Peloton Cafe || Wouter Wippert (image copyright Mark Gunter)
Wouter Wippert was delivered to victory on Stage 3 of the Tour de Taiwan by a phenomenal Drapac Professional Cycling team effort on Tuesday afternoon in Changhua County.
The win was Wippert’s third of the season, off the back of a runner-up finish in Sunday’s opening stage in Tapei City.
“It was a massive team effort from the boys today,” said directeur sportif Henk Vogels. “They chased down the breakaway right until the death to get that win for Wouter.
“Wouter is showing just how good he is when there is an uphill finish. Today was really impressive.”
Wippert was left satisfied with the win, grateful for the effort of his teammates and for redemption after his close call earlier in the race. The 23-year-old Dutchman however, admitted that it had been a “hard” 142 kilometres of racing. With a four-man breakaway establishing itself just before the 60km mark, it was only with 20km to go that the group was reduced to two riders – Aldo Ilesic (UnitedHealthcare) and Gleb Gorbachev (Uzbekistan). Ilesic dropped his companion, setting out alone over the final kilometres but a determined chase from Drapac reeled him in just in time.
“It was a very nervous last 10km. Mal [Rudolph], Benny [Johnson] and [Robbie] Hucker all closed the gap to Ilesic leading into the final climb,” Wippert explained. “I was alone with Wes [Sulzberger] and about halfway up I started sprinting. With 400 metres to go, I caught Ilesic.”
Drapac was nearly rewarded with a second rider, in the form of Sulzberger, on the podium however the Tasmanian fell badly in the finishing straight before running across the finish line in order to finish.
“It was unlucky for Wes that he crashed just before the finish line because that 3rd place would have resulted in time bonuses which would have moved him up on GC,” explained Vogels.
Sulzberger remains Drapac’s best-placed rider for the overall and is now 16 seconds off the race lead of yellow jersey Rémi Di Gregorio (La Pomme Marseille 13). He suffered bruising and grazing in his crash and is expected to line-up tomorrow.
The Tour de Taiwan continues Wednesday with a 161km penultimate stage to Tainan City.
2014 Tour de Taiwan: Stage 3 Results
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