In the midst of numerous WorldTour pros, the Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe Rookies put in a convincing performance at Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali. Both Davide Donati and part-time rookie Emil Herzog confirmed their good form with results on the final stage of the five-day race.
Davide Donati won the sprint of the peloton after 132 kilometers in Forli, but soloist Jay Vine had already crossed the finish line for his second stage win. Nevertheless, the 19-year-old, who had already achieved a strong result at the start in Bondeno in fourth place, drew an all-round positive conclusion. “We can be very happy and proud of ourselves. This was our first stage race with the pros and we were competitive all week”, Davide said happily. But only to remain combative: “Now we have to improve even further.”
Emil Herzog satisfied with himself and the team
Emil Herzog performed well in Italy, too. The 20-year-old also achieved two top 10 results in fifth and seventh place on the last two stages. His consistency secured him eighth place in the GC, just 42 seconds behind overall winner Ben Tulett.
“I'm pretty happy with how it went, my form was definitely better than I expected”, said Emil Herzog after his respectable success. “I had been able to train well over the last two weeks, but the month before had been anything but optimal with illness and knee problems. Of course, Coppi e Bartali is not a WorldTour race, but I think with Ineos, UAE and Visma the level was quite high.”
The 2022 Junior World Champion summed up the team's overall performance as follows: “Our goal here was to finish a stage in the top three and the overall classification in the top 10. We achieved both, which is why we can look forward to the next races with optimism. We rode very well as a group here and gained some really good experience.”
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