Paul Magnier retained the points jersey after the hardest stage of the week.
Following three consecutive days that concluded in a bunch sprint, all won by Paul Magnier, the CRO Race continued with a completely different terrain that reshuffled the overall standings and ended up opening some bigger gaps than expected before the start.
Travelling from Krk to Labin, over almost 200 kilometers, Friday’s course had as main ingredients four classified climbs and an elevation gain of around 2700 meters. The first difficulty of the day was the long Plokon ascent, and the fierce tempo that some of the team decided to push there, the peloton fragmented into several groups. On the 15km descent, a regrouping took place before a couple of riders went on the attack, including Soudal Quick-Step’s Pepijn Reinderink.
The last part of the stage didn’t give the riders a single moment of respite due to the quick succession of climbs, and it was there that the winning move came from Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates), who embarked on a solo time trial. After Reinderink was dropped, our team continued to be represented in the chasing group by Antoine Huby, who put in a strong effort that netted him a top 20 at the finish and an important jump on the general classification.
His teammate Paul Magnier came home together with a large group and made a visit to the podium to receive the points jersey, which he will sport during Saturday’s penultimate stage between Karlovac and Sveta Nedelja.
Photo credit: ©Dario Belingheri / Getty Images
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