Following his eighth-place finish in the prologue, Giulio Ciccone claimed third place on Stage 1 of the Lidl Deutschland Tour in Schwäbisch Hall, moving onto the podium of the overall classification as well.
The entire Lidl – Trek team made its mark on its home tour on the second day. Although the 215-kilometre stage from Bad Orb to Schwäbisch Hall did not ultimately end in victory, our six-man squad played a major role in shaping the race.
During the stage, Max Walscheid went on the offensive before the team took control of the race in the main field and led the peloton with all six riders at the front into the 13-kilometre finishing circuit.
There, Mathias Vacek launched a promising attack on the 16-percent gradient leading to the bonus sprint, five kilometres from the finish. However, the Czech Champion was unable to stay with Frenchman Louis Barré over the top, and Barré eventually went on to win the stage solo and take over the leader’s jersey.
Behind him, Matteo Sobrero, Carlos Verona and Tim Torn Teutenberg gave everything in the finale for Giulio Ciccone, who ultimately finished third in the uphill sprint of the chasing group, 16 seconds behind the winner.
As a result, Ciccone also moved into third place overall, 18 seconds behind Barré and nine seconds behind prologue winner Isaac Del Toro. Vacek is also in 11th place overall, just three seconds outside the top five after two days of racing, with a 32-second deficit to the leader.
Stage 2 on Friday covers 197 kilometres from Schwäbisch Hall to Offenbach an der Queich, where a sprint finish is expected. Stages 3 and 4 on Saturday and Sunday will be very demanding once again and offer plenty of opportunities for attacks on the blue Lidl leader’s jersey of the overall race leader.
In Cicco’s words:
"We were lucky with the weather and only had rain for a few minutes. We expected it a bit harder from the start on, but it was not too bad. In the last 50 kilometres we really started to race. It was a bit nervous in the bunch and also the parcours was demanding. But as a team we did a really good job. On the steep part in the final Vaci was there and – yeah, in the end Louis Barré went away and we tried to finish in the best position. Third place is okay, but we hope for something more in the next days!"
