XVIII Volta Ciclista a Galicia
Stage 1: Baiona-Baiona (8.3 km TTT)

The Kometa Cycling Team came within a second of the inaugural team time trial of the Volta a Galicia 2019. The team led by Rafa Díaz Justo used 9:46 to cover the little more than eight kilometres that started and ended on Avenida Ramón y Cajal. A layout that hid some steep slope and offered a good stretch overlooking the marina of the town of Pontevedra. The Balearic Joan Martí Bennassar, seventh, is the first classified of the team in a general in which, after the victory of the Lizarte, the first leader is the Catalan Roger Adriá.

This season the under23 formation of the Alberto Contador Foundation already caressed the success in this modality, staying also just a couple of seconds from the Lizarte; it happened in the opening of the Vuelta a Zamora, last July. “The time trial initially stung upwards, but then it was the other way around and then it was all flat along the promenade. We are very close,” says Bennassar about this performance.

“I think we made a good time trial. That second has been a pity, because the feelings have been very good and personally I am very happy, “says the Asturian Yago Segovia. “Looking forward to this Friday we really want to do well”. Once again with start and finish in Baiona, the first stage will cover 137 kilometres in which the cyclists will accumulate more than 2,200 metres of unevenness.

Rafa Díaz Justo, director: “We did well. Except for a small mistake in a roundabout, where we had to stop a bit because the group had been cut off a bit, the team has ridden very well, with strength. There are two or three riders who come at a good time and I am confident that we can do well in the coming days. But we go from stage to stage. At the moment there’s a first stage that I think is a little crazy”.

After Bennassar, in the general classification they are classified with the same time and between the eighth and thirteenth place Sergio García, Alejandro Ropero, Yago Segovia, Álex Martín, Alessandro Fancellu and Eduardo Pérez-Landaluce.

(automatic translation, sorry for mistakes)