Uudised

Today's 192.6 km long Tallinn-Tartu stage became relatively difficult, as cyclists had to ride in strong wind and rain most of the time. After the riders had cycled about 50 km, Ukko Peltonen (Finnish National Team) and Polychronis Tzortzakis (Kuwait Pro Cycling Team) got away. The lap between the leaders and the main group at some point got longer than 4 minutes, but the main group caught the riders 15 km before the finish. Then the main group reached to Tartu and it was clear that the winner of the stage will be determined on the uphill at Lossi Street.

Madis Mihkels, who started the stage in the shirt of the best young rider, was in an excellent position at the beginning of the uphill at Lossi Street. He left the competitors behind with very powerful finish.

"BikeExchange controlled the race and the other teams did not intervene very much. About 20 km before the finish we lined up with Ampler, I got a good position and I managed to win. I knew that I was strong, but I thought that others were even stronger," Mihkels explained the course.

There is another stage left on the tour, Tartu GP, where cyclists ride the 10.3 km long city lap 16 times. "The plan is to fight hard tomorrow and I dream of winning the tour," said Mihkels.

After today's stage, the new leader of the tour is Team BikeExchange-Jayco rider Kaden Groves, who was second in the Tallinn-Tartu stage. "The goal of the team today was to win the stage and we tried to control the race. Due to the wind and rain, the ride was quite stressful," he stated. According to Groves, the Tour of Estonia is a good race and he is happy to see the young talents from Estonia.

After today: Madis Mihkels is second in the overall standing and Marceli Boguslawski, a Polish rider who won yesterday's prologue, is third.

Tomorrow's program starts with the Ladies Tour of Estonia (111.7 km) and then will be the last stage of the Tour of Estonia, ie the Tartu GP (164.8 km).

The 41st Tartu Rattaralli will take place on Sunday, where more than 2,000 enthusiasts will ride with professional cyclists. There are 128, 60 and 27 km distances to choose from.

All stages of the Tour of Estonia and the 41st Tartu Rattaralli will be in live broadcast on the ERR sports portal (sport.err.ee). In addition, live broadcasts can be found on the Facebook pages of the Tour of Estonia and the Tartu Maraton Klassik.