“The team has been at a great level with riders who will be fighting to win the Tour in a few weeks”
32º Tour de l´Ain
Stage 3: Saint-Vulbas -Grand Colombier (143,1 km)
On the queen’s stage, at the top of the Grand Colombier, the riders are practically one by one. Hungary’s Márton Dina crossed the finish line alone, in 32nd place, a few seconds behind Chris Froome, 12:37 behind the stage winner and overall winner, Slovenia’s Primoz Roglic. Dina, who started with the objective of fighting for a good overall classification, finished this edition of the Tour de l’Ain among the twenty-five best riders. The Budapest native finished 25th, 17:54 from Roglic, and was the spearhead of a good group performance by the Contador Foundation’s continental team.
On the demanding route to the top of Gran Colombier, the first part was favourable and the second very complicated, with three ascents of the Jura Massif in chains. The Kometa-Xstra Cycling Team tried to catch the break of the day, a very hard fought escape that tried to be formed. It was around kilometre 45 that eleven riders, all from WorldTour formations, stood out at the head of the race. The breakaway would come, with its alternatives and its thinnings, to the final climb. Facing the Gran Colombier, the race had come to a head with the pulse of Team Ineos and Jumbo-Visma. The passage by the Col de La Biche made a great selection in a leading group where no member of the Kometa-Xstra was riding.
“It was a really hard stage. Very, very hard”, smiles Márton Dina. “I’m not very happy with the final result, but I think the performance was good. We all knew that this was the same route as the Tour de France stage and that we are competing at the highest level. I am sorry that yesterday and this Sunday it was a little bit short for me to be at the front, but I am sure that in one or two years I will be ready to do it. You can’t play for the victory at this level, but you can follow them until the last kilometers. My performance is good and I even notice the difference from last week in Burgos”.
Jesús Hernández, director of the Kometa-Xstra Cycling Team: “We leave very satisfied of this new participation in the Tour de l’Ain, with the pleasant surprise of seeing the evolution of Erik Fetter and if anything with the bad taste of not being able to see Sergio in action in a very hard stage. The team has been at a great level in a race with some of the best riders in the world, with riders who will be fighting to win the Tour de France in a few weeks. We have been a continental formation that on the first day has demonstrated its ability to read the development of the final and that in the two hardest days has been at the forefront of its category against the WorldTour. They are working very well. This has to make us look at the next races with a lot of optimism”.
(automatic translation, sorry for mistakes)
? Tour de l ´Ain
