Evenepoel from Belgium won the 47th edition of the Junior Peace Race

published on 6. May 2018 - 17:19

Terezín – The end of the race saw a truly phenomenal performance - the yellow jersey wearer Remco Evenepoel from Belgium managed to drop everyone in the last kilometers, came all alone to the finish and left no doubt who was the king of the race. He became the first Belgium rider to win the race ever, and while at it he clamed all the awarded jerseys as well.

„It is nice to hear that I am the next Eddy Merckx, but it is too bold to say that. I am not like him, he was an exceptional rider and it is not right to draw this comparison. At the moment I am very happy that we achieved this. It is crucial to say "we" as we were a very strong team. The boys helped me a lot. They were there for me all the way, even in the hard climbs and only thanks to them we triumphed. A big thanks goes to them for this show," commented on his victory the Belgium national team leader Remco Evenepoel.

Before the stage, the GC leader had only thirty seconds advantage on the second Fischer Aasheim from Norway. The Czech rider Karel Vacek was very active, his confidence boosted by the victory he took the day before. Despite the gap of more than two minutes in the GC he tryed to break away and change the race outcome. Remco Evenepoel was confident, the day before he said he wont allow anybody to take his yellow jersey. "Remco is beatable for sure, it just did not work out this time. I have to find another goal, another race, to beat him. I am just disappointed it did not happen here in Terezín. I wanted to win here, but the first stage did not go well, and today it was not possible to gain any time. Well, this is cycling," said Karel Vacek. Today he finished 19th, three minutes down on the winner, 8th overall. Evenepoel, who was sitting on Vaceks back weel for most of the stage, attacked in the final part of the race, and claimed a solo victory. He seemed to truly enjoy this victory - after a very hard stage with three loops around the start town of Benešov nad Ploučnicí, and two more above Litoměřice, the yellow jersey won it all. The second Skjelmose Jensen of Denmark came more than a minute later, alone as well, for the second place overall. Third place in the GC goes to Fischer Aasheim of Norway.

At the end there was no doubt about the winner of the 47th edition of the Junior Peace Race. Remco Evenepoel in yellow packed also all the other awarded jerseys on way home. "When you are trying to be at the head of the race all the time, the points to the various classifications come automatically, kind of," laughed the Belgium rider, who had a chat even with the legendary "Täve" Schur, former world champion and winner of the "big" Peace Race, who was giving the prices at the final ceremony.

The member of the Czech team, a rider of the organizing team CK Slavoj Terezin, Jan Kašpar, finished the race on the 80th place. "We had one and only one goal - to bring Karel to a victory. Our individual ambitions were put aside. We had a bad first day, but otherwise it was not bad," added Jan Kašpar from nearby Česke Kopisty.

Results – 4th stage:

1. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) 2:32:52

2. Mattias Skjelmose Jensen (Den) +1:17

3. Alessandro Fancellu (Ita) +1:35

4. Sean Quinn (USA) 1:37

5. Frederik Wandahl (Den) +3:13

19. Karel Vacek (Cze) +3:28

63. Jan Kašpar (Cze) +13:12

Overall:

1. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) 9:14:40

2. Mattias Skjelmose Jensen (Den) +1:55

3. Ludvig Fischer Aasheim (Nor) +3:53