Tour of Croatia, stage 1: Osijek › Koprivnica – 217km
The team NIPPO Vini Fantini went very close to the success in Croazia, in the important race with a start-list with many big preparing the #Giro100. Only Sacha Modolo (UAE Abu Dhabi) was able to resist to the powerful progression of the young sprinter Eduard Grosu, 2nd on the finish line, and to the fast sprint of Nicolas Marini, the young Italian sprinter.
Behind them Dylan Page (Caja Rural), Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek-Segafredo), Riccardo Minali (Astana Pro Team) and Marco Canola (NIPPO Vini Fantini).
A double podium in a strong top10 that confirm the talent of the two young talents launched by the NIPPO Vini Fantini team looking for the success in 2017 season after the victories of the last season.
THE RACE.
Long stage with an escape of 5 riders and the group with many minutes to close. The teams interested in a sprint arrival have been working strong, among them the NIPPO Vini Fantini team with the Japanese rider Kazushige Kuboki and Alan Marangoni working hard to catch the breakaway. Riccardo Stacchiotti had the final role to help the sprinters of the team to be in the top of the group at the last bend and at the end double possibility for Eduard Grosu and Nicolas Marini to fight for the final victory and reaching a double podium.
THE DECLARATIONS:
Stefano Giuliani, the Sports Directors and strategist of this incredible stage, tell these words at the end of the race: “With the riders this morning we know that we can compete, always against everyone, until the end. Today we made it at the top, with the escape that had more than 10 minutes of advantage we decided as a team to risk and start the chase. First stages here are always strage, but we don’t want to depend from other strategies. Marangoni and Kuboki made an extraordinary job, then Marco Canola made an attack on the last GPM, but he didn’t find collaboration from the other riders with him, so we play for the final sprint with Stacchiotti helping mainly Nicolas Marini and Eduard Grosu free to find his sprint as he is able to do. The result? Both on podium and we didn’t win for very few. I have to make my congratulations to the guys, because we race as a big and a strong team. Sometimes the result didn’t come, but when you race as we did today you at least go very close to it. We demonstrate to be competitive and strong. Now we hope to do also better in next stages.”
Eduard Grosu, young talent, Rumanian of 1992 launched by the NIPPO Vini Fantini team and second on the finish line. This is his comment on the finish line: “Long and hard stage, but at the end we demonstrate to have a strong leg. We are here to compete in particular way in the sprint arrivals. The stage are mixed and not everyone is good for us, but this one and the sixth in particular way are good for the fast riders. The level of competitors is very high, but we demonstrate that the leg is good and that we can fight for victory.”
Nicolas Marini, the young Italian sprinter born in 1993, launched among PROs by the NIPPO Vini Fantini team reach an important podium: “The team ride a great race. We have to thanks all our teammates, from Kuboki and Marangoni that made a great job for the team, to Riccardo Stacchiotti that drives us on the best riders in the most important moment for the sprint. Both me and Grosu we made the sprint, making different choice of top riders to follow and we made a double podium going very close to the victory. To win here in Europe with this level is not easy, but we will try again."
The Tour of Croatia will end next Sunday. 5 more stages are coming with a mixed kind of road, 2 stage for climber, 2 mixed stages and the last stage designed again for sprinters.
The NIPPO Vini Fantini team demonstrated to be there and to be able to compete also looking forward to next important arrivals.