First UCI points for our team thanks to Marek Čanecký's performance
CK Banská Bystrica participated in the toughest road stage race on African soil for the first time as a complete team.
10 demanding and long stages totaling about 1600 km awaited some 100 riders from Holland, Germany, Poland, Danemark, Slovakia, Libya, Alegia, USA, France, Great Britain and Egypt. Only 70 riders made it to the finish line on the final race day. The arduous weather conditions, with three stages ridden in less than 10 deg. C, strong wind and heavy rain made the race even more demanding.
Despite the lack of race kilometers due to bad weather conditions during all the winter and spring months this year, Slovak riders did achieve excellent results. It was mostly the national team riders achieving podium placings, but also our Marek Čanecký managed to complete the podium in the 3rd place when fighting for the stage victory in the fifth stage, acquiring his first UCI points this season. He managed to move up to 11th place in the General Classification. Unfortunatelly he did not start in the 8th stage due to severe stomach aches and problems. That was also the reason for our drop from 8th position in the Team Classification. In the end it was Lukáš Bátora who finished the best out of our riders, in 34th place in GC. All other team members completed all the stages and thus finished the race as a great preparation for the upcoming season.
The French Perget, last year's World Tour rider of AG2R, took the overall victory before the runner-up Maroš Kováč (Slovakia national team) and the ex-Champion of Asia and past Astana rider Andrej Mizurov from Kazachstan, member of a Turk team Torku Sekersport, third.
