Czechmate.

I knew Roman Kreuzinger could throw down. After all, he did win the Tour de Suisse and have the misfortune of being Edvald Boasson-Hagen’s breakaway buddy at E3. It was Wevelgem and Kreuziger’s teammate Kuschynski. But in yesterday’s stage at Romandie, he simply walked away from the race favorites and took the win.

Maybe you could argue that all the big names were marking each other. Maybe you could argue that the inept descending of his pursuers let him off the hook. Maybe everyone was still “honing form” rather than looking for the win. There’s any number of excuses you could make, but I don’t see any that make it less impressive.

The Czech Republic isn’t historically a cycling powerhouse—Jan Svorada won a couple races back in the 90’s, and Ondrej Sosenka holds the current hour record—but two Czech riders, each under the age of 25, held the leader’s jersey at this past Romandie. Nice to see some young racers doing well whose last name isn’t Schleck.