Undulating, unforgiving second stage in Croatia sees Peron up there again

Sports director Gennady Mikhaylov:

“It was a beautiful stage scenery wise today, but if you were caught at the back of the bunch, then unfortunately it became a very difficult and long day in the saddle, and we need to get better at staying together on these hard, challenging days. We lost contact on the climbs initially but then we improved.”

“After some difficulties the guys fought back on and rode solidly the rest of the stage with almost everyone finished together, in particular Andrea and Filippo up near the front. Bahrain were driving the pace throughout the second half of the stage and it ended up being another fast finish and it came around really quickly with Andrea showing his late season form with another good finish and top 20.”

David Lozano:

“I wasn’t feeling good at all at the start of the stage today, but I gradually rode my way into it and started to feel better as the day wore on. That surprised me a bit to be honest, but as the pace increased and people started to get dropped, I managed to hold on in the bunch for longer and it was really good to have Filippo up there close to Andrea in his first race with us.”

Andrea Peron:

“It was kind of like yesterday for me, but with the added pleasure of some climbs to make things a little more interesting. We briefly lost contact there and worked hard to get back in the main group alongside David and thankfully we all got there with around 30km to go.

“Man. The sprint happened literally in the blink of an eye and Filippo did a good job of trying help me into a better position, but we were muscled out of it a bit there and I think some fatigue from the chase played its part.”