Tour of Croatia 2016 – Stage 5 [FULL STAGE – Team Time Trial]

April 23, 2016

Tour of Croatia 2016 – Poreč – Umag – 40,3 km TTT (Team Time Trial)

The Tour of Croatia is a men’s cycling stage race that will take place in Croatia. It is part of the UCI Europe Tour and is rated by the UCI as a 2.1 event, the third tier of professional stage races. The race will take place in April in the build-up to the Giro d’Italia. The event is organised by Vladimir Miholjevic, a former professional cyclist.

Despite a late crash involving Juraj Sagan, Tinkoff came out on top in the team time trial at the Tour of Croatia. Jesper Hansen led the Russian team over the line in a time of 49:36 with Gazprom-RusVelo finishing four seconds back. CCC Sprandi Polkowice rounded out the top three, a further six second down.

Matija Kvasina’s Synergy Baku Cycling Project team finished fourth on the stage, 31 seconds down on Tinkoff. Like the stage winners, they too suffered a late crash on the dicey wet roads, but Kvasina was at the front when the fall occurred and kept out of trouble. The result kept the Croatian in the lead.

Kvasina now leads Hansen on GC by 32 seconds with one stage remaining in the race. Riccardo Zoidl’s Trek-Segafredo team finished outside of the top ten in 12th place, 2:21 down on the winners, effectively ending the Austrian’s chances of winning the race overall.

“This is a dream come true. Synergy Baku has proven what our small well-played team is capable of doing,” said Kvasina in a team press release. “Millions of thanks to all my teammates and to our sponsors for giving us the chance to be here. It is one winner but there was great work done by the whole team, both riders and staff.”

“Let’s now survive the last stage and then we can enjoy it a little bit, but with our whole focus on the Tour d’Azerbaidjan.”

Zoidl had come into the stage second on GC, 19 seconds off Kvasina’s leader’s jersey but on the wet undulating coastal roads the American-registered team failed to mount a serious challenge and when Zoidl began to dangle off the end of the team in the closing stages, the writing was on the wall. The Austrian dropped to seventh overall as a result 2:09 off the lead. First the team lost Julien Bernard to a crash in the wet conditions, with Giacomo Nizzolo later puncturing.

“It began raining a half hour before the start, so for all the teams the conditions were the same,” said director Trek Segafredo’s Dirk Demol. “The beginning was very technical, and Riccardo (Zoidl) had so much fear that we had to slow down on every roundabout. We lost a lot of time already in the start.”

“I told the guys to finish with five and just go on to the finish, knowing we were out of the GC – we had already tomorrow in mind. It was clear after the first intermediate split time already, we had simply lost too much time in the first kilometers, so with the crash and the puncture after the second intermediate, it was over.

“We were so good the first four days, and just a big disaster today. We have all the reasons to be happy with three stage wins and our performance so far, but you know when you are second in the GC your ambitions are to give [the overall win] a go. But after nine kilometers we had already lost too much time.”

CCC Sprandi Polkowice’s strong ride saw them move two riders up the leader board with Victor de la Parte tied on the same time as Tinkoff’s Hansen and Felix Grosschartner up into fourth, at 55 seconds.

At the finish Ivan Basso praised the efforts of the Tinkoff team. The Italian is now a DS for the team he once rode for. “The guys paced it well and had to take care as the conditions were tough on the wet roads. We were trying to stay safe but in the late push for the line Juraj Sagan came down but he’s fine and doesn’t have any problems.”

“It was a fantastic day – when you win a team time trial it’s a present for not only the riders, but the staff and the whole team. I’ve been saying all week how good the team spirit is here and it was a real collective effort today.”

