Winning Weekend for Team BikeExchange-Jayco!

Sunday, May 29, 2022

It was a winning weekend for both the men’s and women’s squads of Team BikeExchange-Jayco. On the women’s side, the team dominated the LOTTO Thüringen Ladies Tour, led by Alex Manly’s overall win in the six-day German stage race. On the men’s side, Matteo Sobrero put the finishing touches on the Giro d’Italia for Team BikeExchange-Jayco, giving the team its third stage win in the three-week grand tour.

Manly wrapped up the successful showing by her team in Germany with a win in Sunday’s final stage, a 104km race that started and finished in Altenburg. With three stage wins already heading into Sunday, Manly and her teammates were focused on defending her overall lead. They worked hard to control the race during the final stage, covering numerous attacks to keep their leader in position to take the win.  
 
After a flurry of early moves, a small group finally went off the front with 65km to go. The team was represented in the break by Teniel Campbell. That group was eventually reeled in, setting up a battle on the uphill finish to the line. In the final kilometers, Manly timed her attack perfectly, launching her move on her Liv Langma Advanced SL Disc with a CADEX Road WheelSystem.
 
“The girls rode on the front all day, they controlled the race, and I just got to sit and be patient and go for it on the final climb into the finish,” Manly said. “I always had the confidence [in our ability to do it], but in a bike race you never know what’s going to happen. I was really just trying to stay focused and keep switched on so that I didn’t crash or do something silly.”
 
The team was dominant throughout the week, winning five of six stages. In addition to Manly’s four stage wins, her teammate Georgia Baker won Stage 2, her first UCI road win.
 
“Our main goal was to keep Alex in the yellow jersey, so a stage win is a bonus,” Baker said after that win. “There are a lot of strong riders here, so we had to work really hard to bring back the breakaways.”
 
Sobrero Wins Giro Final Stage
 
While the women’s team was celebrating their wins in Germany, the men’s team was in Italy for the final stage of the 105th Giro d’Italia. Italian time trial champion Matteo Sobrero gave the home fans something to cheer for when he won the 17.4km race against the clock in Verona. It was the 25-year-old’s first ever grand tour stage win.
 
Riding his Giant Trinity Advanced Pro TT machine with a CADEX Aero WheelSystem, Sobrero blitzed the 17.4km course to post a time of 22:24. Wearing his national time trial champion’s skinsuit, the Italian showed his strength against the clock, flying up the Torricella Massimiliana, a category 4 climb, and down the 5km descent before the flat run in to the finish.
 
“It’s an amazing feeling,” Sobrero said after the win. “I put the finish line on the top of the climb, said I’d give everything until there, then descend and whatever is left I give at the end. We did really hard work in the winter with our partners, with Giant, CADEX, Alé Cycling, and this is the result. All the work paid off.”
 
Sobrero’s win added to the two other stage wins by Simon Yates. The Brit won the first time trial of the three-week grand tour on the opening weekend, and took another victory on Stage 14 in Turin. Yates later had to abandon the race on Stage 17 after suffering knee issues from a crash earlier in the race.
 
“To finish off with Matteo taking his first WorldTour win, at home, as the Italian time trial champion, is the icing on what has been a really up and down month,” said the team’s head sport director Matt White. “We came here obviously with very big ambitions to try and win the Giro, which had to change when Simon’s injury got too much. We changed our tack and walked away with two more stage wins after Simon’s brilliant time trial in Budapest.”
 

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