat Pascal Ackermann on the line.
After the stage, Barbier was obviously a little bit disappointed, as he wanted the ‘win for the team as the spirit was so high the whole day’. “Second is good, but I felt and closed in on the winner very fast in the last few meters. I am looking forward already to sprinting for the line tomorrow”, the French sprinter said.
Ultimately, he got himself the green jersey for tomorrow’s stage(s?).
Tomorrow’s third stage consists out of two races: 3A (a mountain ITT (MTT), and 3B (a flat stage). For both stages, ISN is looking for – at least – podium spots.
Matteo Badilatti kept his third place in GC.
Video: Sjors Beukeboom
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