At This year's race edition of Sibiu Cycling Tour, ranked
2.1. category in UCI calendar, led over a prologue and four stages with a lot
of high climbing in the middle of Transylvanian mountains in Romania.
The guys from STRADALLI – BIKE
AID did a great job throughout the entire week and proofed their ability to act
as a real competitive European top pro team.
On stage 1 it was Nikodemus Holler
who took the place of the selected sprinter Patrick Lechner as he couldn't make
it in the bunch to the finish line due to several technical issues , broken
chain then after chasing back a flat front tire blow out on a fast decent
.
In the massive fast sprint Niko
showed that he is a very smart pro racer and finished on 10th position not bad
for a skinny GC guy next to the big sprinters.
The goal was to ride for Niko as a captain in the GC and the team showed that this should not only be a plan. As a
13 man break went away in the beginning of queen-stage number 2 over 213
Kilometers with a 15k finish to the top of a ski mountain , the gap increased
rapidly as no team wanted to do the work of controlling the bunch.
After the gap still increased and
reached 11 Minutes, the guys from STRADALLI - BIKE AID took over the
responsibility and chased the group down to six minutes at 40 Kilometers to go.
But then a shock: crash! Niko Holler! His rear derailer is broken and also his
knee injured! After a hard fight try back to the group and several times of
stopping due to his pain, Nikodemus Holler finished in the last group and
remained in the race with his 2 team mates helping to bring him slow but save.
All the hard work for nothing ?
No, he didn't want to let the work
of his team mates being unpaid and fought back on stage 4 with another great
7th place. The whole team showed a good performance and the will to ride for
his captain without a doubt. Only the crash has left a little scratch on a good
picture of the week in Romania.
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