The Spanish Cup resumes its development with a Pucelian summer commitment
IX Memorial Ángel Lozano / Spanish Cup
Valladolid-Valladolid (160.5 km)
The Spanish Cup of cycling returns to the roads with the celebration, this Sunday, of the ninth edition of the Memorial Angel Lozano- Copa Valladolid. The event, which is a debut within the Cup, will allow a return to a tournament that was only able to tackle its first two events, the Circuito del Guadiana and the Trofeo Guerrita, and that despite the relocation of the calendar for the nine remaining events, already knows that the Santikutz Klasika, scheduled for 27 September, will not be held in 2020. The u23 Jordi López leads a classification in which three riders of the Kometa-Xstra Cycling Team (Álex Martín, seventh with 100 points; David Martín, eighth with 95; and Vicente Hernaiz, ninth with 94) are among the first ten.
The Balearic Joan Martí Bennassar, the Riojan Arturo Grávalos, the Pucelian Vicente Hernaiz, the Asturian Edu Pérez-Landaluce, the Catalan Edu Rodés and the Andalusian David Martín and Mario Vilches integrate the ‘seven’ with which the team directed by the Toledo Rafa Díaz Justo will take part. For the Pucelan event, it will be a far from easy journey marked by seven points, certainties of the appearance of the wind and a final against the Cúpula del Milenio. Perhaps it is the Alto de Portillo, a slope that is faced twice (km 69 and km 101), a key point in the development of the race because of its firm pavement and its great slopes.
Hernaiz, recent winner of the Trofeo San José in Zamora, will compete on the roads where he faces his most usual training and as such is one of the great connoisseurs of the route proposed by the Club Deportivo Pucela. “Somehow I would resemble the route of Iberdrola, but with longer straights. But it is that style of layout. The Alto del Portillo is going to be more of a point of wear and tear than of selection and the tension to enter its slopes is going to be very great. As for the wind, it’s blowing every day this summer and it’s blowing more in this area than in other places, gusts of between 30 and 35 km/h”.
Edu Rodes, for his part, is facing his first competition after the stop caused by the health emergency. “The physical condition is always a bit of an unknown when it comes to returning to competition. Training has gone very well, I am very happy, but it is true that you can always notice this lack of competitive pace. But I also think that the desire to return to competition can handle everything. There are many. Although I did the Memorial Chineta and the Trofeo Guerrita, with all this time off we haven’t had any continuity. That increases the desire to run. And also to see how the team has continued to work well. It’s an added bonus of peace of mind and motivation”, says the Catalan.
“In Zamora we learned a lot and it was a week that we did well. For this Cup we have to apply what we’ve learned and that’s why we’ve come with a strong team for this type of terrain, because we have colleagues who benefit from this route. Personally, I am at the disposal of the team and of what the director tells me; but also with a lot of desire to return after the bad taste in my mouth that I suffered during the week in Zamora and from which I have already recovered. A priori it is not a race for my characteristics, but in a race you never know what can happen, there are multiple race situations and you have to be very concentrated from the start”, concludes Edu Pérez-Landaluce.
(automatic translation, sorry for mistakes)
