David Martín finishes eighth in a ‘Guerrita’ where Álex Martín suffers due a crash

29º Trofeo Guerrita
Alcantarilla-Alcantarilla (168 km)

David Martín, eighth, was the first rider of the Kometa-Xstra Cycling Team U23 in a frenetic edition of the Guerrita Trophy in which the passage through the Alto de la Perdiz and Alto de Gebas formed a leading group of thirty-five units that were going to play the victory in the Murcia event, the second round of the Spanish Cup. A dynamic of constant attacks made crazy the last kilometers and finally the Colombian Victor Ocampo, with a couple of seconds of margin on that group, ended up scoring the victory.

Martín (eventually winning the secondary classification of the metas volantes), Vicente Hernaiz from Valladolid, Mario Vilches from Jaén and Edu Pérez-Landaluce from Asturias arrived in that first main group. He could not do it, however, the Catalan Álex Martín. The first leader of the Spanish Cup among the U23 rides, who had already crashes in the first kilometers, was involved in another crash before the start to La Perdiz.

Bruised, with several injuries to his left arm and the immediate support of an Edu Rodés, also fallen on the first crash, who quickly gave up his bike, Martín resumed the march and managed to reach the group of all the favourites, but ended up paying for the efforts in the climb and gave up his red-and-white garment, which passes behind a Jordi López who by one point is the new absolute leader of the Cup. By teams, Kometa-Xstra co-leads with Lizarte after the first two races.

The fall of Alex Martin was a major setback for the interests of Kometa-Xstra, however, well represented in the leading group and with the Asturian Edu Pérez-Landaluce rolling ahead, in a move that, once caught the last exponent of the great break of the day (the Puerto Rican Telco’m Abner Gonzalez), made him temporarily head of the race. After the Alto de Gebas, where the leader of the Copa Mauricio Moreira (Froiz) went on the attack, about thirty cyclists were grouped together who would finally play for victory. Many attacks in the final part in that leading group. And about two from the finish, the definitive start of Victor Ocampo.

“The first fall was not important,” says Álex Martín. “There was a pileup, but it was a circumstance of putting the foot on the ground and that’s it. The later one was worse, it took place very far ahead after one of the Rias Baixas riders who were pulling at that time went to the ground. Eduard’s bike was, among all colleagues, the best I was doing. The pity is that I could not save the day in the heat to reach the front and was quite painful from the crash”.

“The first part of the race had hardly any complications, but just before La Perdiz Álex went to the ground. It was a shame, because that was where the race was going to be decided. Personally, I had a good feeling and I tried. For me it was practically the debut of this season. Now we have to think about the next race and learn from the mistakes we made today”, commented Edu Pérez-Landaluce.

Rafa Díaz Justo, director of the Kometa-Xstra u23: “The day was very interesting, but we started to cross with a first fall in which both Álex Martín and Edu Rodés were involved and with a series of bike changes that we had to do later. The situation worsened about two kilometres from the start of La Perdiz, with another fall by Álex. It took us a while to reach his height. Álex managed to catch those in front of him, but he soon gave in. We had four riders in the leading group, two of them very good climbers, and the idea was to work for David Martín. The team went well, but we didn’t race in the best way”.

(automatic translation, sorry for mistakes)