The final stage of the five-day Tour of the Alps wrapped up today with another day with an Israel – Premier Tech rider in the breakaway with Canadian James Piccoli flying the IPT flag at the front of the race.
That makes four consecutive days the team has been fighting for a stage win on the mountainous terrain with a rider in the breakaway after Carl Fredrik Hagen (stage 2), James Piccoli (stage 3), and Omer Goldstein (stage 4) all put their legs to the test this week.
Although unable to score a stage win, with Piccoli’s sixth place on stage 3 the team’s best result, the guys can be proud of the way they raced said Sports Director Dror Pekatch.
“The Tour of the Alps was a very challenging race for us. We had to start with six riders and Alessandro De Marchi had to stop on the first day due to sickness. But aside from that, we stuck to the goal of being up there every day. We tried for the sprint the first day with Giacomo but it was a good day for the breakaway and we couldn’t close the gap. Every day after that, we had a guy in the breakaway so on four of the five days. The best result came from James with sixth place so in terms of riding aggressively and being in the breakaway, we were there. We were missing a little bit of legs and for sure, the two missing riders,” explained Pekatch.
“In general, it was good preparation for Giacomo for the Giro d’Italia, good for Chris Froome to get the racing days in before Tour de Romandie, good for Carl to come back to racing here, and also for the others to gain more experience and have the opportunities to go and try for themselves.”
Today, Piccoli found himself as part of a strong 15-rider breakaway and with no riders posing a threat on the General Classification, the peloton sat up and let the group go more than 10 minutes up the road.
Cold weather and torrential rain made for tricky conditions and with 73 kilometers to go, the group split and Piccoli was eventually caught by the peloton while up ahead, the Thibaut Pinot (Groupama FDJ) took the win.
