Alessandro Fancellu finishes his Vuelta a Navarra with a tenth place at the Estella finish line
58ª Vuelta a Navarra
Stage 5: Pamplona-Estella (100 km)
The final stage of the Vuelta a Navarra brought them to him. It was a short route, with several passes and some ambushes that did not score enough for the general mountain stage. The absolute classification, moreover, and if that wasn’t enough, was still quite open. And on the last day, a new change of leadership. And definitive. The Ecuadorian from the Caja Rural Jefferson Cepeda, arriving alone, achieved the double in Estella: the stage and the general stage. The Italian Alessandro Fancellu, making a great participation in the Navarrese round, rolled in the group of favorites and finished tenth in this last goal.
On the route between Pamplona and Estella the ‘kometa’ Arturo Grávalos fought during his first third to ride in the vanguard. The native of Navarre and adopted and resident from La Rioja was first integrated into a group of fourteen units that came to be formed there by kilometre 12. Neutralised, and after several more attempts, he would again catch a leak with six other cyclists some thirty kilometres later. They would never achieve more than half a minute of margin, since there were many interests behind and the race approached the chained of the climbs to Guirguillano and Lezaun. There many runners would play their tricks, among them the eventual winner.
Fancellu, attentive, would manage to integrate in a group of about twenty units that conformed several of the aspirants to the final general. The cyclist from Como again confirmed his good form, a physical condition that would have allowed him to finish much more ahead of the chained chain of misfortunes of the third day. Álex Martín, the Kometa Cycling Team’s trump card for the general classification, rode with the group of the leader until this Sunday, Gerard Armillas. The Catalan of the Kometa Cycling Team, supported by Grávalos (28th today) and Yago Segovia (30th), finished 33rd, 2:35 from the winner. In the general final he was the best classified: 15th, at 4:05.
“Saturday was a very hard stage and it was very hot. But I didn’t feel bad and in fact in the final climb I tried to attack, although I ran out of gas one kilometre from the finish line”, smiles Fancellu, twenty-third in the final classification. “Today we also had in front of us another very hard stage, but fortunately it was quite short. I felt very good again, although on the last steep slope I lost some positions that I couldn’t recover completely. Despite the mechanical incidents on Friday, I’m leaving happy for this very tough race. I arrived in this competition after a crash and I didn’t know what I could do and at final with a little more luck I could have do a good result in the overall standing”.
(automatic translation, sorry for mistakes)
