Skilful bike handling, fearless descending and a fine last burst of speed have rewarded Nicolò Parisini (Q36.5) with victory in stage 3 of the CRO Race.
On the twisting downhill finale of the 133-kilometre stage from Otočac to Opatija, Parisini laid down a searing acceleration on the last left-hand corner that Tobias Lund Andersen (DSM-Firmenich) and last year’s overall winner Matej Mohorič (Bahrain Victorious) were unable to match.
Race leader Elia Viviani (Ineos Grenadiers) was dropped before the second ascent of a steep late climb, leaving the stage to be disputed by some 20 riders and the road open for Lund Andersen to take the overall lead.
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Parisini, though, proved more than capable of taking the day’s honours, handling the tough finishing circuit, and claiming the first victory of his career by more than a bike length.
“I can’t believe it, it’s a big emotion for me,” Parisini said afterwards. “It was important to be on the front for the last big corners and then I came through the last one in third position.
“Then I waited for five seconds, then Mohoric went for the sprint, I just tried my best as well and I won.”
Another warm day, very hilly terrain and a short distance proved fertile territory for an early break to quickly form, with Marvin Hammerschmid (Hrinkow-Advarics), Dylan Hopkins (Lujbljana-Gusto-Santic), Mateusz Kostański (Voster-ATS), Bartosz Rudyk (Voster-ATS) and Philip Weber (Maloja Pushbikers) testing their luck.
Their narrow gap of just over a minute remained steady all the way over the toughest climb of the day, the cat. 2 Bribir and on into the final hour of racing, at which point with their advantage notably dwindling, Hopkins opted for a solo move.
The 22-year-old’s lone attack did not spark panic in the peloton, with one Australian being chased by another as compatriot Luke Plapp (Ineos Grenadiers) did an exceptionally long stint on the front of the peloton.
After Hopkins threw in the towel, the confusion sparked by a missing hot spot sprint sign and the very sketchy course conditions featuring a proliferation of badly placed roadworks signage encouraged the teams to keep a steady but by no means blistering pace en route to the short, punishingly steep Opatija climb, tackled twice.
The first time over, US duo Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) and Magnus Sheffield (Ineos Grenadiers) worked well together to prevent any meaningful attacks, then DSM-firmenich helped to maintain the front group at around 50-strong riders.
Some brief skirmishing again spearheaded by Simmons the second time over the climb failed to fructify, albeit splitting the front group again by roughly half, and instead the fast, ultra-technical descent which followed proved decisive in the stage outcome.
DSM did their best to set things up for Lund Andersen as the peloton strung itself out on the final part of the downhill, but Parisini’s good positioning had left the Italian exactly where he needed to be to fight for the victory.
Then after rightly figuring Mohoric was the wheel to follow on the last gently curving left-hand bend, the Italian had more than enough energy left in the headlong downhill mad dash for the line to both pass Mohoric and then ensure nobody could get past him.
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