One might think that travelling from Saarland to Crete would be an adventure in itself. But the idyll on site alone removes any doubt as to whether a long journey like this is worth it.
Already at the prologue in Heraklion, the New Zealand ProTour team Bolton Equities Black Spoke showed the quality of their riders at the start of the 18th Tour of Hellas. They took the entire podium and maintained their lead in the general classification for the next two days.
From the first stage on, BIKE AID then got things rolling. Day after day, the team drew attention to itself with an offensive and aggressive way of riding and was present in almost every breakaway. First it was Vinzent Dorn who secured some points in the mountain classification, later the Eritrean Dawit Yemane took over the role of the rider for the polka dot jersey. On the fourth and final stage, Dawit gave his best to make up points on the leader of the jersey. However, the strong Cypriot Militiadis managed to maintain his lead and Dawit ended up second in the mountain classification.
Second place was also the result for the Canadian Francis Juneau in the classification of the best young rider. This too is a remarkable achievement against a strong line-up of riders in this UCI 2.1 race. It is a display of the versatile quality of this still so young, newly formed but extremely talented Team BIKE AID of the 2023 season. Also Adrian Zuger, who made the jump from the Development team, and Wesley Mol showed a strong performance throughout the tour.
Already a month ago Pirmin Eisenbarth rewarded a very good team performance with a place on the podium on the last stage of the Volta ao Alentejo in Portugal. And so he did on the final day of the Tour of Hellas. After an excellent lead-out by his teammates, he sprinted to third place in the historic Olympia. A fantastic finish and the crowning glory of a great performance by the entire Team BIKE AID.
On Sunday 21st of May, one of Germany's biggest races, Rund um Köln (UCI 1.1), is on the schedule. Against top riders from the best WorldTour teams, BIKE AID will race through the hilly region surrounding Cologne over a distance of 201 kilometres.
Following on May 26th, the three-day Tour de la Mirabelle (UCI 2.2) will start in France.
Pictures of Nassos Triantafyllou and Petros Gkotsis
