The Friday episodes of the Junior Peace Race were lucky for the Schmidts

Roudnice nad Labem - The peloton of the Junior Peace race had to tackle two stages on Friday. And both had in common the name Schmidt, but it was a different rider each time. While before noon in the time trial won the Dane Mads, in the afternoon road race it was Norwegian Petter. However the former, Mads, is enjoying the yellow jersey which he stripped of the winner of the first stage, from the Frenchman Kowalski. 

            Before noon, the eleven kilometers long time trial in Třebenice was dominated be the members of the Danish national team, among the first five there were three Danish riders. Mads Schmidt was clearly the fastest rider, he was thirteen seconds faster than his team mate Niklas Eg and twenty seconds faster than the Swedish Faglum-Karlsson.

            The lead gained by Mads Schmidt suddenly moved him to the first place in the overall results. Therefore he entered in yellow on the afternoon stage, which for the first time started in Česká Lípa. The second Friday stage was very fast. This time also the national team of the host country was active, Matějů and Fiala tried an escape. „The stage was not hilly nor too long, therefore the speed was really high. Mainly the boys (Honza Urbášek, Šimon Matějů and Péťa Fiala) were supposed to try to attack and escape. The plan for me was to stay in the main bunch and save some energy for the mountains to come“, described the tasks for the Czech national team its best member Michael Vakoč.

            The fast stage was not in favor of escapes. Though the Norwegian Petter Schmidt got lucky. He attacked alone before the finish in Roudnice and with luck he kept his one second lead to the finish. „I'm not a typical sprinter, in a group finish I would not had many chances so I tried it alone and it paid off. The stage was really beautiful and also very fast. Now there are the mountains to come, I hope I did not waste too much energy, will see how I will do there.,“ smiled the happy winner of the afternoon stage Petter Schmidt from Norway.

           The Dane Mads Schmidt will start in yellow in to the Saturday stage. There are two challenges for the peloton of the 41st Junior Peace Race still to face. On Saturday they will begin in Teplice for the modified stage finishing in Germany and on Sunday in Terezin we will know who will be the overall winner.

Results – stage 2a: 1. Mads Schmidt 14:27, 2. Niklas Eg +0:13 (both Denmark), 3. Markus Faglum-Karlsson (Sweden) +0:20, 4. Piotr Havik (Netherlands) +0:21, 5. Emil Vinjebo (Denmark) +0:22, 28. Michael Vakoč (CZ) +0:54.

stage 2b: 1. Petter Schmidt (Norway) 1:40:35, 2. Enrico Salvador (Italy), 3. Tim Reske 4. Phil Bauhaus (both Germany), 5. Erik Baška (Slovakia), 45. Šimon Matějů (CZ) all +0:01.

Overall: 1. Mads Schmidt