Viegas secures the metas volantes and Fortunato advances
63rd Vuelta Ciclista a Asturias
Stage 2: Candás – Cangas del Narcea (200,5 km)
The Portuguese Daniel Viegas secured the lead in the classification of the metas volantes of the Vuelta a Asturias after taking the good breakaway of the second stage, a hard day with the climb to the Alto del Acebo with sixteen kilometres to go, and after crossing first the two existing ones in the course of this Saturday. A prize for the perseverance of Viegas, who fought for a breakaway that on this day took a long time to form and in whose search John Archibald and Diego Pablo Sevilla were also previously involved.
A movement of twelve riders finally managed to break the discipline of the peloton. The breakaway would arrive, more selected and with less than a minute’s margin over the group of favourites, up to the Alto del Acebo ramps. By then Viegas had already been caught by that vanguard of riders fighting for the general classification. It was the time for attacks. And also when the strongest air was blowing head-on.
In El Acebo, where Lorenzo Fortunato was riding alongside the leader, there were several offensives. On the descent, eight riders stood out, the eight who were playing for the victory. Spain’s Héctor Carretero won, while Colombia’s Nairo Quintana finished second and strengthened his lead in the provisional general classification. Shortly after the first eight riders came Lorenzo Fortunato, top-20 on Saturday at the finish (16º) and the first among the EOLO-KOMETA riders in the overall: 15º.
Daniel Viegas: “I’m very happy to have secured this classification definitively. After yesterday’s stage I had set myself the goal of keeping the jersey, because a podium is always a podium, that’s why I also tried to ride in the breakaway today. It wasn’t easy. It was a breakaway that was very hard to make, we spent a lot of energies. Once the twelve of us were gone, I saved all the strength I could, because there were teams with several representatives and they had the lead in the breakaway”.
Lorenzo Fortunato, fifteenth in the overall, 2’25” behind Quintana: “I finished El Acebo in the top seven or eight, 10 seconds behind Nairo Quintana. I had lost a bit of distance with him in the final part, in the dirt zone. Then came the descent, very fast, and I had a scare in one of the last corners. Looking ahead to Sunday, I have to finish in the top ten. I feel very good on the climbs, as I have never felt before in my life”.
The Asturian race concludes this Sunday with the finish on Monte Naranco. The stage, short, just over 125 kilometres, promises strong emotions due to the presence in the final part of the ascent to El Violeo, more than 3.5 kilometres of ascent with an average gradient of over 8% and ramps of over 15%, which is crowned just ten kilometres from the start of the final climb.
[ Mónica del Campo (1)]
[ PhotoGomezSport (2 y 3)]
