Alejandro Ropero, Diego Pablo Sevilla and Riccardo Verza show their talent in the Ribera
42nd Vuelta Ciclista a Burgos
Stage 4: Gumiel de Izán – Roa de Duero (163 km)
Flat stage ahead, last option for a massive finish and a lot of interest for a sprint where the fastest rider in your formation will no longer be able to get involved after leaving the race a day earlier. And why give up fighting? That’s what cycling is all about, in the end, where the weight of the categories, the budgets and the experience make themselves felt in the races. Fighting, persevering, groping. No complexes. Three cyclists of the Kometa-Xstra Cycling Team managed to catch the good break of this fourth fraction of the Burgos round, six cyclists; Alejandro Ropero, Diego Pablo Sevilla and Riccardo Verza were riding there.
Ropero, Sevilla and Verza were involved in their adventure together with Willy Smit (Burgos-BH), Txomin Juaristi (Fundación Euskadi) and Damiano Cima (Gazprom-Rusvelo). The six of them always shot with a little more than four minutes of margin over the peloton, at most. There was no room for relaxation if the breakaway was to continue at the front. In the break, given their superiority, the Kometa-Xstra Cycling Team riders carried the weight for many phases of the day.
“In the morning meeting we had talked about the fact that some of the riders of the team had to try to be in the break today and give continuity to the work of these days. Both Diego and Riccardo and I started out determined and in the end, it was just a matter of chance. We had a great time in the race. It was a wonderful experience”, says Alejandro Ropero from the finish line of Roa de Duero.
Within the last thirty kilometers, with the escape turned into a quintet by a crash of Txomin Juaristi and the peloton increased its march to approach below two minutes, in a phase in which the work of the runners directed by Jesus Hernandez was being more intense, both Ropero and Seville have demarrado and have formed a trio next to Cima. Ten kilometres later, with the main peloton at half a minute, Sevilla has tried again in solitary to continue giving visibility to the team.
“We have done a great work, the three of us, possibly we have thrown more than our runaway partners. In the last part we were talking about Diego and me trying to get some of the players off. When Diego went off with Ropero and Cima that move was achieved,” Verza adds.
Shortly after, Ropero caught up with him and the two companions, two riders trained in the sport structures of the Contador Foundation, took over to revitalize the escape until the race was 12 kilometers long. There they were neutralized and the preparations for a sprint marked by a fall in the last kilometer, on a slope, were reactivated, which the Irish Sam Bennett took advantage of to win slightly alone. Belgian Remco Evenepoel remains at the top of the general standings. Nice finish in Roa de Duero.
For Seville, although reflection of the great work of Ropero and Verza this Friday and of all the Kometa-Xstra Cycling Team in this Vuelta a Burgos, the prize of the combativeness. The second one that receives the continental formation in the Burgos round after Verza’s one in the second stage. “We wanted to be another day in the battle and we didn’t hesitate. The fight with the platoon was very difficult, but we had to fight it,” said the Madrid native.
The Vuelta a Burgos, perhaps the most special edition of all its history given the events that have convulsed our day by day in the last months with a great number of human losses and very painful situations, concludes this Saturday in the summit of the beautiful Lagunas de Neila after a stage of 150 kilometers in which also it will be necessary to face the Alto del Cerro, the Alto del Collado de Vilviestre and the Alto del Collado.
(automatic translation, sorry for mistakes)
? Tomás Alonso (1, 2, 3) y Captura Teledeporte (4)
