Even
as the Latvians were defeated by France in a hockey shootout in yesterday’s
IIHF Championship game, they avoided relegation to Division 1, sending Austria
instead. However the Latvian sports spotlight centers on California today,
where Stage 3 of the Amgen Tour of California ended yesterday with a solid 1st
place finish by Latvian cyclist Toms Skujiņš. Watch his winner's interview here.
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| Source here |
Along
with teammate Andžs
Flaksis, Toms is riding for the world-class Hincapie Racing Team. The cycling
team based right here in Greenville has a focus on road bicycle racing; they joined
the UCI Continental Tour in partnership with UCI ProTour team BMC Racing in
2012.
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| Source here |
In
Stage 3 yesterday Toms Skujiņš broke off with six other riders only to complete
a 55km solo ride to the finish, 32 seconds ahead of 2nd place. The
32-year old debuted in 2013, receiving the inaugural Cyclist of the Year award
presented by the Latvian Cycling Federation.
In recent
years cycling has seen a resurgence in popularity in Latvia. The most famous
might be Māris Štrombergs, who in 2008 won gold in Beijing, becoming the first and
only Olympic champion in BMX cycling as he won a repeat gold in 2012 in London.
Many of these athletes are competing in cycling events across the world; you
might remember last August when the 2014 Union Cycliste Internationale
Para-Cycling World Championships were in town and we hosted Latvian Oskars Gailišs.
And of course this year we’re excited to be cheering on Toms and Andžs, and we
will be following their progress today in Stage 4.
Here
is the play-by-play of yesterday’s win, straight from Toms’ blog: How the hell did that happen?
Hmm, interesting that they all have a "š" in their last name!!
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