Tour of Croatia: Durasek wins stage 2

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Kristijan Durasek (UAE Team Emirates) claimed the second stage of the Tour of Croatia Wednesday, arriving at the line on the slopes of the Biokovo finishing climb ahead of Caja Rural’s Jaime Roson and Bahrain Merida’s Vincenzo Nibali.

Durasek jumped clear of a select group of GC contenders inside the last few hundred metres of the ascent, which race organisers had shortened from a mammoth 27km to a more manageable 12km due to snow. The 29-year-old Croatian never opened a gap of more than a few bike lengths, but he held his advantage all the way to the line to take the win and the GC lead in his home race.

After the morning break was caught at the foot of the climb, the long ascent to the finish high above the Adriatic Sea saw the peloton whittled down to just a handful of riders as it made its way into the closing kilometres.

Nibali tried to get clear with a little under two kilometres left to race, putting in a big dig on the high gradients that seemed promising at first. He was unable to open up much of a gap, however, with Roson responding quickly and the rest of the group in tow, ultimately shutting down the attempt.

Durasek made his move a kilometre later as the survivors at the front of the race rounded the final corners. Though several rivals responded quickly and tried to close down his attack, he held off the rest of the lead group to nab the victory.

How it unfolded

Anton Vorobyev (Gazprom-Rusvelo), Marco Coledan (Trek-Segafredo), Pirmin Lang (Roth-Akros) and Jonathan Millan (Bicicletas Strongman) jumped clear of the bunch in the early goings to form the day’s main breakaway. The peloton was content to give the escapees some breathing room, allowing the gap to grow to around four minutes, where it hovered for an hour as riders rolled southeast along a coastal highway.

With around 55 kilometres left to race, the bunch began to shorten the gap. It was down to two and a half minutes with 40 kilometres to go. 10 kilometres later, with the gap at a minute and a half, Gazprom’s Artem Nych tried to bridge to the breakers. His teammate Vorobyev dropped back to wait for him and the pair linked up to ride together for a short stint before a Caja Rural-led pack caught them both.

The bunch continued to close down the remaining breakers on the approach to the final climb, and although the trio worked well together in their attempt to stave off the chase, they were caught as the road began to tilt upward around 13 kilometres from the finish.

That spurred counter-attacks, with Caja Rural’s Alex Aranburu and Trek-Segafredo’s Laurent Didier quickly opening up a small gap at the front. The move never got much traction, however, and the pair was reeled in a few minutes later. Other attacks failed to open up any serious gaps, leading to a brief cessation of hostilities in the pack, though a hard pace saw riders dropping left and right out of the front group.

Branislau Samoilau (CCC Sprandi Polkowice) tried his luck around five kilometres from the line. He found himself swallowed up before long. A few minutes later it was Nibali’s turn, but the Italian couldn’t quite shake the select few still around to catch his wheel. Finally, Durasek launched the winning move inside the flamme rouge, surging to the stage 2 victory after 107 kilometres of racing.

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