After a long day in the breakaway, the Danish youngster was caught just before the finish line, but still managed to finish in second place.
When a race has already been won by cycling legends like Fabian Cancellara or Gianni Bugno, then this underlines its high importance. That is precisely the case with the "2 Giorni Internazionale di Vertova" which took place last weekend. The combination of two one-day races regularly attracts the best U19 cyclists in the world to northern Italy, with Team Auto Eder also sending a squad to this year's edition. Paul Fietzke (Germany), Theodor Clemmensen (Denmark), Krystof Král (Czech Republic), Nicolas Bialon (Switzerland) and Tamás Hancz (Hungary) met a top-class starting field with top athletes from all over Europe.
After Krystof Král finished tenth on the first day, the team showed its potential especially on the mountainous second stage. Theodor Clemmensen rode at the front for long stretches of the 134-kilometre race and was even able to break away as a soloist in the finale. Only shortly before the finish he was overtaken by the Belgian winner Jarno Widar, but still secured second place. Paul Fietzke rounded off the good team result in fifth place.
The next race for the young riders of WorldTeam BORA-hansgrohe will be the Swiss stage race "GP Rüebliland Juniors", which will take place from 8 to 10 September.
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"We can be very satisfied, especially with the second day. Unfortunately, we lacked the last bit of luck here to win the race. However, Theodor showed a very strong race and was able to prove his capabilities. The fact that he won the mountain, sprint and junior classification underlines his qualities. For the team, the weekend in Italy was a successful benchmark for our next race in Switzerland." – Florian Wallner, Sporting Director