Eighth for Carlos García at the opening of a Bizkaia Saria where Joan Martí Bennassar and Álex Martín suffered a crash
Bizkaia Saria 2019
Berangoko Klasika (126.7 km)
The new Bizkaia Saria race started on Friday with a Klasika from Berango in which the eighth-placed Carlos García from Madrid was the first rider of the Kometa Cycling Team at the finish line. The one from Tres Cantos finished 34 seconds behind the winner of the race and the first leader of the Challenge, the Malaga-born Carmelo Urbano (Caja Rural), although he managed to start from behind and reach the head of the race, five cyclists, who had been formed in the decisive part of a race whose general tone was that of a multitude of small groups. A very broken race.
“The main intention was to get that last touch of quality for the Giro d’Italia. Until yesterday I have been doing very hard training. Today I was in all the starting cuts. In the end I ended up entering the finish line, but after the last climb, in the final plain, I had some cramps and I was left in no man’s land and I couldn’t continue with the first ones. That’s the way it is. We’ll keep trying”, explains García.
The Madrid formation was very present in all the race situations from the initial gunshot to kilometre 70. The start was very fast, with many movements of rapid expiry. Edu Pérez-Landaluce was part of a trio that got to roll with a score of seconds and the Asturian would remain in a large group of almost thirty riders that ended up forming in the first third of the race, a group where Carlos García and Joan Martí Bennassar were also.
The brilliant Balearic cyclist would deploy his great rolling gifts feeding a trio and then quartet that grew to seven units: in addition to the aforementioned Bennassar, Miguel Angel Fernández (Baqué), Javier Fuentes (Ginestar), Norwegians Adne Holter and Sonder Andersson Svensli (Dare Bikes), Sergio Ginés (Caja Rural) and the Catalan Kometa Alex Martín.
In a descent section, around kilometre 70, Bennasar, Martín and Ginés suffered a crash that changed the positive sign with which the stage was being developed for the interests of the Madrid based squad. Bruised, in need of bicycle changes, forced to row to return to the main group, the problems of the fallen were added to an inopportune puncture of Alejandro Regueiro that further weakened the presence of the Kometa at the head of the race.
With the decisive movement formed, Carlos García and another runner had margin to reach a head of race in which Carmelo Urbano and the Norwegian Adne Holter would again stand out in the last kilometers.
(automatic translation, sorry for mistakes)
📸 Mertxe Labrador
