An examination in the Pyrenees
42nd Ronde de l´Isard
From 23 to 26 May
In the framework of a cycle of five consecutive weeks with competitions of the highest level, and in which is the first departure abroad of the season, the U23 team of the Alberto Contador Foundation faces in the coming days a new participation in the Ronde de l´Isard. The French event, one of the most demanding in its category, brings together a good part of the best riders and teams of the current panorama (up to 26, nine of them foreign), for which it proposes a route of very high demand not very suitable for pure sprinters.
Carlos García from Madrid, Sergio García from Andalusia, Jhon Stiven Ramírez from Colombia, Alejandro Regueiro from Galicia and Edu Pérez-Landaluce and Yago Segovia from Asturias make up the ‘six’ that will represent the Kometa Cycling Team on some Galician routes that have their small homeland around the town of Saint-Girons. The structure directed by Rafa Díaz Justo goes for the fourth time to a race in whose final general Juan Pedro López finished sixteenth in 2017 and fourteenth last year.
Compared to previous occasions, in 2019 no final has been foreseen in high as such. The first day emerges as the most favorable for the sprint, although a height in the last third of the stage may incite skirmishes or reduce the group that can reach the sprint. For the second stage, the organisation has introduced the Portet d´Aspet (1070 m) and, above all, the Col de la Core (1,395 m) in a route that cannot be considered the queen stage. The reason? The third stage.
On the third day, the pack will have to face the Port du Pailheres, at an altitude of 2,000 metres and with its summit less than 20 kilometres away by the end. A colossus of the Tour de France that is running for such an honour. Although the final stage, the journey to the boulevard Fréderic Arnaud de Saint-Girons, includes the steps through Lers, Agnes and Latrape, a route to continue fighting until the last day. It is not a race for sprinters, in short. Nor for weak teams. An exam in the Pyrenees.
The stages.
23 May: Toulouse – Les-Mas-d´Azil (144.5 km).
24 May: Salies-du-Salat – Castillon-en-Couserans (136.5 km).
25 May: Mirepoix – Quérigut (141 km).
26 May: Bélesta – Saint-Girons (154, 1 km).
(automatic translation, sorry for mistakes)
