Successful course continued in Estonia

Stage win and 2nd
in GC

The Maloja Pushbikers can draw a positive balance after the Tour of Estonia: With a stage win for Filippo Fortin, second place in the overall classification for Matias Malmberg as well as the victory of the mountain classification for Roy Eefting made the Pushbikers main protagonists at the tour in Estonia (UCI cat. 2.1).

Pushbikers x Tour of Estonia

Yellow. Green. Red.

It was colourful and joyful for our team riders Filippo, Roy, Matias, Philip, Felix, Fabian and Liam. Some of them had already arrived in Tallinn a little earlier, explored the city together and rode down to the seaside, searching to see Helsinki on the horizon. “An absolute travel tip”, was the catchy opinion even before the race started.

The first stage of the Tour of Estonia was very long with a total of 206 km, flat on paper except for the final climb with cobblestones up to to the finish line. A supposedly not too difficult course, but with many wind edges to watch out for. The peloton split halfway through the race, with six Pushbikers staying at the front of the 45-strong group. “This showed how attentive but also how strong we are,” says Philip Weber. At the first KOM classification there was a breakaway group, which was occupied by Roy Eefting and Matias Malmberg. “Of course I wanted to take the opportunity to win the classification and bonus” said Dutchman Eefting, who managed to do so not only in the first but also in the second mountain classification on this day. After that, it was also his job agein to create a lead out for captain Filippo Fortin. Fortin won with two seconds ahead of local hero Markus Paiur (Tartu24). Another two seconds behind followed teammate Roy Eefting in third place, while Matias Malmberg finished with a total of eight seconds behind in ninth place. So the yellow jersey of the overall leader, the green jersey of the best sprinter and the red jersey for the mountain classification went to the Pushbikers.

"It's extremely nice to know how everything came to be and
and to see everyone throwing themselves in for each other
without putting personal demands before team interests.
This attitude has already brought us a lot this year
and we are far from finished."

Philip Weber

On the tough second stage over 165 km around Tartu, Filippo Fortin could not defend his jersey as overall leader, but Matias Malmberg finished third behind his two Danish compatriots Rasmus Wallin and Mathias Larsen (Team Restaurant Suri-Carl Ras). In the overall classification of the Tour of Estonia he even finished 2nd behind Rasmus Wallin – another milestone for the Pushbikers on the road this season. Filippo Fortin finished twelfth in the GC and fourth in the points classification, for Roy Eefting it was an overall victory in the mountain classification.

“We were able to score a lot of points and worked very well together as a unit,” said Matias Malmberg after the race, “we had a great few days in Estonia and I am really happy about the result!” For some Pushbikers, including Fortin, Steininger and Eefting, the next event on the agenda is the Tour of Oberösterreich starting on June first, before the whole team takes a three-week break from road racing.

Credits

Photo

— Adam Illingworth
Tour of Estonia

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