Jan Christen takes first professional victory at Abruzzo

• 19 year old seals stage and overall lead

Jan Christen took a thrilling first professional victory and moved into the leader’s jersey on stage 2 of the Giro d’Abruzzo after a daring attack with 6km to go.

The Swiss teen was aggressive on the run-in and the elastic finally snapped in closing kilometres between PratolaAlanno and Magliano de’ Marsi (162km). The first year professional savoured the victory though acknowledged afterwards he would be focussing on team duties for the remainder of the week with team leader Adam Yates.

Christen: “It was my goal to win a pro race and I’m delighted I did today, before I turn 20. We had a good plan with the team, and everything went quite well. We set up a good pace from the bottom of the last climb.

Then it was my turn to attack, but Lutsenko rode behind. It was a bit crazy after that. I wanted to attack again in the downhill and it went well. With 2 kilometres to go, I realised I was going to win.

With the team, we said today is my stage. We did super good. Tomorrow we’ll go with Adam Yates for the GC and I will give my best for him to win Il Giro d’Abruzzo overall.“

There was further success in Belgium as Tim Wellens took a third place podium at De Brabantse Pijl as the Ardennes racing gets underway.

The decisive move was made with 33 kilometres to go on the steep Moskesstraat climb, where former winner Wellens reacted to a move by Dylan Teuns (Israel Premier Tech) and Marijn van den Berg (EF Education-EasyPost).

The trio would later be joined by Benoit Cosnefroy (Decathlon AG2R) who would go on to prove fastest in the uphill dash to the line with Wellens forced to settle for 3rd.

Wellens : “It’s a race I really like and our plan was to be in the mix when the race opened up on the final laps. The tried to attack on the last climb as I knew there were some fast guys left. I couldn’t get away so had to settle for 3rd today. I’m happy with my race and also the first part of the season so far – it’s all going in the right direction. Now I’ll take a bit of rest and looking forward to building up to the next big objectives in the summer.”

Giro d’Abruzzo stage results & GC

1.Jan Christen (UAE Team Emirates) 4:05:10

2.Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) +16”

3.Thomas Pesenti (UKYO) s.t

De Brabantse Pijl results

1.Benoit Cosnefroy (Decathlon AG2R) 4:17:02

2.Dylan Teuns (Israel Premier Tech) s.t

3.Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates) s.t