A valuable experience on Swiss soil
72nd Gran Premio Città di Lugano
Lugano-Lugano (185,6 km)
One of the foundations of the continental Polartec-Kometa project is its formative character. A magnificent setting where youngsters can forge themselves as runners where results are not fundamental. This Sunday, in the renovated Gran Premio Città di Lugano, a magnificent example in a unique setting. The cyclists were able to watch a very crazy race from the start, on a very hard circuit. A kind of great value. Only 29 riders, none of them from the Madrid team, were able to finish a race in which many riders who have just competed in the Giro d’Italia imposed their law.
In the Swiss race, the Austrian Hermann Pernsteiner (Bahrain-Merida) won the race alone, finishing with more than half a minute over Kristian Sbaragli (Israel Cycling Team) and more than a minute and a half over Enrico Gasparotto (Bahrain-Merida), Diego Ulissi (UAE-Team Emirates), Giovani Visconti and Domenico Pozzovivo (Bahrain-Merida). The Colombian Wilson Pena was the last Polartec-Kometa rider to resist the race until he finally gave in. “From the beginning he has gone at full speed. The strongest runners have gone for it. They had practically burst the race in 20 kilometres,” explains the director Jesús Hernández. “It’s been a very hard and strange day for a one-day race.”
“The level was very high. He’s gone so fast, with so many good people wanting to get into the cuts. That’s what killed us. A very high rate. And a tremendously humid heat to which the body did not respond well”, Diego Pablo Sevilla contributes on his part. “That mixture of heat and humidity has further hardened the race. The sensations have not been good,” laments Juan Camacho. Patrick Gamper concluded: “It was a very strange race. Very strange and very hard. At the start,’fullgas’ left and all the favourites coming from the Giro had already attacked on the first lap. We tried to do our best, but there was a lot of level playing.
The team returns to Bormio to continue the preparation stage for the next Giro d’Italia U23. The other half of the formation concentrated in Valtellina took part this Sunday in the massive Granfondo Stelvio Santini.
(automatic translation, sorry for mistakes)
