🥇@PelloBilbao1990 wins stage 2 of @Tourof_TheAlps He also moves into the overall lead! Fantastic team performance👊 #RideAsOne
After a runner-up spot on the opening day, Pello Bilbao has gotten the stage win that Bahrain - Victorious worked so hard for today at the Tour of the Alps, as they also take control of the race after a collectively dominant performance.
“We knew it would be more difficult at the beginning than at the end. But I didn't expect such action on the Passo Rolle. But we rode a good pace with every rider on the team," Bilbao said in a post-race interview. With an early attack on the slopes of the Passo Rolle including the likes of Miguel Ángel López, Pavel Sivakov and Michael Storer, Bahrain was put under serious pressure as the gap rose to over three minutes before the ascent to the Passo Mendola.
Together with AG2R Citröen Team though, the team was able to eventually work their way to close the gap, with Santiago Buitrago and Mikel Landa riding up the climb, Hermann Pernsteiner dropping back from the break to help, and Pello Bilbao storming down the final descent to close in on Sivakov and Storer who had up until that point resisted.
Bilbao added: "Everyone did their best. In the end we were still with four riders in such a small group and my teammates still put me off well. This should not go wrong. We have wasted a lot of energy, but we still have three important days ahead of us. We race every day like a classic and aim for a daily profit. Cycling is a team sport, that has been proven today. I needed every rider today to get this win."
In a group of 16 riders, Bilbao eventually took his second win of the season, in similar fashion to his first, taking a reduced group sprint, this time with relative ease: “It was nice that the team worked for me. There will certainly be times when I will work for them, I have always done that in the past. I'm in the best shape I've ever had. It is normal that we had to take our responsibility."
Bilbao will now eye to defend this lead all the way into Lienz, however he thinks of the coming month already where he will be a part of Bahrain's Giro d'Italia lineup: “Whether I think of the pink jersey in the Giro d'Italia? That would be a dream. It's a race I really love. It is a dream that I have yet to fulfill. But it won't be easy, because I'm good at regularity, but I'm not the best climber and I'm not the best time trialist," he concluded.
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