The RH + / POLARTEC U-23 showed maturity in its second Valle d’Aosta

In what is probably the toughest race in the schedule of formation European teams, Valle d’Aosta, has been closed with a solid performance of RH+/POLARTEC U-23, who finished in eighth place overall and its young riders rubbing shoulders with the future world elite.

The sport director Rafael Diaz Justo highlights the fact that this year “we have thoroughly prepared the race, with a stage in Navacerrada and a detailed study of the routes, due to the hardness final of two stages, with ramps above 20 percent, that also required to have special gears”.

In the initial team time trial the result was not good, but also because “we prefer to bring a team of climbers thinking about the next stages”, explains Diaz Justo. “From there every day we have been better and if there had been another stage, like last year, we would have finished even higher, because we have recovered very well”.

About the riders, the director of RH+/POLARTEC begins highlighting Diego Noriega. “He has been the most consistent of all, as evidenced to finish 23 overall, while two others, Daniele Cantoni and Alvaro Cuadros, have excelled in two different stages. The Italian made a big fourth stage, getting into the break and being protagonist until the end, and Cuadros, who was another of those who already knew the race, had a great performance on the last day, fighting hand to hand with which played the final clasification, including a former of our riders, Enric Mas, that also says a lot of the work done in the Alberto Contador Foundation”.

Fran Contador, team manager and who wanted to watch the race live, was “very pleased with the competition that have made our riders. The team has been on the race from the first to the last day, we fought to be in the breaks and we competed without complexes with the best riders of Europe and some of America, as the Colombians from Postobón”.

To Fran Contador is noteworthy “to have just finished eighth of 26 on team’s standings without expressly work for this classification, but fighting for the race. From last year we have taken a big step. To measure ourselves with the elite of continental and formation teams around the world is very valuable to know where we are and where we want to go. So the balance that we make of this Valle d’Aosta is very positive and we try to keep coming to this tough race”.