Course de la Paix Juniors / Junior Peace Race

Terezín – Finished! this year 41st edition of the Junior Peace Race is over and the Danish team fulfilled the expectations of being the favorites. Indeed, in the final summary of the times it is two Danish who are the fastest overall, the yellow jersey now belongs to Niklas Eg forever.

Zinnwald/Terezín – The Danish national team showed their power. In the last-but-one stage of the Junior Peace Race they managed to break away from the rest of the peloton and in the finish of the queen stage in the German town of Zinnwald they celebrated a double win and gained the yellow jersey.

Roudnice nad Labem - The peloton of the Junior Peace race had to tackle two stages on Friday. And both had in common the name Schmidt, but it was a different rider each time. While before noon in the time trial won the Dane Mads, in the afternoon road race it was Norwegian Petter. However the former, Mads, is enjoying the yellow jersey which he stripped of the winner of the first stage, from the Frenchman Kowalski. 

Litoměřice – the member of the French national team, Dylan Kowalski, with his victory opened the 41st edition of the Juniors Peace Race. The cyclist form the country of the "coq gaulois" decided to go for an escape in the last kilometers and he managed to defend his position with a small lead.

The juniors peloton will open the the race on the 3rd of May at 2:30 pm at the Litomerices Peace square (Mírové náměstí). The traditional time trial in Třebenice awaits the competitors on Friday before noon. A brand new stage is prepared for the peloton already for the Friday afternoon, it will start in Česka Lípa at 4:00 pm and the cyclists will battle for the stage victory at the finish line in Roudnice nad Labem. On Saturday they will have to go trough a demanding stage from the north-bohemian town Teplice, across the border, to the German town Dippoldiswalde.

He had won several times the green jersey for the best sprinter on the most prestigious race on the planet, the Tour de France. He used to win stages on the biggest cycling races, you couldn't miss him on the finishing line mostly in the pink-white colors of the T-Mobile team. The Czech cycling fans saw him winning the big brother of this race, the famous Course de la Paix. Although he is now adviser to the ProTour team HTC-Highroad, last week you could see him downtown Litomerice or even on his bike on the roads in the region. The former excellent sprinter Erik Zabel came to watch his son, Rick, competing as member of the German national team at the 40th edition of the Course de la Paix Juniors. Moreover, this smiling and sill fit guy was not only just enjoying his stay, he was even decorating the winners of some of the stages. You could tell the young riders were trully enjoying the moments.

The danish rider Magnus Nielsen made it. He was the only one in this years 40th edition of the race to keep the yellow jersey for more than one stage and that meant for him first place overall. The man in yellow was not absent in the final group sprint in Terezin, where the fastest was Danny Van Poppel from the Netherlands.

"I'm so happy, it is unbelievable. Of course the only thing I wished for was to be able to keep the yellow jersey. I know it changed its owner after each stage, but I hoped I could make it. Again I could rely on my legs, in this hard stage they stood the brunt. It was beautiful, but very difficult race with many surprises, namely the challenging climbs. Therefore I'm glad it was me to be victorious in the end, but I have to thank my team mates, who helped me a lot," said after the finish the happy Dane Magnus Nielsen, who is actually a student of cycling mechanics in his home country.

Ani Dán s pohádkovým jménem Andersen neprolomil letošní prokletí, že žádný z cyklistů 40. ročníku Závodu míru juniorů nedokázal jet ve žlutém trikotu lídra déle než jedinou etapu. V cíli německého Altenbergu ho o vůdčí pozici připravil jeho reprezentační kolega Magnus Nielsen, který do cíle přijel osamocen jako vítěz. Na třetím místě jen kousek za ním cílovou pásku protnul český jezdec Vojtěch Nipl.

Tak ani Holanďan Danny Van Poppel nedokázal zlomit letošní prokletí držitelů žlutého trikotu a sám musel po odpolední roudnické etapě vedoucí dres odevzdat. Dosud totiž žádný lídr průběžného hodnocení nezůstal ve žlutém déle než jedinou etapu. Novým lídrem je teď totiž Dán s typickým jménem Andersen.