Burgos: yet another breakaway by Mattia Bais
One more day in the breakaway, one more day on the attack, one more day from EOLO KOMETA. And once again, protagonist Mattia Bais who after the beautiful day on stage one replicated in stage three: 183 km from Sargentes de la Lora-Villarcayo with the challenging Picòn Blanco to climb.
The chronicle tells of Primoz Roglic’s triumph, with the Giro d’Italia winner beating Aleksandr Vlasov, Adam Yates and Damien Howson in a tight sprint to take the stage and the overall leader’s jersey. But as always, we are also and especially interested in reporting what happened before with the breakaway of the day involving 9 riders and with our Mattia once again among the bravest of the bunch.
It was known that the group would not leave so much space, also because of the presence among the escapees of Raul Garcìa Pierna who was only 47″ from the leader Valter: and in fact, on the Picon Blanco climb the race literally exploded on the push of the UAE that aimed to leave Roglic without teammates. The breakaway was retaken, and up front the big boys battled it out until the finale where Roglic enforced the law of the strongest. In the small group behind the best held out our own Bais, who eventually brought home an excellent 12th place.
To us, it remains another one of our favorite days. As sports director Jesús Hernández confirms, “Exactly as in the first stage today the team rode very well, we put a man in the breakaway and once again the protagonist was Mattia. He was good at catching the breakaway and staying in front for a while, and when we can show off like that it’s always a good thing. We give the image of a team that wants to stay in front.”
Mattia Bais: “I tried again today, I would have liked to hang on at the front until the end of the hardest climb but the peloton didn’t give us any room. I went on with my regular pace but in front they went really really strong, at the end I sprinted the second group and hit a good placing but the important thing is that the leg is getting better and better. In the coming days if I have the chance I will try again.”
Of note was the withdrawal of Alex Martín, who was forced to abandon due to the aftermath of intestinal problems that affected him on the first day.
