19-year old Uijtdebroeks impresses in Italy

BORA - hansgrohe's upcoming talent Cian Uijtdebroeks has started his season in the Mallorca classics and has in the meantime showed his potential this past week with strong results at Per Sempre Alfredo and the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali.

After finishing a seventh place at the Italian classic, he moved on to the stage-race which Eddie Dunbar conquered. Uijtdebroeks did not finish the race after crashing on the final day, however he was sitting in seventh place in the overall after a string of Top10's in the harder stages and a consistent performance, whilst at the same time having the opportunity to lead the World Tour team.

Team DS Rolf Adag was in Italy last week keeping up with the development of the young Belgian, and guiding him through his first European stage-race as a pro: "It’s a pity that all the hard work of this week didn’t pay off at the end... The big disappointment was the crash of Cian. He had to change bike and was pushing too much when he tried to come back. Going into a roundabout he was simply too fast and crashed."

He concluded: "He is not hurt too much, but he suffers a lot at the moment because of the missed chance. I think it is a lesson in his development as a rider. For sure there is big potential, but there will be setbacks from time to time. That’s part of the game.”

Uijtdebroeks started this Sunday's GP Industria but did not finish the race. He is for the time being relying on an Italian calendar and is being steered away from World Tour racing for the time being, however he will likely be at the Tour of the Alps in the coming month where he will face a strong contingent of world-class climbers.