Andrea Montoli makes ‘his wins debut’ in the U23 category with a day riding in the breakaway and finishing on the final climb
XII Volta a la Provincia de Valencia
Stage 3: Benageber – Aras de los Olmos (142 km)
Italian Andrea Montoli made his debut in the U23 category this Saturday in Valencia by winning the third day of the Volta a la Provincia de Valencia and finishing off a day of fighting in the breakaway on a very demanding terrain through the geography of the Alto Turia. Pablo Carrascosa (Lizarte) became the new leader of a race in which Arnau Gilabert is now fifth, 35 seconds behind the rider from Extremadura. Montoli, for his part, climbs up to eleventh position. The race closes this Sunday with the traditional day in Moncada.
Montoli was one of the four riders who started an adventure in the first twenty kilometres of the day and consolidated it with an advantage of around five minutes in the last 60 kilometres. Behind, in the peloton, once the structure of the hitherto leader dissipated in the control work, the Lizarte team unleashed an offensive that saw Pablo Carrascosa attack on the climb to Montalbana, with Marcel Camprubí and Joel Francisco Peñuela (Drone Hopper) on his wheel. The breakaway at that point lost two of its members and maintained just a minute’s margin.
Camprubí was forced to slow down and was dropped while Montoli and the Israeli Roi Weinberg (Israel national team) were caught by Carrascosa and Peñuela. A resurgent quartet, revitalised by the energy of Carrascosa, took the lead on the final climb, with Montoli the fastest on the Ermitas de Aras de los Olmos road. In the chasing group, once the interests of his team-mate were protected, Arnau Gilabert was launched to take some seconds with a view to gaining momentum in the general classification.
Andrea Montoli, the brand new stage winner in the Volta a Valencia: “I’m very happy because I finally got my first victory in this category, which is so dear to me. It will be a good memory, no doubt, because just yesterday was my father’s birthday and this is a good present for him. Today was a very ‘hot’ day. Rafa, the director, told me in the morning that today I could really get the breakaway. I managed to catch the good breakaway, the four riders in front of me managed four minutes, but behind them they started to paddle very hard and they caught us, when we were already two, both Carrascosa and Peñuela. Towards the end I was a bit tired, I got my strength from wherever I could because I like the sprints that go upwards”.
[📷 Volta Provincia de Valencia (1, 2)]
