Carlos Rodríguez inscribes his name on the list of the young Vuelta a la Ribera del Duero
IV Vuelta a la Ribera del Duero
Stage 4: Aranda de Duero – Aranda de Duero (118 km)
Due to the dates, its organization and the involvement of all the villages in the area, the Vuelta a la Ribera del Duero is destined to become one of the references of the European calendar of youth cycling. A young event, just four editions held, which in its last two years had lived the control of foreign formations, with the Belgian Acro Pauwels at the front. Carlos Rodríguez from Granada, after his great solo ride in the second stage and his unquestionable victory in the time trial in the third stage, won the 2019 edition in the Jardines de Don Diego square on Sunday. The Andalusian of the Kometa Cycling Team, also leader of the mountain in the Castilian race, enlarged the bag of his great season until the fourteen successes.
In the final stage, the longest, the triumph corresponded to the Dutch Casper van Uden (Acrog). The future rider of the Sunweb development team, the first leader of the Vuelta a la Ribera del Duero, was the fastest rider in the sprint that a small group of around forty riders competed in. A not so massive finish in which Raúl García finished sixth and Rodríguez finished eighth. Van Uden, second overall in the final 42 seconds behind Rodríguez, crowned the work of his team mates, who were focused on exploiting their options in sprint after having tried for a few bars of the race the option of ousting Rodríguez from the lead. “We tried to isolate him, but it wasn’t possible”, explained Van Uden. Great merit for Kometa’s work, with Juanjo Rosal and Raúl García standing out in the defence of his team-mate’s wine jersey.
The Acrog’s work also benefited Raúl García. The Spaniard, third overall after Saturday’s time trial, virtually lost his place on the final podium of the race with the attack by the Mexican Daniel Morales (Lintxu Foundation) in the last kilometers, when he rolled with the Brazilian Vinicius Rangel (Valverde Team). The Belgian team knocked down that movement and in the streets of Aranda the arrival to the sprint was concreted.
Carlos Rodríguez, winner of the final general classification of the Vuelta a la Ribera del Duero: “The work that the team has done throughout the race has been sensational. In today’s stage, without its enormous work, it could not have arrived in the front group. From the first moment the attacks didn’t stop and towards the end there were also many movements. They took turns and Raúl, Juanjo and I were able to control them. Towards the end Acrog showed a lot of interest in the sprint and we collaborated”.
About the route of the race, the cyclist from Almuñecar highlighted the variety of his track: “I was expecting a much flatter lap, easier route, but I was surprised. I liked it a lot. It’s true that there are no big ports, but there are very interesting climbs. The arrival of the first day was spectacular. I also liked the course of the time trial very much, with the constant ups and downs that made it very hard. And both this last stage and the second one had quite a mountainous complication”. The cyclist from Granada, questioned during his presence in the study of Ser Aranda, anticipated the possible participation in the next Volta a la Provincia de Valencia sub23, between 5 and 8 September, with the Spanish junior team.
(automatic translation, sorry for mistakes)