The Roudnice stage was won by Blikra from Norway

Roudnice nad Labem – There were two challenges for the peloton to face in the Junior Peace Race on Friday. After the time trial before noon there was a stage scheduled in Roudnice nad Labem for the afternoon. In this stage the peloton again arrived together and everything was decided by a mass sprint at the end, in which the Norwegian Erledn Blikra outran everyone.

    After the time trial the organizers were not very hard on the riders, they prepared a 63 kilometers long flat stage with start and finish in Roudnice nad Labem. Despite that in the previous years this stage had seen successful escapes this time no one managed to get away from the peloton. Therefore also the second day the race was to be decided in a sprint. This time the Norwegian Erledn Blikra had most stamina left, he left behind him the Russian Kulikovskiy and the French Ermenault. Adam Ťoupalík from Czech Republic showed good performance and finished nineth .„Personally I'm pleased with the way our boys perform so far. Not bad at all. They are keeping an eye on the front of the race and staying calm. Only during the weekend the difficult stages will come and that is where the race will be decided, so I believe they will not absent up front,“ commented the coach of the Czech national team Luděk Kubias.

    The afternoon stage did not change the top positions in the GC,  in yellow remained the British Matthew Gibson, who was actually among the contenders sprinting for the podium, but finished on fourth place. Currently in the GC behind him are Barta (USA) and Decraen (Belgium). Adam Ťoupalík remains 23rd, loosing almost a minute to Gibson.

Results – stage 2b.: 1. Erledn Blikra (Norway) 1:23:09, 2. Aleksa Kulikovskiy (Russia), 3. Corentin Ermenault (France), 4. Matthew Gibson (GBR), 5. Karlson Faglum (Sweden), 9. Adam Ťoupalík (CZ) – all in the same time.

Overall: 1. Matthew Gibson (GBR) 4:10:15, 2. William Barta (USA) +0:12, 3. Igor Decraene (Belgium) +0:15, 4. Lennard Kämna (Germany), 5. Erledn Blikra (Norway) both+0:17, 23. Adam Ťoupalík +0:55 (CZ).