Roman Kreuziger – Unofficial
“The pace was very high during the first 40 kilometers. Everyone waited for a group to break away, which finally happened. Seven riders succeeded in escaping and we had there Di Gregoriov. We had to struggle with strong crosswinds at the 120km mark, the pack didn’t split, though. I stayed in the front group with Fefonov and Jufr. We caught the seven riders but at the end of the stage, we were all together again. There was a short steep climb towards the end but the stage ended in a bunch sprint. The finish was very dangerous because there were three roundabouts during the last three kilometers, but luckily, nobody crashed. As for the weather, it was also better than yesterday so it made the stage more pleasant,” Roman said.2nd stage (Lagoa-Lagos, 186.5 km): 1st Degenkolb (Ger/HTC-Highroad) 4:57:56, 2nd Farrar (USA/Garmin-Cervelo), 3rd Matthews (Aus/Rabobank) both the same time, 4th Cooke (Aus/Saxo Bank-Sungard), 5th Hinault (Fra/AG2R), 6th Gilbert (Bel/Lotto) all +1, … 33rd Roman Kreuziger (Cze/Astana) +9. Overall: 1st Gilbert 9:34:23, 2nd Degenkolb +4, 3rd Farrar +8, 4th Ciolek (Ger/Quick Step) +9, 5th Matthews +10, 6th Cooke +15, … 35th Roman Kreuziger +23.