The RH+/Polartec U23 prepares to face the most demanding part of the season

Good result in Valenciaga, with Barceló (sixth) and Ballesteros (tenth)

The Rh+/Polartec ran last Sunday, April 3, the fourth round of the Cup of Spain U23, the Memorial Valenciaga, where Fernando Barceló was the best ranked of the team in sixth place, followed by Miguel Angel Ballesteros, tenth.

The team director, Rafa Diaz Justo, analyzed the results from a more general perspective, thinking particularly on the Spanish Cup, where Ballesteros is now second andBarceló fourth, with still five races remaining. “We go out from Valenciaga well placed, also being the first team overall, although we don’t look for this classification”, he said. “The Valenciaga is perhaps the toughest race of the Cup of Spain and, considering the youth of our riders, I’m happy because we keep our options intact”.

The race, however, was not conducive to RH + / Polartec, as it was marked by a breakaway from the start in which no rider from the team was in. The team took the work in the head of the peloton to bring down the break and play the race on the last two climbs, San Miguel and, above all, Ixua, where the team paid the effort and watched how, with a very broken race, places of honor escaped.

The Memorial Valenciaga has also scored for the team the beginning of a very important period of the season. “We are now in a good form,” explains Rafael Diaz Justo, “already thinking about the great objectives of April and May, the Tour de Bretagne, the Vuelta al Bidasoa and Ronda d’Isard, in which we seek to reach a peak of form with all riders at hundred percent, without forgetting the Cup of Spain, of course, that next week we continue with the Xavi Tondo Memorial”.

Because of this programming, Diaz Justo believes the team “maybe is a little more delayed than the rest at this time of year, but it is what we have sought for giving everything on next stage races”. Which does not prevent to have riders on all fronts, as this last weekend Diego Pablo Sevilla and Juan Camacho have run the GP Indurain and the Vuelta to La Rioja with the U-23 National Team. “Those two riders will be very important for next Tour de Bretagne and these experiences are very good for them. In Estella they had a difficult and very hard day against World Tour Teams, but next day, in La Rioja, were very good and, after working for Irisarri, finished 26 and 31. This year, the team is working very well”, concludes the sport director of U23 RH+/Polartec Team.