The French national team rider Hugo Toumire wins the Junior Peace Race

Terezín – Until the last stage we had only French and Italian stage winners. Today the Danes broke that dominance and Andreas Byskov Sarbo arrived to the finish as first. Hugo Toumire took the yellow jersey in the first stage and kept it for the whole race, including the final podium.

“At the beginning I was thinking that it would be nice to win a stage. And it happened it was the first stage already, in which I got a win. Then my team stepped in, very strong squad. The boys were around me all the time, placing me in the best position. I would not be able to keep the jersey without them. And when I sew how much energy they are spending to keep my there, that was a huge motivation to defend the yellow.” said Hugo Toumire, smiling in the finish among his team mates. He concluded: “For me this is not just any yellow jersey, I feel this race has a strong message attached to its name. Different nations racing together in the Junior Peace Race can draw attention to some contemporary problems humanity is facing.”

            This stage to Terezín completes the 48th edition of the Junior Peace Race. The riders covered almost 390 kilometers. Despite the effort of the other teams, they did not manage to eliminate the time gap to Hugo Toumire in the GC. “There were so many attempts to attack and form a breakaway, but we were watching them closely and brought back any of them with potential to change the GC”, Toumire praises the team again.  

            Nonetheless, Andreas Byskov Sarbo of Denmark managed to jump ahead of the bunch to arrive three seconds ahead of Stokke from Norway and win the last stage. The peloton came to the finish eight seconds behind the leader, Casper van Uden from the Netherlands strinting for third. The best Czech rider in the stage was Jakub Ťoupalík, in the same time as the peloton. Matthias Vacek suffered a crash before the second GPM, he was shaken, but got on the bike and continued. He managed to get back to the peloton.
The time gaps in the GC after the final stage were very small, despite the fact that Hugo Toumire wore the yellow from the first stage, one can say it was an open race until the last stage finish.  

“Another edition is behind us. I am glad all went smoothly. We witnessed nice racing among the best junior category riders. We are writing new chapters in the history of the race. We welcomed once again a great champion as visitor, Täve Schur, multiple winner of the big Peace Race and world champion. And our museum got another donation, a race bike from 1960, of the Diamant brand from the Peace race museum in Kleinmühlingen.” commented on the race Svatopluk Henke, the race director.

Results - stage 4 (96.4 km):
1. Andreas Byskov Sarbo (DEN) 2:7:04
2. Vegard Stokke (NOR) +0:03
3. Casper van Uden (NED) 
4. Paul Penhoet (FRA) 
5. Maurice Balerstedt (GER)
10. Jakub Ťoupalík (CZE) – všichni +0:08
 
Overall:
1. Hugo Toumire (FRA) 9:43:33
2. Maurice Balerstedt (GER) +0:09
3. Andrea Piccolo (ITA) +0:16
4. Michel Hessmann (GER) +0:21
5. Marco Brenner (GER) +0:21
14. Mathias Vacek (CZE) +1:03
16. Pavel Bittner (CZE) +1:21
29. Jakub Bouček (CZE) +5:59
40. Jakub Hník (CZE) +7:35
44. Jakub Ťoupalík (CZE) +8:56
51. Lukáš Kolařík (CZE-Euroregion) +13:27
57. Bruno Stoček (CZE-Euroregion) +16:11