The Spanish Cup returns to the limelight with the hardness of the Monsant Massif
V Trofeu 15 d´abril
La Canonja-La Canonja (111,5 km)
With the outstanding absence of Carlos Rodríguez, summoned by the Spanish Federation to face the Paris-Roubaix junior to be held the next day, the Spanish Cup of the category returns this weekend with the dispute of its second scoring event, the emerging and festive Trofeu 15 d´abril of the town of La Canonja, Tarragona.
Neither the Andalusian Kometa Cycling Team, current champion of the tournament and first leader of the Cup after his triumph in the Joan Bautista Llorens Memorial, nor his teammates Juan José Rosal and Javi Serrano will be able to be of the game in a demanding test in which the Madrid team comes with a complete block. Pedro Beneit, Francesc Bennassar, Gerard Bofill, Raúl García, Pablo Gutiérrez, Alejandro Luna, David Quevedo and Fernando Tercero make up the ‘eight’.
“We have a very strong and cohesive team regardless of the absences. We are very happy to be represented in the Spanish national team in a competition like Paris-Roubaix. At the end of the fight for the classification, the rules rule out the worst result, which is always positive to allow us to reconcile these circumstances,” says Guillermo Gutiérrez, director of the Madrid formation.
The Trofeu 15´abril, which is celebrating its fifth edition, is an event that brings good memories to the team led by Cantabrian Guillermo Gutiérrez. In 2016, in a second edition where it already began to form part of the Cup of Spain, the Granada Alejandro Ropero scored the victory. Last year Carlos Rodríguez was promoted to the leadership of the Cup after finishing second. La Canonja has established itself in a very short time as one of the fundamental events of the Spanish Cup.
The Catalan event, which will start at 15.00 hours on Saturday, remains faithful to its identity with a route of great hardness in which it will be necessary to face three mountain passes. La Batalla (km 36,2), Portell through Coll d´Alforja (km 69,9) and La Mussara (km 78,8) will be three of the hot spots of its development. Some routes through the Massif of Montsant that this year were already one of the scenarios for which the Volta a Catalunya was disputed and that is an area of great cyclist affluence.
