At Umag many nerves, search for escape and the seventh top ten of the season
VII Trofej Umag / VII Umag Trophy
Umag-Umag (161 km)
Antonio Puppio, 19, finished in an outstanding eighth position this Wednesday in the Umag Trophy of cycling, the first of three races that the Kometa Cycling Team will compete in Croatian lands in the next few days. Puppio, junior time trial silver at the worlds in 2017, was involved in the dynamic sprint with which the race was resolved, a sprint where Czech veteran Alois Kankovsky (Elkov-Author) beat Italian Andrea Guardini (Bardiani), Norwegian Olav Hjemsaeter (Coop), also Italian Riccardo Stacchiotti (Giotti Victoria) and Slovenian Marko Kump (Adria Mobil), among others.
“It’s a good result, although personally I’m a little disappointed,” says Puppio about the seventh top ten signed this season by a rider from the Kometa Cycling Team. “I don’t think we’ve managed to make the most of our potential. In the last few meters Stefano Oldani and I were not close and we ended up a bit stuck in the final bustle,” he regrets. Puppio was preparing the finish for his team-mate, acting as a pitcher due to his wonderful body; he didn’t sprint. “No, I was only very close to the wheel of the other riders”, tells. Oldani finished eleventh.
As predicted, the seventh edition of the istria race was a closed preserve for the fast men, although there was no lack of breaks attempts and also a tension that resulted in not a few falls. The manchego Isaac Cantón tried to look for the break from the first compasses, protagonizing an attempt in the first laps to the circuit that hosted the Trophy that ended up being neutralized by the pack after a lap of scarcity. His countryman Juan Camacho was involved in a crash during the penultimate lap, an incident with no serious consequences, although with several blows and several bruises on the left side. Both made this double face of the evolutions of a day in which the last two laps, of the seven planned, were particularly intense after the neutralization of a duo that came to amass five minutes of margin.
“There were many nerves from the initial flag, so I took advantage of a small steep slope about fifteen kilometers from the start, or so, and left with another rider. We led the race for one lap. At least we tried. Viegas and I have been at the head of the pack for the last two laps. There were a lot of attacks from a lot of teams and we tried to keep some order”, explains Cantón, who with the work done let himself go within the last ten kilometres, although he only left a few seconds with the winner. Portugal’s Daniel Viegas, for his part, adds: “I’ve given it all working for the team and in that sense I’m happy. The sprint has been very nervous, like the whole race itself, with not a few falls from kilometer zero to the finish line.
This Saturday the Kometa Cycling Team will be one of the teams participating in a new edition of the Poreč Trophy, a race with much ‘more pepper’ for its finish line located on a steep slope.
(automatic translation, sorry for mistakes)
