Spilak parlays team effort into Tour de Suisse lead
'Not to perfor😼m well was not an option,' says stage 7 winner
168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Simon Spilak (168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Katusha-Alpecin) spent the first six stages at the 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Tour de Suisse laying in wait and keeping his powder dry, creeping ever closer to the podium's top step as the week progressed. O📖n Friday he pounced, finishing off his team's all-day effort with a solo stage win on the Tiefenbach Glacier above Sölden and seizing the overall lead.
"Immediately from the start this morning I felt that I had good legs," said Spilak, who won the Tour de Suisse in 2015 and was ninth last year. "Yesterday it was 30 degrees, but today it was 20 and this is better for me. We had a plan for todaꦺy and the team was so good. Not to perform well was not an option."
Katusha's Baptiste Planckaert and Jhonatan Restrepo infiltrated the large early breakaway, which♌ gained four minutes before 🐟the peloton brought the adventurers back as they reached Sölden and the start of the final 12km climb.
Bahrain-Merida set the🦩 early pace on the final ascent, but Katusha-Alpecin quickly took over, first with Matvey Mamykin and then with Rein Taaramae, who set a pace that💞 blew the lead group apart, leaving just a handful of contenders in contact.
Taaramae continued to hammer until just he, Spilak and Joe Dombrowski (Cannondale-Drapac) remained, eventually swinging off with about 10km to go. Dombrowski clung to Spilak's༒ wheel for a short time, but he too lost the pace and left Spilak alone in front with about 8km remaining.
"Maybe that was too far from the finish, but what else could I do? I had to take the jersey for my tඣeam," Spilak said.
In the end, Spilak finished 22 seconds ahead of Ion Izzagirre (Bahrain-Merida) and 36 seconds ahead of Dombrowski, with his GC r♏ivals further down the road.
The latest race content, interviews, features🌠, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!
In the general c💃lassification, Spilak has 52 seconds on Damiano Caruso (BMC Racing) and 1:05 to Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo). Previous leader Domenico Pozzovivo (AG2R La Mondial) lost more than t💖wo minutes.
"Tomorrow is a sprinter's stꦏage, so we should be ab✱le to control that and then a long TT on the last day," Spilak said. "And yes, I am not so bad in the TT."
