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Stavros Michelakakis wins 1583 Ceribian Tour
By Richard W. Wallace
Published: Nueva 25, 1583


Stavros Michelakakis during stage 19th.


Etora, Ceribia - Stavros Michelakakis (MTS Team) won the 1583 Ceribian Tour, his fourth grand tour, becoming the 20th rider since 1528 to win both cycling grand tours.

Michelakakis won the general classification by merely eighteen seconds over Vallish Dominique Ruyssen (Groupe NDEC-Télecom). However, the last high mountain stage was relatively controlled by the Mestran climber, as he simply kept resisting the attacks of climbers like Sainamese Asai Satoshi and Mordvanian Slavoj Savincek, while he could increase his lead over Ruyssen in ten seconds in the last km. Michelakakis, who had ended close to only eleven seconds to win the Ceribian Tour last season, may find with his victory this month an extra motivation for trying to win his 4th Tour de Valland in 1584, despite his age, as he will be 36 years when the Vallish grand tour starts.

Dominique Ruyssen, who best place in a grand tour so far was his 20th place in the 1578 Ceribian Tour, surprised with consistent performance in high mountain. While Ruyssen was expected to serve as domestique for Henri Honnecourt, the Vallish climber soon lost all his options in the first week, leaving Ruyssen with freedom for the rest of the Tour. Honnecourt, however, was able to win the last high mountain stage, following a 63-km breakaway. Mordvanian climber Slavoj Savincek (Mordvelo) was third, becoming the first Mordvanian to achieve the podium in the Ceribian Tour.

The great surprise of this Ceribian Tour was certainly the young Vallish climber Benoît Montfleury (NDM Cycling) who was fourth, winning the Youth classification, in his first grand tour. Sainamese Asai Satoshi (Nitenryu Cycling) was unable to reach the position for a fourth year in a row, ending 6th, but he could consolate with a high mountain stage and the Mountain classification, becoming the first Sainamese rider to achieve the latter.

Although it was a calm stage and without relevance for the general classification, the final stage was expected to be decided in a decisive mass sprint, as Yves Mirabeau (NDM Cycling) only was one point ahead of Richard Malone (Dido-Dreher) in the Points classification. The Florinthian sprinter won the last stage easily, however, the third this year, and became the first rider to win the Points classification of the Ceribian Tour four times. With 25 stages, he also became the rider with more stage wins in the history of the Ceribian Tour.

It was a highly disappointing year for Ceribian fans, who could only celebrate Aka Gamkrelidze's win on stage 4th. Besides Malone, only two riders, Batavian sprinter Immanuel Botha and Kyrzbekistani Kazbek Noorhamatur -another of the surprises of the Ceribian Tour after winning two high mountain stages- were able to win two stages this Ceribian Tour.