AJ August (Netcompany-Ineos) made it back-to-back victories at the Czech Tour, taking out the hilltop finish on stage 3 to extend his overall lead.
Wearing the yellow jersey after his victory on Saturday’s stage 2 summit finish, the 20-year-old American decided that attack was the best form of defense and put himself in a strong position to clinch the overall title on Sunday.
With the stage finishing atop the category-1 climb at Dlouhé stráně, August outsprinted Alessandro Fancellu (MBH Bank CSB Telecom Fort) – who was also the runner-up the previous day – to the line.
In a repeat of the stage 2 podium, Domenico Pozzovivo (Solution Tech Nippo Rali) was third, trailing home several seconds down.
The stage came down to the final climb, which was relatively shallow until the steeper pitches in the final couple of kilometers. Ineos rode strongly to keep attacks under wraps until the final 2km, whereupon August decided to take matters into his own hands.
His first acceleration thinned the group to several riders, and his secondary kick reduced it to just the top three from the previous day. Pozzovivo was dropped briefly before getting back on as the finish line neared, but when August opened up the sprint he was gone again.
Fancellu put up a strong fight once again but couldn’t match August’s power and trailed home one second down.
With bonus seconds taken into account, August extends his overall lead from six seconds to 11 seconds over Fancellu, with Pozzovivo third at 23 seconds.
The race is still far from settled, however, with another hill-top finish to conclude the Czech Tour on Sunday.
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