Kulhavy too strong for everyone

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Czech Jaroslav Kulhavy was the top rider for the second day in a row during stage two of the the Afxentia race. He beat Emil Lindgren and Jan Skarnitzl in the 41-kilometer point-to-point race and kept his overall lead. In the women's 32km competition, Annika Langvad took the win ahead of Elisabeth Brandau and Alexandra Engen. Langvad is now leading the race overall.

For the first half of the men's race, it was a hard battle in the Macheras Mountains. Nicola Rohrbach , who later flatted, and German Karl Platt (Bulls) set the pace, bringing more and more riders into difficulty. Then when Jaroslav Kulhavy (Rubena Birell Specialized) took over, most were left behind for good.

Emil Lindgren (Rabobank-Giant) tried hard to follow the Czech, but he had no chance of doing so today. Kulhavy rode strongly, undeterred by the rain, which started half an hour before he finished.

"This kind of race is not really good for me, but I felt very good and I'm happy," said Kulhavy. "This win is very important for me. My training after the cyclo-cross season was free of any problems, and I feel well."

"On the uphill, he was too strong for me," said Lindgren after crossing the finish line 43 seconds behind Kulhavy. "Jaroslav was very strong, he did a good job. He attacked in the first feed zone and got away. I tried to keep him in sight, but when we went into the uphill singletrack, I lost about a minute. In the downhill, I guess I made some time up, but then I lost 10 seconds again."

Among the chasers, Sunshine Cup round one winner Jan Skarnitzl (Dimp-Giant) could not hold the pace of Lindgren. He finished third, 1:15 later than Lindgren. With the ranking on day two the same as on day one, the overall classification also stayed the same with Kulhavy still leading.

For the first half of the race, Roel Paulissen was with the lead group, but the marathon World Champion suffered some back problems and would finish fourth. Jiri Friedl (Merida) was fifth, but held onto fourth overall in the GC.

Asian champion Kohei Yamamoto of Japan finished sixth in his best Cyprus Cup perfomance yet. "I had good legs today, and I enjoy my time on Cyprus," he said.

Going into the final stage tomorrow, Kulhavy leads with a 1:05 advantage over Lindgren and 2:31 over Skarnitzl.

Bad luck for Stevkova and Anishova

In women's competition, Annika Langvad (HMTBK) demonstrated that she is willing defend the orange leader's jersey of Cyprus Sunshine Cup overall. After a time trial yesterday that did not suit her, she climbed well today and got away from Elisabeth Brandau (Haibike) approximately halfway through the race.

Riding solo, Langvad gave everything and extended her lead until the finish, where she had a comfortable 4:12 advantage. Brandau took the second spot, while Alexandra Engen (Rothaus-Cube) was the first of the chasers to finish at 7:42.

Janka Stevkova (CPEpic-Dohnany) flatted while in third place and then lost a lot of time to finish in fifth.

Russian Ekaterina Anishova (Primorsky District) suffered a similar fate - a flat tire. "I had to run about five kilometers," she said, disappointed with her 19th place, 42:04 down.

"It was wonderful today. I didn't know how strong Elisabeth was. At the beginning, it was my tactic to stay with her. But then I got a gap on the uphill section and I rode away."

"I haven't been training enough to give it all," said Brandau. "My pulse was high, but my legs didn't want to go. I couldn't stay with Annika, but I'm happy with my second place."

At the end of the day, Langvad leads the GC by 2:53 over Brandau and 7:27 over Engen. If everything goes well for Langvad, the Danish rider should be able to keep her race lead tomorrow.

Engen said she had better legs today - even after a bad start. After an encouraging word from Melanie Spaeth, she picked up several places and started feeling good. "I will see what happens tomorrow, but the main thing is getting in some good training," said Engen.

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