The men of Kometa Cycling Team for the overall face the decisive arrival at the hermitage of St. Lucia
70th Vuelta a la Comunitat Valenciana
Stage 4: Vila-Real – Ermita de Santa Lucía (188 km)
Hard day this Saturday in the Vuelta a la Comunitat Valenciana, a stage called to decide the final general with the goal located in the demanding ascent of the hermitage of Santa Lucia and a complicated route through the interior of the province of Castellón without just a meter of respite. The British Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) won in this fourth fraction of the Levantine race, while Ion Izagirre (Astana) rose to the lead. The two tricks of the team to make a good general, the Sevillian Juan Pedro Lopez and Luxembourg Michel Ries, curdled good performances, more if possible by the competition of many WorldTour formations interests.
The andalusian López finished 30th, 1:19 behind Adam Yates. Ries, for his part, finished ten places further back in the 40th position, 1:31 behind the winner in the queen stage of the race. Further back, 2:42 from his team-mates, and in the 60th place, Italian Stefano Oldani crossed the finish line. For Lopez, the development of the fourth stage allows him to make a new leap in the general standings, where he is already in the top-30 (29th, 2:26), being the fourth U23 rider in the standings.
Again the riders of the Kometa Cycling Team sought to be part of the good breakaway of the day, a fight in which there were many unsuccessful attempts. The escape took a long time to form and even a first attempt that seemed to have triumphed was neutralized by Burgos-BH in defense of their interests in the mountain classification. Diego Pablo Sevilla, Juan Camacho, José Antonio García and Stefano Oldani were involved in this search for escape, again unsuccessful and a prelude to intense work in favor of their leaders.
“I’m very happy with the sensations I’ve had”, explains Juan Pedro López. “I’ve given everything. The team has worked very well, although it wasn’t easy because the WorldTour structures didn’t let us pass in front of the final climb, to be able to start as high as possible. So in the end I had to come back”.
The Vuelta a la Comunitat Valenciana ends this Sunday with an 88.5-kilometre stage between Paterna and the capital Valencia, where the riders will have to face five laps of a seven-kilometre urban circuit. A day of pleasant memories for the structure of the Kometa Cycling Team, as in 2018 the Italian Michele Gazzoli signed an interesting eleventh stage in this sprint.
(automatic translation, sorry for mistakes)
