Niccolo Bonifazio (Lampre-Merida) won the GP Lugano from a small group sprint, coming in just ahead of Francesco Gavazzi (Southeast) and Matteo Montaguti (AG2R La Mondiale). Team MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung unfortunately had no rider placing in the top 10.
Our African team can be pleased with its day’s work though as Daniel Teklehaimanot and Nic Dougall made the big 15 rider break of the day. Daniel would go on to win all 3 of the GPM’s on offer before going solo with 50km to go.
Daniel showed great strength and his brave ride was only brought to an end with 30km to go as a reduced peloton of around 40 riders reeled him in. Team MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung had a strong presence in this select group and Natnael Berhane would put in an attack in the final 10km of the race.
The race would split up further in the run to the line and a small group of riders would reel in Natnael’s move with 5km to go. With no sprinter among all our African climbers we were not in contention for a top placing.
Jens Zemke – Head of Performance