Results :

1 Tinkoff 0:49:36
2 Gazprom-Rusvelo 0:00:04
3 CCC Sprandi Polkowice 0:00:10
4 Synergy Baku Cycling Project 0:00:31
5 ONE Pro Cycling 0:00:42
6 Veranda’s Willems Cycling Team 0:00:58
7 Cyclingteam Join-S / De Rijke 0:01:13
8 Dimension Data 0:01:19
9 Adria Mobil 0:01:29
10 Verva ActiveJet Pro Cycling Team 0:02:00
11 Team WIGGINS 0:02:13
12 Trek-Segafredo 0:02:21
13 Team Felbermayr Simplon Wels 0:02:38
14 Cycling Academy Team 0:03:08
15 Team Novo Nordisk
16 Astana Pro Team 0:03:15
17 IAM Cycling 0:03:16
18 Meridiana Kamen Team 0:03:29
19 Androni Giocattoli – Sidermec 0:03:37
20 Radenska – Ljubljana 0:03:54
21 Bardiani CSF 0:04:00

General classification after stage 5 :

1 Matija Kvasina (Cro) Synergy Baku Cycling Project 19:43:58
2 Jesper Hansen (Den) Tinkoff Team 0:00:32
3 Víctor De La Parte (Spa) CCC Sprandi Polkowice
4 Felix Grosschartner (Aut) CCC Sprandi Polkowice 0:00:55
5 Radoslav Rogina (Cro) Adria Mobil 0:01:24
6 Domen Novak (Slo) Adria Mobil 0:01:55
7 Riccardo Zoidl (Aut) Trek-Segafredo 0:02:09
8 Kirill Pozdnyakov (Rus) Synergy Baku Cycling Project 0:02:19
9 Markus Eibegger (Aut) Team Felbermayr – Simplon Wels 0:03:40
10 Scott Davies (GBr) Team WIGGINS 0:03:46
11 Daniel Pearson (GBr) Team WIGGINS 0:03:58
12 Julian Arredondo (Col) Trek-Segafredo 0:04:00
13 Jordi Simon (Spa) Verva ActiveJet Pro Cycling Team 0:04:05
14 Richard Handley (GBr) ONE Pro Cycling 0:05:16
15 Maksym Averin (Aze) Synergy Baku Cycling Project 0:05:23
16 Jay McCarthy (Aus) Tinkoff Team 0:05:47
17 Emanuel Kiserlovski (Cro) Meridiana Kamen Team 0:06:28
18 Marko Pavlic (Slo) Cycling Academy Team 0:06:45
19 Brecht Dhaene (Bel) Veranda’s Willems Cycling Team 0:07:06
20 Enrico Barbin (Ita) Bardiani CSF 0:07:09
21 Stephan Rabitsch (Aut) Team Felbermayr – Simplon Wels 0:07:12
22 James Oram (NZl) ONE Pro Cycling 0:07:33
23 Karol Domagalski (Pol) ONE Pro Cycling 0:08:27
24 Jure Golcer (Slo) Adria Mobil 0:09:33
25 Jetse Bol (Ned) Continental Team Join-S de Rijke 0:10:17
26 Robbert De Greef (Ned) Continental Team Join-S de Rijke
27 Davide Mucelli (Ita) Meridiana Kamen Team 0:10:23
28 Jonathan Fumeaux (Swi) IAM Cycling 0:10:40
29 Laurens De Vreese (Bel) Astana Pro Team 0:11:10
30 Elchin Asadov (Aze) Synergy Baku Cycling Project 0:11:41
31 Charles Planet (Fra) Team Novo Nordisk 0:11:43
32 Antonio Santoro (Ita) Meridiana Kamen Team 0:12:05
33 Liam Holohan (GBr) Team WIGGINS 0:12:31
34 Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg (RSA) Dimension Data 0:12:32
35 Izidor Penko (Slo) Radenska – Ljubljana 0:12:43
36 Daniel Turek (Cze) Cycling Academy Team 0:13:00
37 Emanuel Piaskowy (Pol) Cycling Academy Team 0:13:26
38 Sondre Holst Enger (Nor) IAM Cycling
39 Sander Cordeel (Bel) Veranda’s Willems Cycling Team 0:13:53
