🎥 Meanwhile, in Romania: Lorenzo Finn had to deal with Wout Poels and a wayward bear in his path!

It's not just the Tour de France is capturing our attention right now. There is racing going on in Romania as well. Alongside the Tour de France, the Sibiu Cycling Tour is taking place. It’s a four-day race with five stages, and this Monday was the penultimate stage, a grueling mountain stage. Lorenzo Finn beat Wout Poels, but along the way, the favorites had to watch out for a bear crossing the road.

Finn had taken the lead after three stages. Two stages were held on the first day: after a road race, which was won by surprise breakaway rider Matias Malmberg, the short time trial (3.2 kilometers) was won by Julius Johansen. He was two seconds faster than his teammate Ivo Oliveira and six seconds faster than Michiel Mouris (Unibet Rose Rockets).

The next day brought a grueling mountain stage right off the bat. The race to Paltinis Arena looked set to be a battle between UAE Team Emirates-XRG and Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe: both teams had very young team leaders in Pablo Torres and Finn. But the Italian, who had recently won the Giro Next Gen, was simply too strong for his Spanish colleague.

Finn broke away early on the climb and crossed the finish line solo, though Byron Munton (Modern Adventure Pro Cycling) did come close. Behind him, Wout Poels, one of the pre-race favorites, had a somewhat disappointing result, finishing in 16th place, 1.29 minutes behind the young winner. A day later, however, he was able to redeem himself on the stunning climb to Balea Lac.

It was a very long climb: no less than 27 kilometers, with an average gradient of just over six percent. Munton, who had been right on Finn’s heels, launched an early attack there, while Poels found his legs and tried to catch up with Mark Donovan (Pinarello Q36.5). At that moment, the two front-runners were startled by a bear crossing the road. A moment later, the chasers also saw the young animal bound happily past. That will have raised his heart rate!

Poels and Donovan later caught up with the two men in the lead and battled it out for the win. Poels was strong, but there was one rider who was stronger: Finn, wearing the leader’s jersey, claimed his second victory and seemed to secure his overall win. Poels finished second by about ten seconds and moved up to fourth place in the general classification.