Astana’s Ballerini is King of Mountain after breakaway hat-trick at Amgen Tour of California Stage 7
"My first goal of this Amgen Tour of California was to win a stage, and I tried everything to achieve this. I was in the breakaway for three times, but every time the bunch was chasing so hard that we didn't make it to the finish line. In the end, I gained so many KOM points that it became a goal as well to win the jersey, and so now I'm happy to be the winner of the King of the Mountain classification. It's nice to win this polka dot jersey, as I'm more a sprinter than a climber. I'm still a bit disappointed that I was not able to win a stage for my team, but I think we can look back on a good Tour of California where we went all out to achieve a result," said Davide Ballerini.
"The guys did a good job this week, it was a chance for our young riders to gain experience and to race for a good result. Everyone tried his best and in the end, we won the KOM classification with Davide Ballerini. Four our more experienced riders this was a race to get into the rhythm for the upcoming European races. Overall, we can be happy with the performance. Of course, we would've liked to win a stage or to be in the top 10 of the GC, but the guys really tried everything they could, so we can only be satisfied with this," said sports director Dmitriy Fofonov.
The final stage of the Amgen Tour of California went from Santa Clarita to Pasadena, covering 126 kilometers and one categorized climb. Davide Ballerini went into the breakaway for the third time this week. The strong 12-men-breakaway was joined by a select group of GC riders who attacked at the only climb of the day. From this group, Ballerini attacked again in the final together with Kasper Asgreen. But also this breakaway didn't make it to the finish line, the stage was decided in a bunch sprint with Cees Bol being the fastest sprinter of the day. Tadej Pogacar won the Amgen Tour of California after his stage win yesterday, Davide Ballerini received the final KOM jersey as the King of the Mountain of this year's edition.
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