Three days after taking bronze in the time trial, our rider repeated that feat in the road race.
Petr Vakoč nabbed Deceuninck – Quick-Step’s 90th top 3 finish of the season following a strong ride at the Czech National Championships, over a 186.5km course that made up for a furious start, which helped four riders build a gap and carry it over the climbs that peppered the opening 50 kilometers in Trnava.
Sensing that the move could go all the way to the line, Petr assumed responsibility in the group after a strong workload of Zdenek Stybar and attacked together with a few other men, bridging across the leaders on the local circuit. There, the 26-year-old remained active and put in several attacks in order to dislodge the others, but so was the nature of the route that none of these could stick and the race ended up in a reduced sprint, where our rider took third.
After the finish, Petr Vakoč explained how things went on Sunday: “The start was very fast, but me and Styby were always there, keeping an eye on things. After the second lap I broke away and together with two other guys I joined the quartet up the road. I knew that some of them were faster, so I tried to drop them, but it wasn’t possible on the flat second half of the parcours. Inside the last kilometer I attacked again, but they responded, so I finished third. Of course, I would have loved to win, but taking everything into account, third place isn’t that bad and I’m quite content about my result and condition.”
Photo credit: ©Luc Claessen/ Getty Images