The third stage took place in the surroundings of the city of Utena, and the cyclists had to cover 177.57 km during it. The race started with an unexpected crash, but after a few moments all the athletes returned to their bikes – the start was given for the second time. At the beginning of the race, the initiative was taken by the Norwegian Elias Gran Hermansen (“Team Ringerike”), who broke away from the peloton alone. Later, the race leader was joined by 6 more athletes, and the formed group of 7 cyclists led until the 103rd kilometer.
In the second part of the race, a successful breakaway was made by five athletes, among whom was Rokas Kmieliauskas representing the “Energus Cycling Team.” However, with less than 5 kilometers to the finish, the peloton regrouped and a group of about fifty cyclists reached the finish almost simultaneously.
“Today started quite intensely, I kept trying to break away but never managed. Then I realized we wouldn’t get away anywhere and towards the end of the race we saw that we would probably catch the breakaway cyclists. Rokas Adomaitis dedicated himself to trying to bring me to the finish and everything went really well, we avoided crashes, but at the end I was squeezed and couldn’t get out to fight for the podium. I finished seventh, which is a good result, but when you know how close it was, it’s a bit sad,” commented Eimantas Gudiškis, the best-performing member of the national team from Lithuania.
The winner of the race was Karl Kurits representing the Estonian team, who outperformed the prize winners, Pole Radoslaw Fratczak (“Wibatech Lubelskie Perla Polski”) and Latvian Martins Plots (“Energus Cycling Team”).
“My day, I can say, was easy. My job was just to stay safe and save as much energy as possible for the final sprint. We managed to close the gap in the last 200-300 meters. I was second here last year, so I knew the finish quite well. Today my recipe was a familiar finish section and the help of my teammates,” said K. Kurits.
The overall classification leader remains the Italian Alexander Konychev (“China Anta – Mentech Cycling Team”), who also leads the points classification (35 points). In the most active rider category, the Estonian Rait Armas (“Energus Cycling Team”) leads and will start Saturday’s race with the green jersey.
In the U23 classification, the leader remains the winner of the second stage, Estonian Lauri Tammas (Estonian team), ahead of Lithuanian national team member Rokas Adomaitis. Our rider remains sixth in the general classification.
“Tour of Lithuania” is the largest road cycling race in the Baltic countries, classified as 2.2 by the International Cycling Union (UCI): cyclists can earn ranking points that allow them to compete for tickets to the world, European championships, and even the Olympic Games. The “Tour of Lithuania,” held for the fourth consecutive year, consists of five stages: on Saturday, cyclists will start and finish in Kaunas.
The “Tour of Lithuania” cycling race is partially funded by state funds administered by the National Sports Agency, as well as by the municipalities of Tauragė, Kėdainiai, Utena, Kaunas, and Vilnius.
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