In the shadow of the Tour de France, Red Bull celebrates a double victory in Romania

The cycling world is captivated by the Tour de France, but other races are taking place elsewhere in Europe as well. In Romania, the Sibiu Cycling Tour has been playing out over the past few days. On the final day, it was a double celebration for Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe: Danny van Poppel won the final stage, and 19-year-old top talent Lorenzo Finn claimed the overall victory.

The Romanian 2.1 race had been the subject of much discussion just a day earlier, when a bear suddenly crossed the road in front of the leaders during the queen stage. In that queen stage, Finn ultimately managed to shake off Wout Poels. The Dutch rider from Unibet Rose Rockets finished second, effectively ensuring that the overall victory would go to the much younger Italian.

The final stage on day four was certainly not difficult, so Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe was expected to claim the overall victory anyway. Finn had no trouble during the 181-kilometer stage between the start and finish in Sibiu, and so the overall victory in the 2.1-category race marked the third professional win for the Italian, who is not yet 20 years old.

However, Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe was still hungry for victory, and with Van Poppel on the team—as well as the speedy Davide Donati (who recently won a stage at the Giro Next Gen, where he also took the points classification)—there were certainly still opportunities.

No sooner said than done, as the Austrian-German team controlled Tuesday’s stage and brought it to a sprint finish. There, they coolly pulled off the win: Van Poppel took it ahead of his cheering teammate Donati. Oded Kogut finished third in the day’s results for NSN.

All in all, Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe racked up four victories in Romania: two stage wins and Finn’s overall victory, plus Van Poppel’s stage win in the final stage. Those were victories 29 through 32 for the team, which will also be hoping to strike in the sprint with Jordi Meeus on Wednesday in the Tour de France.