CYCLING – TEAM Bahrain Victorious secured another podium finish at the Tour Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes in France yesterday as Phil Bauhaus sprinted to third place on stage five, finishing behind winner Wout van Aert of Visma-Lease a Bike and Hugo Hofstetter of NSN Cycling Team.
After several days dominated by successful breakaways, the 195.8-kilometre leg offered the sprinters a long-awaited opportunity. The stage had been marked as one of the key chances for the fast men, and the peloton ensured it would end in a bunch sprint.
A strong collective effort from the sprint teams, including excellent teamwork from Bahrain Victorious, brought back the six-man breakaway inside the final 12km, setting up the sprint finish.
Bauhaus rewarded the team’s work with a solid third place – an encouraging result ahead of the Tour de France.
“I’m super proud of the team,” Bauhaus said. “We controlled the race from the start and everybody worked really, really well.
“Nikias (Arndt) did a great job pulling strongly, especially towards the end. Then Pello (Bilbao) took over and positioned Vlad (Van Mechelen) and me inside the final three km. As I’ve seen before, Vlad is incredibly talented and strong. I feel our relationship in the sprint is really good. He listens well and executes everything perfectly.
“He gave me a lot of slipstream and brought me onto Van Aert’s wheel with about one km to go. I had to fight a bit to stay there and spent some energy, but I managed to follow him. I tried to come around him, but I quickly realised my legs weren’t strong enough today. Then I started running out of energy towards the finish and Hofstetter came past me.
“I’m happy with third place. It was the maximum possible today. I couldn’t have done more. We can all be satisfied with what we achieved.”
The race continues today with the 182.3km sixth stage.
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