Today’s stage number three at the Czech Tour presented a broken parcour that featured a total of four categorized climbs along the way, before facing the last 40 km flat all the way to the line. The start featured a breakaway of 5 riders, who broke clear of the peloton in the first phase of the stage. They were allowed close to three minutes before the pack picked up the pace. Our Tiago Antunes was part of some of the early moves that tried to make it up the road, but eventually, it did not stick. 

The hard pace over the climbing section of the day, caused the peloton to split into different small groups, with some of our riders being caught behind. Despite the eventual setback, we could find up to four Academy jersey coming into the final local laps, with the goal of setting U23 European Champion, Alberto Dainese in the best possible position for the bunch sprint. The job was perfectly executed and the Italian rider left no option to his rivals and seized his seventh win of the season. 

Today’s accounts as the 12th UCI win of the Academy throughout 2019. Meanwhile in the Tour de l’Avenir, today’s stage saw a big split in the bunch, with Alexander Evans rolling in the group of the main GC favorites and moving up to 11th overall after three days of racing. 

Tomorrow we are back with a double-action day again with Czech Tour’s closing stage and Tour de l’Avenir.