Great performance of the Kometa Cycling Team in Ordizia and outstanding ninth place final Isaac Cantón
96th Villafranca Race – Ordiziako Klasika
Ordizia-Ordizia (165.7 km)
The manchego Isaac Cantón, with a ninth final place in the finish line located in the Gudarien Etorbidea, made a new top ten for the Madrid continental team this season, and already have 44. The rider from Argamasilla de Alba, with his best result of the season, put a good end to a very relevant day for the Kometa Cycling Team in the routes of the Dekana, with the team very active both in the search for escape and in protecting their tricks to try to fight for victory.
Diego Pablo Sevilla from Madrid was the first to give presence to the formation of the Alberto Contador Foundation taking a cut of nine cyclists, finally seven, which opened the race for much of the day. The seven runaways never got more than three minutes with respect to a platoon in which the worldtour teams and continental professionals Movistar, Euskadi-Murias and Caja Rural did not fail to mark a strong rhythm that kept it in line. A work that really had the difference of the leak more time near to the minute and a half.
“The truth is that it has been a pity, we have not been able to take much time at any time, although we have collaborated very well. In front of us we were aware that they were controlling us in a minute and a little, but you want that you don’t keep squeezing, you keep fighting”, adds Diego Pablo Sevilla. “I’ve been all day with a pulse, I think that the heat and the lack of competition from the Nationals could have affected me in terms of rhythm, in the end I was almost feeling better.
The break would finally be hunted after the first ascent to Altzo, which would give way to a phase of the race in which Movistar took the initiative with several attacks through their runners Hector Carretero, Ruben Fernandez (giving continuity to a first attack of the Portuguese Joao Fernandes, W52-Porto) and finally in the last climb to Abaltzisketa, Rafa Valls. The penultimate climb had selected a lot of the race, within the dynamics of elimination that always have the climbs in this test, leaving thirty runners in the vanguard with 30 kilometers to travel. The Hungarian Márton Dina and Isaac Cantón rode among them and did not hesitate to do it in the first positions.
In the last pass through Abaltzisketa the Alicante Valls launched an attack that allowed him to crown with a score of seconds on five runners who managed to hold up to the finish line. Jesús del Pino (Vito-Feirense) and Juan Antonio López-Cozar (Euskadi-Murias) would complete the podium in this chasing group that ended up growing with the arrival of more cyclists, among them Cantón. Márton Dina finished 17th, 1:26 from the winner. Juan Camacho, Michel Ries and José Antonio García arrived in a small group at 11:31.
“Congratulations to Diego because he has done a sensational job and has allowed the rest of the team to go much more relaxed. As the kilometres went by I felt better. In the last lap maybe I lacked a little confidence. But in the end we managed to catch the five who were ahead chasing Valls practically on the finish straight. I couldn’t do anything else in the group sprint”, explains Isaac Cantón about his Thursday.
Jesús Hernández, director of the Kometa Cycling Team: “It has been a good day for our team in this race. Diego has given us presence in the breakaway and both Isaac and Michel have been until the end in the group from which the victory was going to come. Ordizia is a test that is always very hard and this year it has been a little more because of the heat. But the team continues to show its progression and has much more confidence after the good results of Aosta. Last night, in a joking tone, I motivated the boys with a first objective for the race: to improve what the director has done here. And I reminded them that in 2006, running with Relax, I finished here fifth. Isaac picked up that glove and was close to it. In a few days the Getxo Circuit arrives and we are confident that the dynamic will be repeated”.
(automatic translation, sorry for mistakes)
? Mertxe Labrador
