Sibiu Tour: Ackermann wins stage 2

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Pascal Ackermann continued Bora-Hansgrohe's run of success in the Sibiu Tour, profiting from a well-timed lead-out from mountains classification leader and stage 1 winner Gregor Mühlberger to take out a reduced bunch sprint.

Rudy Barbier (Israel Start-Up Nation) and Riccardo Stacchiotti (Vini Zabu' KTM) rounded out the top three. Ackermann's teammate Patrick Konrad finished with the front group to hold onto the race lead for a second day, with Mühlberger remaining in second overall.

It was Ackermann's third win of the 2020 season, with a stage of the UAE Tour and the Clasica Almeria on his palmares before the coronavirus stopped the road season in March.

"I'm really happy to restart my season with another victory but I'm also a bit disappointed because my lead-out guy crashed with 25km to go and I still don't know how he is," Ackermann said of Rüdiger Selig, who ran into a vehicle and crashed.

Mühlberger did a fine job to help him in the finale but Ackermann said it was a bad situation without his trusted last man. "We had a lot of bad luck - we also had Konrad puncture at the last climb. We had a plan to go full gas on the final climb but we had to wait. We restarted, and then we had the crash. We're just happy to have won the race today."

The sprint was hectic without any team able to take full control. Nippo Delko One Provence tried to lead for Eduard Grosu and Vini Zabu' for Stacchiotti but everyone was lacking teammates after Bora-Hansgrohe exploded the peloton on the final climb. Only Grosu had a man left and Ackermann honed in on his wheel.

"It was really hectic because it was a small group and nobody had a lead-out train. I didn't know which wheel I should take, then I switched from one to the other. With 300m to go I went full gas. I think it was a good sprint but a long one," Ackermann said.

How it unfolded

The third day of the Sibiu Tour started out under a steady rain with riders hiding in their team cars before finally emerging to start the 181.2km loop from Sibiu northeast to Nocrich and Agnita for the first sprints.

Sprint classification leader Pawel Bernas (Mazowsze Serce Polski) kicked off the first attack, bringing along Yehor Dementyev (Team Novak), Emil Dima (Giotti Victoria), Meindert Weulink (A Bloc CT), and Tomasz Budzinski (Wibatech Merx) and the five riders began carving out a solid gap over the rain-soaked peloton. Bernas claimed the first two intermediate sprints and, his job done, sat up and went back to the bunch, leaving Dementyev, Dima, Weulink and Tomasz Budzinski to go it alone with almost three minutes on the field.

With 94km to go the peloton stopped at a level crossing for a minute, giving the breakaway a bit more time but still it was no threat to the lead of Konrad as the best-placed rider, Budzinski, was almost 14 minutes behind in the general classification.

The skies began to clear up and, as the quartet rode into the hilly final 40km with two classified climbs, their lead began to evaporate as did their ranks, with Budzinski the first to get dropped on the Cisnadioara. By the time the remaining three hit the final climb, the Calugarul they were back in the bunch. Mühlberger put in a stinging attack that split the peloton, taking the mountain points at the top. 

Konrad, who had a mechanical before the top, made his way back to the front on the descent with a select group of around 15 riders. Bora-Hansgrohe continued to apply pressure but a chasing group rejoined to bring the number of riders at the front to 35 with 5km to go. Mühlberger marked the attacks for Konrad, keeping the bunch together under the 1km to banner.

Israel Start-Up Nation led out the sprint before Mühlberger put in another surge to lead out Ackermann who won the stage with ease.

Results