Armitt climbs well on final stage at Okolo Slovenska

Scottish climber Hamish Armitt continues to progress on his return to racing with Team Novo Nordisk, producing another solid performance on today’s queen stage of Okolo Slovenska

Armitt was part of a select group going into the final climb of Králova Hol’a before the front of the race split apart as the GC contenders battled it out.

Both Antonio Polga and teammate JuanJo Lopez were alive to potential moves at the start of the stage and when a large group of 18 riders split off the front they were both in there.

Their lead did not stretch past 1:00” and before long they were brought back by the peloton as the race settled into a kind of stalemate on the approach to the Hors Category final climb.

“Like I said on Thursday, I’ve been feeling better and better as the racing has gone on here in Slovakia,” said Armitt. “The team have been great and I’ve been able to ease myself and my body back into racing, it was good to be towards the front today but when they ramped up the pace at the start of the climb I knew I wasn’t in a place to be able to follow those moves just yet.”

The race exploded onto the climb with Cofidis setting a fast pace onto the low slopes and heavily reducing what was left of the peloton. Only the strongest climbers could hold on and Armitt settled into his rhythm and rode his own pace to the finish.

“It’s a nice climb, a hard climb. We had looked at it beforehand and knew in advance what to expect, both Antonio and JuanJo were in the big mice that went clear early on and once that move came back everybody kind of settled into tempo towards the start of the climb.

“There’s a bit of a gap now to Japan, but I’m happy with how this week has gone. To be back racing before the end of the season is great and I think that these last few days have done me the world of good. It should set me up nicely for this training block and then I hope to end the year on a high in Japan.”