Zampilli wins in Csíkszereda

After yesterday's queen stage, 183 kilometres was waiting for the peloton in the second stage of 3rd Tour of Szeklerland, with two ascents of the second category Nyerges-roof climb. A seven men strong group formed just before the summit of the day's first climb, including Lengyel Tamás, Madaras Zoltán, Vlagyimir Koev, Jovanovic Nebojsa, Ladislav Fabisovsky, Martin Greshev, Martin Skopek and Daniel Petrov. The team of the Ukranian leader, Vitalij Popkov, never let the break go further than one and a half minutes, as they led the peloton for most of the stage.

At the front the group cooperated well, as Madaras (Betonexpressz 2000-Limonta) collected the major points at both intermediate sprints. As the race reached the Nyerges-roof climb for the second time just 35 km from the finish it was gruppo compatto again. On the hardest part of the climb, Tour de France veteran and former Saunier Duval rider Aurelian Passeron (Tusnad) attacked, with the best climber jellow jersey Luka Rakusa (Motomat Delo Revijeon) on his wheel. The latter took the points at the KOM, while the other favorites were only a few seconds behind.

On the long downhill section many of the riders arrived back to the leaders, so 15 kilometres from the finish it was about 50 rider strong peloton at the front of the race. From there, constant attacks followed, but nobody was able to hold a gap, so it came to a bunch sprint in the middle of Csíkszereda city.

Rino Tampilli (Hemus 1896 – Troyan) won the stage ahead of Ondrej Zelinka (AC Sparta Prága) and Mikhaylo Konofenko (Kyiv Cycling Team) as Ukranian Vitalij Popkov (ISD Sports Donyeck) defended his lead in the general classification.

On Sunday the race will feature two stages, a 14 kilometre uphill time trial in the morning and a 93 kilometre circuit race in the afternoon.