Fortunato, seventh on Monte Naranco; Viegas makes the final podium
63rd Vuelta Ciclista a Asturias
Stage 3: Cangas del Narcea – Monte Naranco (125, 3 km)
The Vuelta a Asturias came to a close this Sunday with the arrival at Monte Naranco, where the Frenchman Pierre Latour won, where the Colombian Nairo Quintana confirmed his victory in the general classification, where the Italian Lorenzo Fortunato fought to climb positions in the general classification and where the victory of the Portuguese Daniel Viegas in the classification of the ‘metas volantes’ materialised. Fortunato, in another great stage for him, finished seventh on Monte Naranco.
Fortunato had already predicted on the previous day that he was looking to finish in the top ten. The Italian, well protected by his team-mates, arrived in a good position at the decisive moment of the stage, the chain of climbs to El Violeo and Monte Naranco. At El Violeo the breakaway of the day ended, in which this time there was no EOLO-KOMETA Cycling Team presence, and there the race was selected. The descent finished the sifting, with six riders standing out. Fortunato was just behind.
In the ascent to the Naranco Fortunato arrived at 59 seconds, a performance that allowed him to climb positions in the final general classification to finish 13th, 3’12” behind Nairo Quintana. “Very happy, to be honest,” he says. “Above all, I’m happy with the fact that I’ve been getting better and better every day. When the road gets steeper I have good legs. Today I got cut off on the last descent, after some crashes in front of me. I tried to recover as much as I could, but on the final climb I showed that I rode well. My goal in this race was to fight for the top ten, I was close, but anyway I’m very happy with this Vuelta a Asturias. The team believed in me, my team-mates and all the staff believed in me and without their support and their work I would not have been able to do what I did here”.
Daniel Viegas, for his part, completed the day to climb the podium as winner of the ‘metas volantes’, a classification that he had secured in the second stage. “To get on the podium is always a nice experience. Although I had scored a lot of points in the first two days and mathematically it was a classification that was within reach, we still had to complete the last stage and save the day without incidents or crashes. In cycling, nothing is certain until the finish line, that’s one of its great axioms. Last year I was already able to win a secondary classification in the Clásica de Almería and this year this result has arrived in Asturias. I hope it will be the first of many this season”.
“We leave Asturias with a very good feeling. Lorenzo did another magnificent stage, riding at the front all the way and finally finishing seventh on Monte Naranco. Although we were not able to achieve a victory, as we would have liked, the team has been fighting every day and in the end we also had the prize of a podium finish with Daniel Viegas. We rode very well, all as one, with very clear ideas. The team has protected Lorenzo a lot these days. We continue to grow as a team and now it’s time to rest a bit before facing another intense cycle of competitions. The Giro d’Italia and the Tour of Hongrie are coming, where we want to continue in this line, to do well and to obtain big results”, indicates Jesús Hernández, sport director of the EOLO-KOMETA Cycling Team.
[ PhotoGomezSport (1, 3, 4)]
[ Mónica del Campo (2)]
