Alvaro Cuadros, back home through the front door

Alvaro Cuadros today won the XXV Guerrita Trophy after a solo ride that started at 70 kilometers from the finish, when he attacked at the only first category climb among three that were on the course, of 148 kilometers.

Grenadian rider’s victory was the first after his return to Alberto Contador Foundation, which was proclaimed the best junior of his generation three seasons ago. His successes earned him the direct jump to the professionals of continental Etixx, although during the two years he spent in its ranks has no victory, among other reasons for his inexperience in the category.

This year he returned to the ranks of the team where had shone more and since the first day Alvaro Cuadros he showed that had recovered the illusion, motivation and also the leg strength. Today, in a Guerrita Trophy that was better suited to his characteristics of climber that the first Spain Cup race, last Sunday in Don Benito, the leader of the RH + / Polartec made clear his intentions in this season, third as U23.

Cuadros had prepared this race conscientiously, since Wednesday recognised the course with his teammate Miguel Angel Ballesteros. For this reason or for the hardness of the day, with a strong wind that broke up the peloton, Alvaro Cuadros decided to attack alone at the foot of the first category climb, from where he hunts the 4 escapees, who was leaving gradually.

The team, meanwhile, did its job as planned. “We had to make hard the race before the mountain pass and there Cuadros or Barcelo had to attack, and was like this”, said Rafa Diaz Justo, sporting director of RH+ / Polartec, glad that the strategy had worked and that his men showed their strength.

Behind the agreement was impossible, because the squad was broken up into multiple groups, with only a dozen riders in the lead, among which there was another man of the RH+ / Polartec, Juan Camacho, who aspired to lead the Cup of Spain (had been twelfth in Don Benito), which he did.

In the second group at the finish line were two other riders from RH+ / Polartec, Miguel Angel Ballesteros and Fernando Barceló, which earned the win also in the team standings, repeating the success of Don Benito. The Alberto Contador Foundation now leads both general classifications in the Spanish Cup, individual, with Juan Camacho, and teams, on what is a great start of the season.

Alvaro Cuadros:
“The Alberto Contador Foundation has given to me the confidence I needed”

Alvaro Cuadros topped with apparent ease today the biggest problem posed by the race. “The hardest thing is that the pass was far away, but I wanted to try my rivals and so I attacked from below. As no one was following me, I decided to go ahead”, said the leader of RH+ / Polartec.

This victory come to him after two years of waiting, that he has passed in the ranks of Klein Constantia Team, from where has decided to return to the Contador Foundation. “This team has given me the confidence I needed”, he explains. “And this victory comes after much sacrifice, work and training. That’s the most complicated, the work behind all this”.

The Alvaro Cuadros that has achieved the victory in the Guerrita Trophy is now a rider “with more pace and more experience. These two years have helped me to know myself”. And to become, he says, a “complete and fast rider, but where I feel most comfortable is on the climbs”.

After winning the Guerrita, Cuadros now dreams of trying the victory in the Cup of Spain. “I’ll go race by race, taking the maximum points, to see if we can win”, says the leader of the RH+ / Polartec, dedicating this victory “to my family and, in general, to all those who have always relied on me”.

(Automatic translation. Forgive inaccuracies).