29. februarja 2016

20th edition of Afxentia stage race, part of Cyprus Sunshine Cup, followed the same pattern as previous editions. Tanja Žakelj in training pace.

The names, commonly met at World Cup races, took over Cyprus again. The competition at Afxentia stage race
could easily be dubbed as “small World Cup”. Full-on racing on similar courses as for past two years with more changes in Lekfara, especially in time trial and stage three. All together two marathon races, a point to point race and an olympic format XC race.

Many of the best have been using the Cyprus Sunshine Cup events as training and form check for years now. This time 140 cyclists from 26 countries entered the race. Among them 4 Olympic champions and 6 World Champions.

Program dirke v štirih etapah:

Vožnja na čas, 2x maraton od točke do točke in kros olimpijski format.


Fabian Giger, overall stage race

The Swiss Fabian Giger (Kross Racing) won the men’s general classification in front of French Maxime Marotte (BH SR-Suntour KMC) and Italian Marco Fontana (Cannondale Factory). Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjaa of Norway (Multivan Merida) won the women’s overall in front of German Adelheid Morath (BH SR-Suntour KMC) in second and Belgian Githa Michiels (Versluys Pro) in third place.

The only Slovenian rider Tanja Žakelj (Unior Tools Team) finished the race in 9th place.


Gunn-Rita Dahle has no intention to give up

After four days of racing Tanja told us:

”The season had started and these are only the first training rides in warm weather. The stages went well, I stayed in touch with the best. I was getting faster from stage to stage except for the last stage when I was getting tired. It’s the start of the season and some girls already did some races. Now it’s time to train and improve. It should be easier for me at the next race since I should be getting closer to my race pace. After all I didn’t come here to win but to get ready for the season.”


Tanja is using races in Cyprus to chech her form and get back into racing pace

Photos: EGO Promotion, Armin M. Küstenbrück

Also see:
Tanja’s view on the new season

 

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