Jakub Mareczko wins opening stage in Danzhou
Jakub Mareczko wins opening stage in Danzhou
The five-time stage winner of the 2017 Tour of Hainan (plus one stage in 2015) Jakub Mareczko opened his account in style in the opening stage of the 13th edition in Danzhou. The Italian from Wilier Triestina outsprinted Switzerland’s Dylan Page and his compatriot Manuel Belletti from Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec.
“I’m happy to win stage 1 this time”, said Mareczko who previously needed at least a day to find the right timing. “My team-mates positioned me very well for this sprint. I don’t know what happened behind me. I just know some riders went down. We were at the front of the peloton for the last ten kilometres.”
After a very competitive start, Liu Jianpeng and Zhang Zheng (Hengxiang), Niu Yikui (Mitchelton-Scott), Ivar Slik (Monkey Town), Li Zisen (Qinghai Tianyoude) and Joab Schneiter (Switzerland) took off at km 15. They got a maximum advantage of 1’20’’. In a highly contested intermediate sprint at half way, Zhang bettered Niu to become the best Asian rider in the overall ranking at the end of the day. After 50km of racing, Slik and Schneiter forged on, later reinforced by Mongolia’s Tegshbayar Batsaikhan of RTS who bridged the gap by himself with 20km to go.
It went all back together when Wilier Triestina put the hammer down 10km before the finish. “The last 7km were contested on a very high tempo”, runner up Page declared. “There was some headwind in the final straight line. We thought we’d have to launch the sprint the latest possible. We have a nice Swiss national team this year with strong rouleurs and good climbers, so I get a better support than last year to lead me out. That’s why I was more confident for today’s stage. Fabian Lienhard stayed with me to protect me. I managed to follow the right wheel, which was Mareczko’s. 100 metres before the line, I tried to pass him. I felt strong but I cracked at 50 metres to go. It’s a good way to start the Tour of Hainan. It’s a moral booster for more sprinting stages to come.”
“It didn’t go as we planned at the beginning”, third placed Belletti echoed. “It’s been chaotic in the last 5km so it was very difficult to keep the wheels of my team-mates. I found them again 800 metres before the end but that meant doing a sprint before the sprint, and unfortunately, I missed some energy for the final part. We want to do better in the coming sprint finishes.”
New race leader Mareczko informed that he won’t necessarily be the top end sprinter for Wilier Triestina in the next few days as the Italian team also features Luca Pacioni.
