Commercial presentation Updated: 21/08/2024 18:23 Issued: 21/08/2024, 18:23
Cyclists in the peloton – illustrative photo. CTK/AP/Thibault Camus
Seville – Pavel Bittner became the fifth Czech to win a stage at the Vuelta. The 21-year-old cyclist narrowly surpassed the Belgian Wout van Aert in the sprint of the 5th stage in Seville. At the Vuelta, the Czech representative last celebrated a triumph in 2013, when Zdeněk Štybar won the seventh stage and Leopold König the eighth.
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Reklama
Bittner is making his debut at one of the three-week stage races of the Grand Tour. At the Vuelta, he already indicated his possibilities in the previous stages with mass finishes, in which he finished fifth and sixth. This time, in a long spurt after 177 kilometers, he was a few centimeters ahead of the favored Van Aert. This includes the green jersey for the leader of the points competition, in which Bittner is third with the contribution of today’s 50 points for the stage triumph.
Bittner, a member of the dsm-firmenich-PostNL team from the Netherlands, tuned up at the Vuelta with two stage wins at the recent Tour of Burgos and sold his form in the elite competition as well. “It’s unbelievable. I got my first victory (among professionals) a few days ago. To win the Vuelta, I still can’t believe it,” he said in a TV interview.
But he believed that with the support of his team he could do it today. “I told the guys that there is an open opportunity. If you look at the last years, we were able to build a really good starting train. But to beat Van Aert in such a long sprint is really crazy,” Bittner shook his head. And he pondered how he should profile himself in the professional peloton. “I don’t see myself as a sprinter, I see myself more like a classicist. We’ll see,” he added after the success of his life.
Van Aert carried out his tactical plan when he drove out after Australia’s Kaden Groves. “But I think I threw the wheel a little early. I think I got confused by the shadows. It’s easy to make a mistake in such a tense moment. I think that was the difference. It was a bit of an expensive mistake,” he regretted.
The second Czech participant, Mathias Vacek, who shone with second place in the opening time trial, finished in 31st place in the main field today. It also included the leader of the running order, Slovenian Primož Roglič, who thus kept the red jersey. He leads by eight seconds ahead of Portugal’s Joao Almeida.
In Thursday’s sixth stage of the Vuelta, the cyclists will return to the mountains. Four major climbs await them on the 185.5 kilometer route from Jerez de la Frontera to Yunguera.
Vuelta cycling race – 5th stage (Fuente del Maestre – Seville, 177 km):
1. Bittner (ČR/dsm-firmenich-PostNL) 4:25:28, 2. Van Aert (Belg./Visma-Lease a Bike), 3. Groves (Austr./Alpecin-Deceuninck), 4. Coquard (Fr./Cofidis ), 5. Küng (Švýc./Groupama-FDJ), 6. Strong (N. Zel./Israel-Premier Tech), …31. M. Vacek (CR/Lidl-Trek) all at the same time.
Running order: 1. Roglič (Slovin./Red Bull-Bora hansgrohe) 18:58:36, 2. Almeida (Portugl./UAE Team Emirates) -8, 3. Mas (Šp./Movistar) -32, 4. Tiberi (It ./Bahrain Victorious) -38, 5. Van Eetvelt (Belg./Lotto-Dstny) -41, 6. Gall (Rak./Decathlon-AG2R-La Mondiale) -47, …75. M. Vacek -9:56, 123. Bittner -16:38.
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