Kristijan Đurasek

Kristijan Đurasek

Personal information
Full name	Kristijan Đurasek
Born	26 July 1987 Varaždin, Croatia
Height	1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)
Weight	56 kg (123 lb)
Team information
Current team	Lampre–Merida
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Professional team(s)
2006–2008	Perutnina Ptuj
2009–2011	Loborika
2012	Adria Mobil
2013–	Lampre–Merida
Major wins
Stage races Tour of Turkey (2015) Single-Day Races and Classics National Road Race Championship (2011) National Time Trial Championship (2011) Tre Valli Varesine (2013)
Infobox last updated on 5 May 2014

Kristijan Đurasek (born 26 July 1987) is a Croatian professional road bicycle racer. He has been competing since 2005, and currently rides for the UCI World Tour team Lampre–Merida.^[1][2] He represented Croatia at two Summer Olympics (in 2012 and 2016).

Professional career

Perutnina Ptuj (2006–2008)

Đurasek started racing for Slovenian continental team Perutnina Ptuj in 2006, but his professional career only started in 2008. At the time he did not have much success in international races. He competed for Perutnina Ptuj for three years during which he won five medals at the Croatian road cycling championships.

Loborika (2009–2011)

Đurasek signed a contract with Croatian continental team Loborika at the beginning of 2009.^[3] In 2011, he won his first UCI Europe Tour race at the GP Folignano. Two days later he repeated his success by winning the Trofeo Bastianelli.^[4] During those years he won three more medals at the Croatian road cycling championships including both national titles at the 2011 championships.

Adria Mobil (2012)

In 2012, Đurasek competed for continental team Adria Mobil. His most notable results were third place in the GP Industria & Artigianato di Larciano, seventh place in the Giro dell'Appennino and third place in the Passo della Bocchetta stage in the Giro di Padania. He competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics as a late replacement for Robert Kišerlovski, who was injured on the 14th stage of the Tour de France.^[5][6] He finished 68th in the road race, 40 seconds behind the race winner Alexander Vinokourov.

Lampre-Mérida (2013–)

At the end of the 2012 season, Đurasek signed a contract with Lampre–Merida for the 2013 season. As a result, he became the third Croatian cyclist ever to ride for a UCI ProTeam.^[1][7] His first UCI World Tour race was Paris–Nice, where he finished 80th overall. His first victory was in the Tre Valli Varesine on 23 August 2013. At the end of the 2013 season Đurasek competed at the World Championships in men's road race, but he failed to complete the race. He finished 7th overall at the 2014 Tour of Turkey, 45 seconds behind the race winner Adam Yates.

In 2015, Đurasek awarded himself the leader's jersey of the Tour of Turkey on the sixth stage featuring a hilltop finish, taking the lead from Davide Rebellin.^[8] He went on to win the race in the general classification, scoring a historic result for Croatian cycling.^[9] In the Tour de Suisse, he won the second stage by attacking a leading group of eight other riders, putting four seconds into them.^[10] He was named in the start list for the 2015 Vuelta a España.^[11]

In 2016, Đurasek competed at his second Summer Olympics. At the Games held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Đurasek finished 18th, more than 3 minutes behind the race winner Greg van Avermaet. As of 2016, 18th place is the best ever Croatian Olympic result across all cycling events. During that year he also took part at Tour de France and Vuelta a España.

Career achievements

Major results

2007

2nd, National Time Trial Championships

2008

3rd, National Road Race Championships

2009

2nd, Tour of Vojvodina International II

6th, GP Capodarco

7th, Trofeo Internazionale Bastianelli

10th Overall, Tour de Serbie

2010

2nd, Trofeo Internazionale Bastianelli

2nd, Tour of Vojvodina International II

3rd Overall, Oberösterreichrundfahrt

5th Overall, Giro del Friuli

8th, Trofeo G. Bianchin

10th, Banja Luka–Belgrade I

2011

1st National Road Race Championships

1st National Time Trial Championships

1st, GP Folignano

1st, Trofeo Internazionale Bastianelli

3rd Overall, Tour de Slovaquie

4th, Memoriał Henryka Łasaka

2012

2nd, National Road Race Championships

2nd, National Time Trial Championships

3rd, GP Industria & Artigianato di Larciano

7th, Giro dell'Appennino

8th, Banja Luka–Belgrade II

9th Overall, Giro di Padania

2013

1st, Tre Valli Varesine

2014

7th Overall, Tour of Turkey

2015

1st Overall, Tour of Turkey

1st Stage 2 Tour de Suisse

Grand Tour General Classification results timeline

Grand Tour	2013	2014	2015	2016
Giro	68	-	-	-
Tour	-	46	76	51
Vuelta	-	-	63	67

WD = Withdrew; IP = In Progress

References

1. "Durasek, first Croatian rider for Team Lampre". Lampre–ISD. New Master SRL. 9 November 2012. Retrieved 4 December 2012.
2. "Lampre-Merida (LAM) – ITA". UCI World Tour. Union Cycliste Internationale. Retrieved 6 January 2013.
3. "Rogina i Đurasek pristupili Loborici". BK-Loborika.hr (in Croatian). BK Loborika. 6 January 2006. Retrieved 2 January 2013.
4. "Đurasek ponovno pobjedio!" [Đurasek won again!]. BK-Loborika.hr (in Croatian). BK Loborika. 7 August 2011. Retrieved 2 January 2013.
5. "Hooligans throw tacks on race course, Kiserlovski crashes out". VeloNation. VeloNation LLC. 15 July 2012. Retrieved 2 January 2013.
6. "Umjesto ozlijeđenog Kišerlovskog u London putuje Đurasek" [Instead of the injured Kišerlovski, travelling to London is Đurasek]. Index.hr (in Croatian). Index. 20 July 2012. Retrieved 2 January 2013.
7. "Đurasek u Lampre ISD (Merida)" [Đurasek to Lampre ISD (Merida)]. HBS (in Croatian). Croatian Cycling Federation. 26 September 2012. Retrieved 29 September 2012.
8. "Tour of Turkey: Bilbao wins stage 6 in Selçuk". Cyclingnews.com. Future plc. 1 May 2015. Retrieved 1 May 2015.
9. Stephen Puddicombe (3 May 2015). "Durasek wins Tour of Turkey as Mas pips Cavendish on final stage". Cycling Weekly. IPC Media Sports & Leisure network. Retrieved 3 May 2015.
10. Richard Windsor (14 June 2015). "Geraint Thomas moves to second overall at Tour de Suisse as Kristijan Durasek takes stage". Cycling Weekly. IPC Media Sports & Leisure network. Retrieved 14 June 2015.
11. "Vuelta a España 2015". Cycling Fever. Retrieved 21 August 2015.

External links

• Kristijan Đurasek profile at Cycling Archives