Ninth victory in the last eleven days of racing for the phenomenal Frenchman.
Paul Magnier repeated his extraordinary achievement from Okolo Slovenska at the CRO Race, where the 21-year-old powered to his fourth stage victory at the end of a day that, at least on paper, shouldn’t have ended in a bunch sprint.
The crucial point of the stage was Plesivica, the 7km climb averaging 5% that the peloton tackled inside the final 25 kilometers of the stage, just after the last intermediate sprint. What remained of the breakaway started it with a gap of more than a minute, but the group pushed hard there in order to drop the fast men, which resulted in that deficit being completely erased before the top of the ascent.
Soudal Quick-Step’s speedster climbed admirably, showing again just how versatile he is, and with the help of Antoine Huby and Pepijn Reinderink, he remained excellently positioned on the fast and technical descent that followed and where some riders tried to get away. The peloton, despite being significantly reduced, kept things together and rode together under the flamme rouge. At that point, Paul was in 15th position, but thanks to a colossal effort of Pepijn, he stormed at the front just in time for the closing 200 meters, where he once again showcased his incredible turn of legs to capture his 14th success of the season.
“I don’t have the words to describe what it means to win today and to make it four victories in a stage race for the second time in the past three weeks. It’s just amazing. I thought it was going to be too hard for me today, but I felt good on the last ascent and the team did an incredible job for me until the very end. Without them and their support, this victory wouldn’t have been possible. There’s one more opportunity on Sunday and we’ll do our best to finish the week on a high”, said a visibly happy Paul, who extended his lead in the points classification.
Photo credit: ©Sport-IT
