Only four weeks after the Sibiu Cycling Tour in Romania, the team travelled to Brittany, as they have already a few times this season. The riders have good memories of the upcoming four-day stage race. In 2021, it was Julian Lino who rode to a strong third place on the penultimate stage in front of his home crowd.
This year the start was a bit bumpy. In the team time trial, the team from Saarland lost 51 seconds to the day's winning team on the first stage. When the gap between the breakaway and the field increased on the second stage, BIKE AID reacted quickly. Sebastian Niehues, who took his first win for the team just a few days earlier, launched a counterattack and managed to bring back the breakaway with a strong effort. In the finale, Léo Bouvier worked his way further and further to the front. Unfortunately, he lost a few places in an early launched sprint and just missed the top 10 of the day. However, he could be satisfied with 12th place. In addition, Julian Lino slowly climbed up in the overall standings and started into the next stage, which was so successful last year, full of anticipation!
The team did everything to help the Breton to take another spot on the podium at Kreiz Breizh Elites. For the first half of the third stage, everything went according to plan and Julian Lino was in a good position. The race picked up the pace on the local lap with an attack from Wesley Mol and the peloton split. Julian managed to stay in the first group and went head to head with his rivals in a thrilling finale. Due to crashes in the last kilometres of the race, he unfortunately slipped down in the ranking of the day. However, this did not change his time and Julian was now in a promising 16th place in the GC!
Also on the last stage, the riders from BIKE AID sacrificed themselves to help Julian Lino in the best possible way. Jasper Pahlke and Léo Bouvier did a great job, while Wesley Mol worked hard in the breakaway and tried to increase the gap to the peloton. In the finale, the team didn't manage to make up enough time to get Julian into the top 10 overall. With a narrow gap, he finally defended his 16th place in the overall standings.
On September 6th, the team from Saarland will start at the Turul Romaniei. Things are looking good, as two riders made it into the top ten in the GC last year!
Pictures by DirectVelo
