Intense double sector in France, with Dani Díaz dropping out due to a crash
Double sector days are always intense from an organisational point of view and possibly even more so when the race takes place abroad. The first day at the Tour de Gironde followed these lines, with a morning time trial start and an afternoon road race. A great experience for the expedition of the young junior structure of the Contador Foundation, with five of its six riders in their first year in the category.
Hugo Pradas and Iván Polo were the best classified in the opening time trial over 10 kilometres. Pradas was 26th and Polo 29th, 51″ and 53″ respectively behind an unbeatable Sente Sentjens. The Belgian Acrog rider reinforced his lead in the vibrant afternoon semi-stage, where he was the fastest of a leading group of about twenty riders.
The grey note came with the retirement of Dani Díaz. The rider from Madrid suffered a fall (Mario Gómez and Iván Polo, in the picture, also fell during the day) in the first kilometres that forced him to get off the bike halfway through the race. “Now I’m a bit better, but I have two fingers on my right hand quite swollen and sore. It’s a shame, but these things happen”, he said from French soil.
