Two top-tens for UAE Team Emirates

Fabio Aru showed his form is building up nicely with the man from the Emirati squad claiming 5th place in the Mount Ventoux Desnivele Challenge (1.Pro). The 179km race took in two ascents of the legendary climb, with Aru finishing 1’38 behind eventual race winner Aleksandr Vlasov (Astana) who attacked in the final 5km.

Aru was pleased with his performance : “Today was another step forward after my top-10 in Burgos last week. I felt better also, the body was more used to the race rhythm. Already on the first time up the climb I could tell that I was feeling good and the last time up I emptied myself all the way to the line. It was a very hard race with 4’000 metres of climbing but it was another good race in the legs as I keep building towards my objectives. Tomorrow I hope to continue that build-up at Tour de l’Ain.”

Meanwhile on stage 2 at the Tour of Poland (WT) Jasper Philipsen sprinted to 8th place and also picked up the white jersey as leader of the points classification. The stage was won by World Champion, Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo).

After the second day of racing, UAE Team Emirates are also leaders in the team classification.

Philipsen: “It was a strange stage for everybody after what happened yesterday. It was on people’s mind during the race but then in the finish it was a sprint like any other. The team did a really good job to get me into place for the stage and I had good legs. I opened up but couldn’t reach top speed. Maybe it was because of the crash yesterday but it was frustrating. I hope for more and now we’ll focus on results for the team over the next few days.”

Stage 3 tomorrow from Wadowice to Bielsko-Biala (203.1k) is one for the climbers and should see a big shake-up in the general classification.