It was a stage he looked forward to in the 64th Circuit Cycliste Sarthe – a day Team KATUSHA’s Anton Vorobyev felt could be good for him, and he was right. Vorobyev conquered the short 6,8km flat course in Angers with a winning time of 8:11 to earn victory in stage 2B on Wednesday.
– I am very happy with this victory. It brings me a lot of motivation and confidence in myself. It proves I am on the right way in my preparation and training. After the Volta a Catalunya, I was able to get some good form and later I had some tests and training at home. I came here in good shape and was really looking toward this stage. Today everything went well for me. Of course I prefer longer time trials, but ok, it was short but good for me. I was able to get good speed and rhythm on the distance and it brought me success. I want to keep improving in this race and later races. My next goal will be Tour de Romandie, – said stage winner Anton Vorobyev.
Vorobyev held the win by one-second to Jérome Coppel and Matthias Brändle, both of IAM Cycling. The individual time trial came in the afternoon following a short 85,1km road stage won by Bryan Coquard of Direct Energie.
– We knew Anton could do well today. The ITT was ok for him – he was motivated and was able to get the win. Of course we are all happy, this brings the team a lot of confidence. We had Tiago Machado for GC today and he was not bad in the ITT, so we will see what happens tomorrow in the decisive stage. It is difficult to make big changes in GC but we will keep on trying, – said team director Dmitry Konyshev.
The race lead is held by Marc Fournier of FDJ with a 2:24 advantage to Jérome Coppel (IAM Cycling). Team KATUSHA’s Tiago Machado is the best for the team in 14th place (+2.45). Racing continues on Thursday with stage 3. At 190,3km from Angers to Pré-en-Pail, the stage is stocked with climbs in the last 50km of racing.
