Australian Liam Walsh (Ccache-Bodywrap) sprinted to the biggest win of his career, outpowering stage 1 winner Luke Lamperti (Soudal-Quickstep) on stage 3 of the Czech Tour. Marceli Boguslawski (ATT Investments) rounded out the podium in Ostrava.
Sprinters’ teams battled for position heading into the final corner with 500 metres to go, as Walsh took the corner wide, slotted into Lamperti’s wheel as they headed into the cobbled section to the finish line.
Lamperti opened up his sprint early, but Walsh went around to claim the victory by a couple of bike lengths.
With his massive acceleration, the 24-year-old rider took a surprise win for his Continental team, which mostly races in Asia.
"I’m really proud of the way we've ridden this tour, and we didn't quite get it right on stage one, but I think the racing we've done in Asia and the confidence we got from that has definitely helped us today," said Walsh.
"I'm really glad that I can reward the team's efforts, and we've got to win on our only tour in Europe this year, so I think we're pretty happy.”
There were no changes to the GC with Junior Lecerf (Soudal-Quickstep) keeping the race lead with one stage to go. Alessandro Fancellu (JCL Team Ukyo) is four seconds down, and Cian Uijtdebroeks (Visma-Lease a Bike) is nine seconds in arrears, with a tough day of climbing to Pustevny awaiting the riders.
"It was really chaotic. Astana and Soudal were fighting for control through the final corner, and I was kind of caught in between with sprinters on their own on either side. And I had to punch through a few gaps and make some space. But the corner opened up for me, and I'm really pleased that when the road straightened out on the cobbles, that I had the legs to come over the top and to hold on, because it was rough, and Luke was really, really quick," Walsh said.
"It was a really tough day. The chase was a bit on and off, and when the break kept going out, it became quite tough in the wheels, and the wind was up a little bit. So it definitely wasn't the easiest day, particularly with how hot this tour has been and all the climbing yesterday."
Stage 3, 148.4km from Prostějov to Ostrava, featured just one classified climb at the 42km mark, was destined to finish with a bunch sprint.
Following a flurry of attacks, the day’s breakaway escaped after 25 kilometres, and included mountains classification leader Nicolo Garibbo (JCL Team Ukyo), Mateusz Kostanski (Voster ATS), Loïc Bettendorff (Hrinkow Advarics), Casper Van Der Woude (Metec-Solarwatt) and Dominik Röber (Benotti-Berthold).
Garibbo took the top KOM points atop the Kozlov (7.9 km at 4.3%) to solidify his lead in that competition, and then sat up, leaving the other four to continue on at the front. The peloton kept the quartet on a tight leash, never giving them more than a 2-minute lead.
Led by a rider each from Soudal-Quickstep, XDS-Astana and Visma-Lease a Bike, the peloton had reduced the gap down to one minute with 50km to go.
Not giving up, the break briefly stretched their lead to 1:25 on the rolling terrain of the Palkovické hůrky Hills while Joris Reinderink launched from the peloton with 36km to go, even though he had a teammate in the break, only to be reeled in three kilometres later.
Looking for a third stage win, Soudal-Quickstep, with race leader Junior Lecerf at the back of his team train, massed at the front of the peloton and gobbled up Bettendorff, the final breakaway rider, inside of 8km to go.
The sprinters' teams, Soudal-Quickstep, Visma-Lease a Bike and XDS Astana, battled for position and control at the front of the pack, with Kern Pharma and ATT Investments moving up. Meanwhile, riders with no established trains were fighting to keep the Lamperti’s wheel.
Sunday’s stage 4 should deliver the final showdown with the second summit finish of the stage race atop the punchy Pustevny climb.
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