The renovated Memorial Momparler tests Polartec-Kometa’s U23 ambitions
VI Memorial Pascual Momparler
Villanueva de Castellón-Villanueva de Castellón (163 km
The Spanish U23 Cycling Cup faces its sixth stop on Sunday, a renovated Memorial Pascual Momparler that already in 2017 mutated in its conception. The event in Villanueva de Castellón (Valencia) began as a race with a clear profile for fast men in which, unique in the Spanish panorama, the steps over sectors of cobblestones stood out, making it known as “the Spanish Paris-Roubaix” because of its 36 kilometres of surface area; since last year it has been a race designed for, but very good climbers, at least for very complete riders.
A irregularprofile proposes long ascents with more favorable slopes and short ascents with very demanding ramps. The old mainly flat track, ideal for sprinters and very powerful runners, has given way to a much more broken profile with four scoring ports and a terrain suitable for offensives and ambushes.
The Alto Calderón (759 m, 10.4 km at 3.4% on average; second category KOM), the terrible El Campello (583 m, 2.6 km at 10.6%; first category), the climb to Cumbres de Valencia (742 km, 6.5 km at 6.3%; second category) and the finishing touch of the hermitage of Santa Ana, just over fourteen kilometres from the finish line (265 m, 2.6 km at 6%) will put victory at stake. This year, moreover, the route has a change in its final part: a first step towards the finish 12 kilometres from the finish. José Antonio García, Sergio Hernández, Juan Pedro López, Joan Martí Bennassar, Jorge Pastor, Alejandro Regueiro and Alejandro Ropero make up the’seven’ with which Polartec-Kometa Team will be present.
Rafa Díaz, director: “With the change of course that the Momparler Memorial suffered in 2017, it has become a very, very hard and demanding race. It’s going to be a very nice race and the objective of the Polartec-Kometa is to make it even more beautiful, to harden it, especially from its half. We came up with the idea of winning this race. It is our objective, within that’race to race’ that we are betting on because the overall of the Spanish U23 Cycling Cup is complex. It’s better to go on a date-by-date basis. I know El Campello well from my time as a professional cyclist; it has very hard ramps but, above all, it leaves no way for the teams to work, because the descent is very fast and practically connects with the next climb. The movements that are made in El Campello will mark what happens at the end. In amateurs you don’t run as much as in professionals, where you can control the situation more”.
(automatic translation, sorry for mistakes)
