XDS Astana's Ivan Smirnov sprints to victory at Popolarissima

The 174.7 km race took place in Treviso, in northern Italy. For Ivan Smirnov it was the first race of the season.

“This was my first race of the season, and it was vital for me to start the year with a good result which fortunately I managed to achieve today. The team entrusted me with the leader’s role and I had to justify their confidence in me. We developed a race plan and stuck to it throughout the race. I am grateful for my teammates for their efforts, everyone did their part today. This is a shared victory and a great start to an important and long season for our team”, — said Ivan Smirnov.

“This race is perfectly suited for sprinters, 175 kilometers of completely flat terrain. Ivan was our leader for today and was fully committed to fight for the victory. The guys did a great job today, though unfortunately, we had some crashes, Ludovico (Mellano) and Alessio (Delle Vedove) were involved in crashes and couldn’t help in the final. So, for the final sprint we had Lev (Gonov) and Ivan Smirnov, and they executed everything perfectly to achieve this victory”, — added Sergey Yakovlev, Sports Director of XDS Astana Team.

Another team rider Lev Gonov clinched a podium finishing third.

As written before, XDS Astana's Champoussin took second, Tejada was fourth in Paris-Nice Stage 5.