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Tour of Croatia: intense finish brings Bonifacio first stage win
Koprivnica, April 17 – Italian sprinter specialist from the Bahrain – Merida Pro Cycling Team, Niccolo Bonifazio, won the first stage of the fourth edition of the Tour of Croatia cycling race. In a sprint finish, the Italian with a more aggressive and decisive attitude assured himself a victory before André Guardini, a fellow Italian, outsprinting him in the final meters.
Third place was won by Romanian sprinter Eduardo Michael Gros of Nippo - Vini Fantini's team, while 'Italian sprinters day' was rounded by Riccardo Minali and Giacomo Nizzolo. Sprinters of the remaining two (except for Bahrain-Merida Pro Cycling Team) World Tour teams, Astana Pro Team and Trek - Segafredo, took the fourth and fifth place.
Credits for Bonifazio’s victory also goes to one of the favorites for the victory in overall placement, Slovenian Matej Mohoric, who assured his teammate Bonifacio good placement to finish the race from the best possible position by doing a great job in the last kilometer of the stage.
The first stage of this year's edition of Tour of Croatia was held from Osijek to Koprivnica in length of 227 kilometers. With the exception of climbing on Mountain Papuk, the stage was flat, with the expected sprint finish. Rainy weather caused the expected time of the race to prolong, so the lead group took five hours, 45 minutes and 25 seconds to finish the stage.
The action started immediately. Four cyclists made a breakaway right at the fifth kilometer of the race. The group consisted of Italian Umberto Poli (Team Novo Nordisk), Romanian Emil Dima (MsTina Focus) and Slovenians Matic Grošelj (Ljubljana Gusto Xaurum) and Jon Božič (Adria Mobil Cycling). The leading quartet shared all the points for intermediate sprints and King of the Mountain compettion. Božić took all three intermediate sprints, in Našice, Kutjevo and Virovitica, making for nine seconds of bonification, while Dima triumphed at the first climb at the KOM competition on Papuk.
At the seventh kilometer of the race, breakaway riders have created two-minute advantage, while climbing up to Papuk they increased it to whole 5 minutes and 20 seconds.
Seventy kilometers before the finish, the tempo of the leading group was no longer sustainable for Poli and about 20 kilometers before the finish, after two hundred kilometers in breakaway, Dima also gave up. About 15 kilometers to the finish line Groselj lost the pace, while Božič was finally caught by peloton just eight kilometers before the finish line.
The second stage on Wednesday, with similar features and likely sprint finish, as it was the case with the first stage today, is set for tomorrow from Karlovac to Zadar.
