The French fast train Grisel won the Royal stage surprisingly

Teplice/Olbernhau - French speedster Matys Grisel won the royal stage of the 51st edition of the Junior Peace Race. The rider from the land of the Gallic Cock won the surprising mass finish of the hilly stage from Teplice to Olbernhau, Germany. He was half a gallus behind Dane Philipsen. Pavel Šumpík, the best Czech rider, also finished in the group.

"It was a very difficult stage for me. As a sprinter I suffered a lot in it. It cost me a lot of strength because this was definitely not a stage for sprinters, but today it was very much about the wind. I think that was the main reason why so many riders stayed in the bunch and didn't manage to escape. After all, there were some forty of us going to the finish and I had practically our whole team at my disposal. My guys were great as a train, so it was an excellent team effort," said Matys Grisel, the French gold medallist who also dominated the junior version of the famous Paris-Roubaix this year.

            The royal stage traditionally shuffles the standings strongly. On the route from Teplice to Olbernhau in Saxony, there were first two sprinters' premiums in Duchcov and Dubí and then hills and climbing premiums in Cínovec, Mníšek and Seiffen in Germany. Czech colours were also seen on them and the home fans were delighted to see Terezín's Štěpán Zahálka at the front. "I felt much better than in the previous stage, because at least I helped the guys to Cínovec and Kryštof on the sprinters' premium. As bruised as I am, that's one of the reasons why I'm not showing my best performance here. I'm having a hard time sleeping and my shitty legs are sticking to the sheets because we let it breathe overnight. But I want to show that I can do more than commute to the pack and even if I sweat tomorrow, I'll just finish," is full of determination the Czech representative Štěpán Zahálka, who this time finished with a twelve-minute loss in the seventh ten. On the other hand, the best of the Czech riders was Pavel Šumpík, who finished thirty-fourth in the winner's time.

The mass finish was directed by the French representative, who left behind the silver Dane Albert Philipsen and the bronze Italian Simone Gualdi. However, the main field also included the leader of the intermediate classification, Norwegian Jorgen Nordhagen, who also holds the yellow jersey before the final "Terezin" stage with a fifteen-second lead over the second American Andrew August. "Today we stayed together as much as possible, controlled the situation and tomorrow we will be at the front to defend the yellow jersey," leader Jorgen Nordhagen is not looking for any alternatives.

            The 51st edition of the Junior Peace Race is now down to the final stage 4 with start and finish in Terezín. But the last hundred kilometres of the race will include five climbing premiums in Chudoslavice, where the last test of the year will take the cyclists.