40 Ivan Savitskiy (Rus) Gazprom-Rusvelo 0:14:04
41 David Lozano Riba (Spa) Team Novo Nordisk 0:14:07
42 Maciej Paterski (Pol) CCC Sprandi Polkowice 0:14:10
43 Lukasz Owsian (Pol) CCC Sprandi Polkowice
44 Daniele Ratto (Ita) Androni Giocattoli – Sidermec 0:14:23
45 Ioannis Tamouridis (Gre) Synergy Baku Cycling Project 0:14:31
46 Matej Mugerli (Slo) Synergy Baku Cycling Project
47 Wouter Mol (Ned) Continental Team Join-S de Rijke 0:14:45
48 Dmitriy Gruzdev (Kaz) Astana Pro Team 0:14:48
49 Mirco Maestri (Ita) Bardiani CSF 0:15:01
50 Ziga Rucigaj (Slo) Radenska – Ljubljana 0:16:01
51 Alessandro Tonelli (Ita) Bardiani CSF 0:00:16
52 Aydar Zakarin (Rus) Gazprom-Rusvelo 0:00:17
53 Jiri Polnicky (Cze) Verva ActiveJet Pro Cycling Team
54 Mark Christian (GBr) Team WIGGINS
55 Bruno Maltar (Cro) Radenska – Ljubljana
56 Roman Maikin (Rus) Gazprom-Rusvelo 0:00:21
57 Adrian Kurek (Pol) CCC Sprandi Polkowice
58 Javier Megias (Spa) Team Novo Nordisk 0:00:22
59 Timothy Dupont (Bel) Veranda’s Willems Cycling Team
60 Arman Kamyshev (Kaz) Astana Pro Team
61 Sergio Paulinho (Por) Tinkoff Team
62 Alberto Nardin (Ita) Androni Giocattoli – Sidermec
63 Alexey Kurbatov (Rus) Gazprom-Rusvelo 0:00:23
64 Daniel Schorn (Aut) Team Felbermayr – Simplon Wels 0:00:24
65 Nikolay Trusov (Rus) Tinkoff Team 0:00:15
66 Edward Theuns (Bel) Trek-Segafredo 0:00:39
67 Marcel Aregger (Swi) IAM Cycling 0:00:43
68 Erik Baska (Svk) Tinkoff Team
69 Stef Van Zummeren (Bel) Veranda’s Willems Cycling Team 0:00:50
70 Mark Cavendish (GBr) Dimension Data 0:00:52
71 Giacomo Nizzolo (Ita) Trek-Segafredo 0:01:00
72 Elia Favilli (Ita) Meridiana Kamen Team 0:01:01
73 Michele Viola (Ita) Meridiana Kamen Team
74 Mark Renshaw (Aus) Dimension Data 0:01:05
75 Coen Vermeltfoort (Ned) Continental Team Join-S de Rijke
76 Juraj Sagan (Svk) Tinkoff Team 0:01:14
77 Gasper Katrasnik (Slo) Adria Mobil 0:01:21
78 Eugenio Alafaci (Ita) Trek-Segafredo 0:01:25
79 Pawel Franczak (Pol) Verva ActiveJet Pro Cycling Team 0:01:52
80 Artem Ovechkin (Rus) Gazprom-Rusvelo 0:02:03
81 Samir Jabrayilov (Aze) Synergy Baku Cycling Project 0:02:15
82 David Per (Slo) Adria Mobil 0:02:38
83 Adam Stachowiak (Pol) Verva ActiveJet Pro Cycling Team 0:02:43
84 Andrew Tennant (GBr) Team WIGGINS 0:02:56
85 Kamil Gradek (Pol) Verva ActiveJet Pro Cycling Team 0:03:00
86 Jonas Vangenechten (Bel) IAM Cycling 0:03:08
87 Andrea Peron (Ita) Team Novo Nordisk 0:03:51
88 Nicola Ruffoni (Ita) Bardiani CSF 0:03:52
89 Pirmin Lang (Swi) IAM Cycling 0:04:06
90 Luca Pacioni (Ita) Androni Giocattoli – Sidermec 0:04:20
91 Andrea Guardini (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:04:23
92 Joonas Henttala (Fin) Team Novo Nordisk 0:04:29
