Tommaso Bessega, fourth in the opening stage of the Vuelta a Zamora with finish in Benavente

Fourth place for Tommaso Bessega in a very fast first stage of the Vuelta a Zamora, with an average speed of over 46 km/h and a sprint finish, with victory and first lead for Pol Hervás (Brocar-Alé). It was a day in which the high pace kept the different breakaway attempts at bay. Of the intentions of the peloton, their work to bring down a breakaway of five riders that amassed around 1’30” in the first third of the day, but which was caught before the climb to the only big mountain prize of the day, Dehesa Mangas.

Isaac Cantón, team manager in the Zamora race: “It was a very favourable stage to be resolved in a sprint, as it was, waiting for the wind to appear and do its thing. We expected the day to be a bit calmer, with a breakaway that would ride within controlled margins and that would take time to catch. However, the chase came very early and from then on there were many fleeting movements within a dynamic of very high speed. The wind was not important, that tension did not appear, and crashes could also be avoided. The guys were formidable at work, protecting Tommaso ahead of the volley, and I would like to highlight the initiative in the management of Pablo Uría in his return to the competition in the face of Andrea Montoli’s breakdown: a rider hit him on the change in the last part of the stage and Pablo quickly gave his bike to Andrea to solve the problem so that he could enter the peloton”.

On Thursday, the second stage, 136 kilometres between Muga de Sayago and Villalcampo, which will be most difficult in the final part due to the ascent to Villalcampo, the same and decisive one that is faced in the Trofeo San José.

[? Álvaro García / Vuelta Ciclista a Zamora]