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The second stage of Cyprus Sunshine Cup saw another faces on the top spot. At Afxentia stage race opener in Macheras Forest Jaroslav Kulhavy (Cze) and Elisabeth Brandau (Ger) were taking the 7,4 kilometer time trial . Kulhavy was ahead of Emil Lindgren (Swe) and Jan Skarnitzl (Cze) while Brandau on rainy day was faster than Ekaterina Anoshina (Rus) and Janka Stevkova (Svk).
Unfortunately the weather conditions in Macheras Mountains went into cold and rainy. So most of the riders after the time trial were talking about the difficulties they had with the temperature of about eight degrees and the ground which was rideable but very slow.
Some favourites like Roel Paulissen (Bel/ Cannondale), Thomas Litscher (Swi/MiG) or Fabian Giger (Swi/Rabobank-Giant) were not able to do as good as they were expected.
“I was without power. I couldn’t perform, I couldn’t feel anything in the legs”, Paulissen explained. Litscher broke his derailleur.
The one who had not really a problem was Jaroslav Kulhavy. The Czech guy in his very first race showed a pretty good performance and beated Emil Lindgren (Swe/Rabobank-Giant) by 21,4 seconds while Sunshine-Cup leader Jan Skarnitzl (Dimp-Giant) as third (32,4 s behind Kulhavy) showed himself again strong. Russian Maxim Gogolev was placed on four ahead of the third Czech Jiri Friedl (Merida).
Jaroslav Kulhavy: I felt very good today and I’m really happy to start like this. The course was difficult with the mud. I have to correct my position on my new bike. It’s not perfect yet.
Emil Lindgren: I felt much better than last week. I had good legs and a really good feeling but not good enough for the win. I made a couple mistakes but I think everyone did so.
Jan Skarnitzl: I always do some cyclo cross races, so I’m used to such conditions. I think it was good. I had good legs and also good tires.
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