Navardauskas sports Maglia Rosa jersey

RIGA - Lithuania’s Ramunas Navardauskas found himself at the center of the cycling world last week after briefly leading the marquee cycling event, the Giro d’Italia. Racing for the American-based Garmin-Barracuda professional cycling team, the 24-year-old up-and-coming Lithuanian became the first person in the history of Lithuanian cycling to adorn the famous Maglia Rosa jersey, which is awarded to the race leader at the end of each of the 21 stages that make up Italy’s national cycling race.

Aside from the yellow jersey worn by the overall race leader of the Tour de France, the pink Maglia Rosa jersey is arguably the most revered jersey in the world of cycling.
With this year’s tour opening on May 5 with an 8.7 km individual time trial, the reigning Lithuanian road racing champion was in his element, setting the day’s sixth quickest time to finish as the best positioned racer on his team, 22 seconds down on stage winner Taylor Phinney of the United States.

The next two stages saw the riders finish each day’s riding in a group, meaning that Navardauskas was able to maintain his position amongst the leading riders.
Following a rest day on May 8, it was on May 9 that Navardauskas was able to experience his moment in the spotlight as his team embarked on the 32.3 km team time trial. They rode to perfection, eclipsing the field to finish five seconds clear of Russian-based team, Katusha.

Meanwhile, race leader Phinney’s BMC racing team were nowhere to be seen amongst the fastest teams, only setting the tenth quickest time, which ultimately saw Phinney relinquish the Maglia Rosa to Navardauskas on account of Navardauskas being the leading Garmin-Barracuda rider going into the day’s stage.
“They were really strong today,” Navardauskas told cyclingnews.com in regards to his team, continuing to heap praise on them by adding, “everybody did a good job. I was so glad to stay with these guys, as I [was] tired in the last 10 kilometers. This jersey is a really big thing for me.”

In his second year riding for the professional American team, the two days wearing the Maglia Rosa is unquestionably the biggest achievement on the youngster’s resume to date. “I like this team. They have taken care of me last year and this year and brought me to good races. I did the Tour de France last year; I didn’t expect [Jonathan] Vaughters to bring me. This year I’m at the Giro, and it’s been a really good start for me up to now, although we’ll see how it is tomorrow,” Navardauskas was also quoted as saying on cyclingnews.com.

The following day the news continued to be good for Navardauskas, who finished safely inside the main peloton, five seconds adrift of a break-away group of 17 riders who sprinted it out for end-of-day line honors.
Despite finishing five seconds down, the Silale native had still done enough to maintain a five second gap over his closest rival, teammate Robert Hunter of South Africa. Other Baltic riders, who had been taking advantage of the bunched finishes which defined the opening stages, were Estonia’s Tanel Kangert and Latvia’s Gatis Smukulis, who were both less than a minute behind Navardauskas at the end of the fifth stage.

Riding for Astana Pro Team, Kangert was positioned in 24th spot, whilst Smukulis, riding for Katusha, was in 27th spot.
A day later on the sixth stage however, the nature of the race began to change as the tour headed into the hills for the first time. As expected, Navardauskas and the other specialist sprinters began to fade as the hill specialists and all-round riders began to dominate proceedings.

At the time of TBT going to print, Navardauskas had faded. His teammate, Ryder Hesjededal remains in second place. The tour continues to make its way through Italy until Sunday, May 27, when it comes to a conclusion with an individual time trial in Milan.