A revitalised Vuelta a Murcia, the next challenge for the continental Kometa Cycling Team

39th Cycling Tour of Murcia
From 15 to 16 February

Perhaps the world title won by Alejandro Valverde from Murcia has been the definitive impulse for the longing to recover days of competition, but the truth is that the Vuelta a Murcia, the next sporting challenge of the continental Kometa Cycling Team, between these next Friday and Saturday, finally increases in race days for this year. After being reduced to a one-day race since its 2013 edition, the 39th Vuelta Ciclista a la Región de Murcia recovers old energy to return to two stages. An edition in which up to six WorldTour formations will take the start.

The group from Madrid goes to the roads of the Region of Murcia with a seven that has three riders who come from the Vuelta a la Comunitat Valenciana as the Andalusians Juan Pedro López and José Antonio García and the manchego Juan Camacho. Also from La Mancha, Isaac Cantón, the Portuguese Daniel Viegas and the Italians Antonio Puppio and Samuele Rubino complete the team. For the last three, in addition, this Vuelta a Murcia will have a special point, since they are making their debut in professional cycling.

“After having worked very hard this preseason, I’m really looking forward to the races. I’m really looking forward to going back to the competition and being able to put all the work we’ve done so far into the road. I hope to do a great Vuelta a Murcia, a race that is going to be very hard. I’m confident that I can do very well”, says Isaac Cantón from La Mancha about what will be his first race this year. The Italian neoprofesional Antonio Puppio debuts in the category on the roads of Murcia. “I feel good,” he says. Are you nervous two days earlier? “No, the truth is that I’m very calm. But I’m really looking forward to it, of course”.

On Friday, the riders will reach San Javier after a stage of almost 189 kilometres that invites escapes and seduces the fast men, although the passage through the Alto del Cabezo de Plata 34 km from the end can make things easier for adventurers than for sprinters. On Saturday, the chained Alto de Aledo and Collado Bermejo and the subsequent ascent of the Cresta del Gallo, with its summit twelve kilometres from the finish line in the Gran Vía Escultor Salzillo, promises a great spectacle.

Stages.
15 February: Yecla – San Javier (188.8 km).
16 February: Beniel – Murcia (177.3 km).

(automatic translation, sorry for mistakes)