On a day when one wet corner saw so many teams crash in the TTT in Croatia, David McQuaid's squad held firm and has the yellow jersey with just one day to go.
Having taken the race lead against WorldTour opposition at the Tour of Croatia’s stage 4 summit finish on Friday, David McQuaid's Synergy Baku has held top spot after Saturday's team time trial.
Its man Matija Kvasina leads by 32 seconds from Jesper Hansen, whose Tinkoff team won the 40.3km team test stage 5.
They beat Gazprom-Rusvelo by 4 seconds, with CCC Sprandi Polkowice a further six seconds down and Synergy Baku in 4th at 31 seconds.
The stage into Umag was characterised by some very heavy rain, with one corner seeing riders from several teams crashing and slipping down the tarmac on their backsides.
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Synergy Baku's Kirill Pozdnyakov was one of the fallers, though he was quickly back up and on his bike again.
Kvasina delighted on the podium in front of his home crowd. He is on the cusp of a huge achievement for David McQuaid's Synergy Baku.
And while Kvasina held the race lead in what is his home tour, Pozdnyakov is also 8th overall.
And the squad is leading the team classification with just one stage remaining, which is expected to be a bunch sprint.
The performance by Synergy Baku is put into perspective when one considers it is a Continental level team competing against top outfits including Trek-Segafredo, Dimension Data, Astana and Tinkoff.
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“This is a dream come true; Synergy Baku has proven what our small well-played team is capable of doing,” said Kvasina.
“Millions of thanks to all my teammates and to our sponsors for giving us the chance to be here. It is one winner but there was great work done by the whole team, both riders and staff.”
“Let’s now survive the last stage and then we can enjoy it a little bit, but with our whole focus on the Tour d’ Azerbaijan.”
“I really don’t have words,” said team director Andrej Hauptman, “perfect performance, great job. I’m proud of our riders and staff.”
The team is backed by Azerbaijan, with Wicklow man McQuaid the general manager.
He is the main figure who put the squad together and has grown it in the last couple of seasons, and winnig this race would be a massive step forward for them.
One corner does all the damage
Ice skating or cycling? I couldn't tell today...
???#TourofCroatia pic.twitter.com/Wzb029aDoN— CyclingHub.tv (@CyclingHubTV) April 23, 2016
Stage 5: Poreč - Umag (TTT) 40.3km
1 Tinkoff 49mins 36secs
2 Gazprom-Rusvelo 0:00:04
3 CCC Sprandi Polkowice 0:00:10
4 Synergy Baku Cycling Project 0:00:31
5 ONE Pro Cycling 0:00:42
6 Veranda's Willems Cycling Team 0:00:58
7 Cyclingteam Join-S / De Rijke 0:01:13
8 Dimension Data 0:01:19
9 Adria Mobil 0:01:29
10 Verva ActiveJet Pro Cycling Team 0:02:00
11 Team WIGGINS 0:02:13
12 Trek-Segafredo 0:02:21
13 Team Felbermayr Simplon Wels 0:02:38
14 Cycling Academy Team 0:03:08
15 Team Novo Nordisk
16 Astana Pro Team 0:03:15
17 IAM Cycling 0:03:16
18 Meridiana Kamen Team 0:03:29
19 Androni Giocattoli - Sidermec 0:03:37
20 Radenska - Ljubljana 0:03:54
21 Bardiani CSF 0:04:00
General Classification
1 Matija Kvasina (Cro) Synergy Baku Cycling Project 19:43:58
2 Jesper Hansen (Den) Tinkoff Team 0:00:32
3 Víctor De La Parte (Spa) CCC Sprandi Polkowice
4 Felix Grosschartner (Aut) CCC Sprandi Polkowice 0:00:55
5 Radoslav Rogina (Cro) Adria Mobil 0:01:24
6 Domen Novak (Slo) Adria Mobil 0:01:55
7 Riccardo Zoidl (Aut) Trek-Segafredo 0:02:09
8 Kirill Pozdnyakov (Rus) Synergy Baku Cycling Project 0:02:19
9 Markus Eibegger (Aut) Team Felbermayr - Simplon Wels 0:03:40
10 Scott Davies (GBr) Team WIGGINS 0:03:46
11 Daniel Pearson (GBr) Team WIGGINS 0:03:58
12 Julian Arredondo (Col) Trek-Segafredo 0:04:00
13 Jordi Simon (Spa) Verva ActiveJet Pro Cycling Team 0:04:05
14 Richard Handley (GBr) ONE Pro Cycling 0:05:16
15 Maksym Averin (Aze) Synergy Baku Cycling Project 0:05:23
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