Antonio Gonzalez comes fifth in a lively opening stage of the Vuelta a Salamanca

Great performance of Antonio González in the opening of the Vuelta a Salamanca, with the rider from Soria fighting in the decisive part of the race, the Alto de Saucelle, and finishing fifth, at the front of a main group where Luca Bagnara (eleventh) also arrived at the finish of Aldeadávila de la Ribera, where the Barcelona rider David Domínguez (Zamora Enamora) triumphed.

Domínguez cemented much of his victory on the climb to Saucelle, the most demanding of the day. There, there was a great selection both in the head of the race (a trio formed by Neo Martínez, El Bicho; Pol Hervás, Netllar; and Fernando Santos, Froiz) and in the big group, reduced to a quintet in the final part formed by González, Domínguez, Sergio Chumil (Cortizo), Edgar Cadena (Telco’m) and Samuel Fernández (Caja Rural).

Domínguez attacked, reached the head of the race, went solo, regrouped with the chasers, attacked again and finally played the partial victory, and the first leadership, with Cadena. Antonio González’s group was 41 seconds behind, with Chumil and Fernández sandwiched between them.

“With one kilometre to go to the top of Saucelle I was riding with David, Chumil, Cadena and Samuel, but David started and stretched everything out a lot”, said González at the finish, the first rider from Castilla-León in the classification. “I tried to lose as little as possible to regroup afterwards, but I couldn’t catch them. It’s a pity, especially for the work that my team-mates did for me during the day, they gave their all. The final part of the day was a bit of a ball, but after we regrouped at the back towards the finish I felt strong enough to get into the bunch sprint. This Saturday we are going to try to do it, because on Sunday it will be much more difficult to make a difference”.