The young Belgian leaves the race with two victories and two jerseys in the bag.
Junior Lecerf sealed the general classification triumph at the Czech Tour after a thrilling finish – one of the best seen this year – on the hard Pustevny climb, where he produced an immense effort and showcased the Wolfpack never-say-die attitude that ended up bringing the biggest success of his career.
The 22-year-old stage 2 victor started the final day with the yellow jersey on his shoulders and a small gap on his opponents, and could count on an impressive Soudal Quick-Step team to reel in the breakaway and put him in a perfect position for the final ascent, where everything was to be decided. Cian Uijtdebroeks (Visma – Lease a Bike) was the first to launch an attack, but Junior easily responded and glued himself to his countryman’s wheel. When the white jersey accelerated again, Lecerf was distanced, but didn’t panic for a second and made sure of riding a steady tempo, keeping Uijtdebroeks in his sight.
Ahead of the closing kilometer, Junior was caught by the small chasing group, and with 300 meters to go they were still trailing the lone leader by 15 seconds. Then, in what turned out to be a dramatic finale, Soudal Quick-Step’s Belgian accelerated together with the others and stunningly erased that deficit, catching him just 25 meters from the line and sealing a general classification win that had seemed out of reach at one point.
Third place after such a valiant effort on this nail-biting stage netted Lecerf the overall victory, but also the points jersey – a remarkable achievement for our rider, who brought home the team’s 32nd success of the season.
“It was really hard, but I always believed in myself. When things began heating up, I tried to stay in the wheel of Cian, but at one point I had some difficulties, and decided to go at my own pace in order not to explode, making sure I could always see him. In the last 500 meters, as we were making inroads into that gap, I used a bit the slipstream of the others and gave everything I had, and managed to finish on the podium and take the GC win. I am happy I will take home the yellow jersey! It’s been a great week for us and it will be a race I will always remember”, said Junior, the second rider in the history of the team to win the Czech Tour.
Photo credit: ©Czech Tour
