(Sportcom) – Nickolas Zokowsky felt fit for the fifth and final stage of the Denmark Cycling Tour on Saturday.
The athlete from Sainte-Lucie-des-Laurentides finished 24th (+35s) on the 127-kilometer stage between Give and Vejle. Zokowsky (Human Powered Health) believes he could have done better if he hadn’t been given a coveted canister before the finals that went well with his batting abilities.
“I’m happy with my result, but at the same time it’s a bit disappointing. I had an attack of tiredness in the last two kilometers. I never had the bottle in question and I didn’t have the energy on the last climb,” commented the Quebecer, who didn’t throw the stone at anyone and who believes it’s more of a communication error.
“I lost 30 seconds in less than a kilometer. It’s really disappointing because I felt great before and I was confident to get a good result to move up even more in the standings. It didn’t end exactly the way I wanted it to. […] It seems trivial, but in a race of this level you need all the energy you need to perform.
Pier-André Côté (Human Powered Health) and Guillaume Boivin (Israel – Premier Tech) finished 60th (+9min 6sec) and 87th (+14min 20sec) of the day respectively.
Christophe Laporte (Jumbo-Visma) won the fifth and final stage of the Tour, which also earned him first place overall thanks to a four-second advantage over the man who held the leader’s jersey earlier in the day. the American Magnus Sheffield (INEOS Grenadiers).
The latter gave it his all in the final 500m of the final climb as he elbowed Denmark’s Soren Kragh Andersen (DSM) into the final inside corner. The American was then alone in the lead of the course, only for the Frenchman to get stuck in his bike and be patient before starting his sprint.
Zukowsky finishes the Tour in 16th (+1min 27s), three places better, while Côté is 45th (+10min 17s) and Boivin 61st (+15min 34s).
The best Quebecer overall was part of the breakaway that started 100km from the finish. Anecdotally, he was even the virtual leader of the Tour for a while, but formations Jumbo-Visma and INEOS Grenadiers, who were targeted in the standings, kept the breakaways within 2 minutes of each other.
“It was super nervous and everyone knew it was going to be a really tough race today with the small roads, the wind and the hills. I took the opportunity (to hang the runaway). Being up front on a circuit like today (Sunday) wasn’t necessarily a bad deal,” concluded Zukowsky, who will pin another start number next Wednesday in Belgium at Druivenkoers – Overijse (1.1).
Pier-André Côté and Guillaume Boivin are also on the entry list.