Development Team – Umag Trophy, Croatia

05 March 2020

Date: March 3, 2020

Race: Umag Trophy

Start/Finish: Umag, Croatia

Distance: 154km

Daniel Holt – Sport Director

This was the first really big race of the year for the Devo team. There were 29 teams on the starting list with 172 riders, comprised of 22 professional teams. The guys were nervous to get out on the roads and race with such a big group of european professional riders.

This race normally ends in a field sprint since the course isn’t that challenging. Myself and Sergey Lagutin, the new Devo team coach and second DS, encouraged the riders to be confident and to stay out of trouble until it was absolutely necessary to take some risks.

Today proved to be no different than the past versions of the race, an early break away got up the road and had around a 4 minute gap. After the halfway point of the race, the gap to the break gradually came down, and finished with a field sprint. One thing almost gave the break a chance of succeeding, upwards of 13 crashes through the race, holding people up.

First we had Lucas Dauge crash on the first lap, then Jan Dunnewind several laps later, then with only 5km to go, Lakota Phippen went down in massive pile up. It was hectic. While Lucas and Lakota are fine, Jan unfortunately reported a broken collarbone and he will have to rest and recover for the next few weeks.