Gediminas Bagdonas from Lithuanian national Team won Baltic Chain Tour second stage from Viljandi to Otepää. This was fifth UCI win for Lithuanian champion this year.
183 km race was full of action from the very beginning. Break-away followed by another break-away, but no-one got away from peloton.First intermediate sprint had a group finish and over the line came first Bagdonas himself, securing green jersey as most active rider so far.
Soon after intermediate sprint 5-men group escaped from peloton and quickly had almost three minute gap with chasers. Nothing was decided yet as there was still more than 60km to go. In this group were Erland (Plussbank), Gröndahl (Plussbank), Jõessar (Estonian National Team), Mihkel Räim (Saaremaa Viking) and Artur Shaymuratov from Katusha. They were working hard together until mountain climb, where Erland and Räim went for the climb finish. Räim was quicker and won it.
Soon after it Erland and Shaymuratov left other three behind. Second intermediate sprint victory was to be decided by these two and Erland was quickest this time. They worked well together unitl 20 km before finish the peloton caught them. By that point it seemed that there’s going to be group finish, but approximately 10km before finish Evtushenko from Katusha decided to go for glory alone. About 1-2 kilometers before finish he was caught and group finish was to come. Bagdonas was quickest again and won the stage in front of 80-men group. Dylan Groenewegen from Cycling Team De Rijke came second and Indulis Bekmanis from Rietumu – Delfin came third.
After second stage general leader is first stage winner Alexander Gingsjö. He also has mountain climber jersey. Points leader in green jersey is today’s winner Bagdonas and current best young rider is Rick Ottema.
Tomorrow, at the Baltic chain day, tour continues in Latvia where third stage from Smiltene to Riga takes place.
Video interviews with stage winners here
