First professional victory: Felix Engelhardt triumphs at Per Sempre Alfredo

Felix Engelhardt has been riding with the World Tour team since the start of 2023 Jayco-AlUla. Now he has achieved his first victory. The 22-year-old won the one-day race Per Sempre Alfredo in Italy ahead of Mark Stewart (Bolton Equities Black Spoke) and Anders Foldager (Biesse-Carrera). The hilly route of the race, which is named after Alfredo Martini (a famous Italian cyclist and trainer; editor's note) and is part of the UCI Europe Tour, led over 190 kilometres from Florence and Sesto Fiorentino.

Per Sempre Alfredo: Steinhauser also involved in the final

A seven-rider breakaway group dominated the race for a long time. They were caught again around 60 kilometres before the finish. The next to attack was the German Georg Steinhauser (EF Education EasyPost) with the Frenchman Alexis Guerin (Bingoal WB), but both were caught up again. Afterwards, Walter Calzoni (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team) and Brandon Rivera (Ineos Grenadiers) in the solo, but did not get away decisively.

How Felix Engelhardt experienced his first professional victory

The decision was ultimately made in the sprint of a leading group, in which Felix Engelhardt proved to be the fastest. The 22-year-old describes the finale on the homepage of his team Jayco-AlUla as follows: "I followed the train of the Bardiani team. They had perfect timing. I was even a bit too early, but I think everyone was too early, because in the last 50 metres everyone just rode sitting down and fought their way to the finish. In the end, I still had really good legs and it's great to win here."

Engelhardt's next race on the programme this week is the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali in Italy from Tuesday to Saturday. "I'm very grateful to the team and the guys for the chance they gave me today and I hope this is a good start for Coppi e Bartali," said Engelhardt.

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