93 Dias Omirzakaov (Kaz) Astana Pro Team 0:04:36
94 Tilen Finkst (Slo) Radenska – Ljubljana 0:04:37
95 Tiziano Dall’Antonia (Ita) Androni Giocattoli – Sidermec 0:04:53
96 Marco Benfatto (Ita) Androni Giocattoli – Sidermec 0:05:05
97 Elias Van Breussegem (Bel) Veranda’s Willems Cycling Team 0:05:10
98 Daan Meijers (Ned) Continental Team Join-S de Rijke 0:05:20
99 Taco Van Der Hoorn (Ned) Continental Team Join-S de Rijke 0:05:21
100 Guillaume Boivin (Can) Cycling Academy Team 0:05:22
101 Alexander Evtushenko (Rus) Gazprom-Rusvelo 0:05:29
102 Kirill Sveshnikov (Rus) Gazprom-Rusvelo
103 Luuc Bugter (Ned) Continental Team Join-S de Rijke 0:05:34
104 Artym Zakharov (Kaz) Astana Pro Team
105 Artur Ershov (Rus) Gazprom-Rusvelo 0:05:49
106 Josef Cerny (Cze) CCC Sprandi Polkowice 0:06:00
107 Paolo Simion (Ita) Bardiani CSF 0:06:05
108 Daniel Patten (GBr) Team WIGGINS 0:06:26
109 Jon Bozic (Slo) Adria Mobil 0:06:27
110 Jan Ghyselinck (Bel) Veranda’s Willems Cycling Team 0:06:39
111 Marcin Mrozek (Pol) CCC Sprandi Polkowice 0:07:35
112 Michal Kolár (Svk) Tinkoff Team 0:07:42
113 Grégory Rast (Swi) Trek-Segafredo 0:07:47
114 Aidis Kruopis (Ltu) Veranda’s Willems Cycling Team 0:07:52
115 Leigh Howard (Aus) IAM Cycling 0:08:07
116 Matej Drinovec (Slo) Adria Mobil 0:08:11
117 Joeri Calleeuw (Bel) Veranda’s Willems Cycling Team 0:08:26
118 Martijn Verschoor (Ned) Team Novo Nordisk 0:08:33
119 Uros Repse (Slo) Meridiana Kamen Team 0:08:48
120 Julien Bernard (Fra) Trek-Segafredo 0:09:11
121 Nick Dougall (RSA) Dimension Data 0:09:16
122 Robert Jenko (Slo) Radenska – Ljubljana 0:09:19
123 Alessandro Vanotti (Ita) Astana Pro Team
124 Johannes Schinnagel (Ger) Team Felbermayr – Simplon Wels 0:09:36
125 David Jabuka (Cro) Meridiana Kamen Team 0:09:56
126 Nicola Boem (Ita) Bardiani CSF 0:10:37
127 Aviv Yechezkel (Isr) Cycling Academy Team 0:10:58
128 Lukasz Bodnar (Pol) Verva ActiveJet Pro Cycling Team 0:12:18
129 Marcin Bialoblocki (Pol) ONE Pro Cycling 0:12:31
130 Bernhard Eisel (Aut) Dimension Data 0:12:32
131 Kevin De Mesmaeker (Bel) Team Novo Nordisk 0:13:15
132 Maxat Ayazbayev (Kaz) Astana Pro Team 0:13:50
133 Josip Rumac (Cro) Synergy Baku Cycling Project 0:13:54
134 Rok Korosec (Slo) Radenska – Ljubljana 0:14:08
135 Marco Bandiera (Ita) Androni Giocattoli – Sidermec 0:14:54
136 Jay Robert Thomson (RSA) Dimension Data 0:15:01
137 Joshua Hunt (GBr) ONE Pro Cycling 0:15:14
138 Daniel Biedermann (Aut) Team Felbermayr – Simplon Wels 0:15:47
139 Nicolas Lefrancois (Fra) Team Novo Nordisk 0:16:32
140 Simon Pellaud (Swi) IAM Cycling 0:18:46
141 Andreas Walzel (Aut) Team Felbermayr – Simplon Wels 0:18:59
142 Nathan Haas (Aus) Dimension Data 0:19:19
143 Chris Butler (USA) Cycling Academy Team 0:55:00