Felix Grossschartner made history to become the first ever European Mountain Time-Trial Champion today, with the 29 year old blitzing the field to take the title at the St. Gotthard Pass in Switzerland.

 

The climbing specialist who recently completed the Tour de France took a confident win with a time of 35:40 on the 12.5km course which finished on top of the St. Gotthard Pass, putting 49’’ into the second place rider.

 

Felix Grossschartner : “I’m super happy to be the first European champion in this discipline. It’s a spectacular climb with the cobbles and I’m happy that I can still push good after the Tour de France. I hope in the future this race can grow bigger and bigger, but I’m proud to be the first winner.”

 

European Mountain Time-Trial Results

1.Felix Grossschartner 35’40’’

2.Mattia Gaffuri +49’’

3.Arthur Blanc +1’44’’

 

Joao Almeida fought to a strong 2nd place in a brutally tough last climb on stage 2 of the Tour de Pologne.

 

Rafal Majka animated the final climb, hitting out for home with -4km opening up a sizeable gap on a reduced chasing group featuring Almeida and Brandon McNulty.

 

Almeida stayed in the wings as Majka was absorbed, hitting out on the wheel of Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious) who held on to win the stage with Almeida close on his wheel just unable to come around the Slovenian.

 

Almeida : “It was a pretty good day. I came from an altitude camp and I think the form is really good, I didn’t know what to expect exactly but I’m happy with the shape. I think Mohoric was the best today. We have a strong team here and we wanted to play different cards and Majka is strong after the Tour de France so we decided he would make a move and go for the stage. I think we did well as a team and now we just need to keep it going.”

 

Tour de Pologne stage 2 & GC results

1.Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious) 9:07:07

2.Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) +4’’

3.Michal Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers) +10’’

 

Meanwhile in Spain Matteo Trentin and Diego Ulissi both had top-10 performances at the Circuito de Getxo, with Trentin 4th and Ulissi 9th respectively. The race was won in a solo attack by Alexey Lutsenko (Astana).

 

Circuito de Getxo

1.Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) 4:19:11

2.Tony Gallopin (Trek-Segafredo) +24’’

3.Simone Velasco (Astana) +32’’

4.Matteo Trentin (UAE Team Emirates) +35’’