Sunshine Cup #3 XCO C1 Amathous-Agios Tychon CYP

By: Roel Paulissen

2nd in XCO C1 race and 2nd in GC

Today the sun was shining again on Cyprus and we were racing in 23-24 degrees on a dry and dusty race-track. Perfect conditions for my old Diesel engine, which actually starts running better again!

I felt good today on the bike, my legs felt stronger and my back seemed to have recovered quiet a bit, so that I could ride much more aggressive, more decisive and clearer than I did in the races before. 

The course was paved with sharp cutting rocks and so it was no wonder I flatted in the first lap and got thrown back to approx. 20th position. Although it was not easy to overtake - in a way you always had to wait for certain spots to come -, I could manage to first get back to the group around places 5 to 10, and then, when I heard that it would have been 45 sec. to 2nd and 3rd position only, I floored the gas pedal and chased Litscher and Škarnitzl down as well.

The last downhill brought about the result and I finished 2nd in front of Škarnitzl, who won the general classification of the Cyprus Sunshine Cup while I arrived 2nd in the overall ranking as well. I have collected quiet a lot of points here in Cyprus, curious to see how many spots I've moved up in the UCI ranking...

RESULTS:
Sunshine Cup #3 C1 XCO, Amathous CYP
1 Jaroslav Kulhavy
2 Roel Paulissen
3 Jan Škarnitzl

GC CYPRUS SUNSHINE CUP
1 Jan Škarnitzl 
2 Roel Paulissen         
3 Emil Lindgren

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