Lindgren and Klemencic take the yellow jerseys

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Emil Lindgren (Giant) and Blaza Klemencic won the opening stage, an individual time trial, at the second round of the Cyprus Sunshine Cup, the Afxentia stage race.

Sweden's Lindgren put eight seconds between him and Olympic Gold medalist Jaroslav Kulhavy (Specialized Racing) and 11 seconds on his Giant teammate Henk-Jaap Moorlag.

Slovenian Klemencic (Calcit Bikes) won by three seconds over road Olympic champion Marianne Vos (Rabobank / Liv Giant) and 15 over Adelheid Morath (Sabine Spitz-Haibike).

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Men

Under warm and dry conditions in the Macheras Mountains, the men's favorites put in the best times.

Emil Lindgren is well known as an explosive rider and so it was not a big surprise, that he was able to beat Jaroslav Kulhavy on the 5.6km course and take the yellow jersey for the Afxentia lead. Lindgren seemed to be feeling better after being sick and taking antibiotics in the lead up to the race.

"I have some tough weeks behind, because I got an infection from my kid," said Lindgren. "This is the last day I was taking antibiotics. It's nice to have a win and that the whole team did really well. Oscar Saiz, our technical coach, told me to suffer on the last climb, because it's close."

Kulhavy said, "I had some difficult training the last days, hard and long. So, I was a bit tired. But I think the time trial is not so important. Tomorrow and Sunday, I think, I will be a bit fresher than today."

Third place finisher Moorlag said, "I am very, very happy about my result. I felt during training, that I am much better than last year. After a hard training in the winter, I have lost five kilograms. That affects a lot. It's also good for the whole team to start with such a result."

Women

To see Blaza Klemencic on the top was expected, after her win in Cyprus Sunshine Cup opener at Voroklini. But nobody knew how road world champion Marianne Vos could do on her mountain bike. On Friday, she proved that she is among the best.

"Last year I had a very bad feeling all three days, but today my legs were very good," said Klemencic. "The whole winter, I could train very well, without any health problems. I am really happy for today."

Vos said, "I am happy with this first experience, it's quite good. It's a tough thing, especially when you do time trial. It's so hard to keep concentration, when you get tired at the end."

Another surprise was Adelheid Morath in third position. The German was surprised about her result.

"Actually I am still not having that race feeling," said Morath. "I feel not perfectly comfortable on my new bike yet, and I had less training on the road bike as well, because the winter was hard at home. Today I had fun, but I am totally surprised by this result."

Full Results