Double commitment on Galician soil with an important stopover in the fight for the Copa
7 May: Clásica de Pascua – Rutas Xacobeas
8 May: Vuelta a la Comarca Brigantina
The U23 structure of the Contador Foundation doubles competition lines in the Spanish calendar. While the team, led by Rafa Díaz Justo, finishes the final stretch of the Bidasoa Itzulia, a powerful seven with Giuseppe di María at the helm faces a double Galician commitment that already took place in 2021 with good results, although in this 2022 with the incentive of the points at stake in Saturday’s race, scoring for the Spanish Cup.
The EOLO-KOMETA Cycling Team U23 faces the Clásica de Pascua promoted by the Club Ciclista Padronés, on the one hand, and the Vuelta a la Comarca Brigantina of the Club Ciclista Betanzos, on the other. Two mythical events in the Galician calendar which, in addition, in the case of the Betanzos event, hosts the regional championship of the category. Marcel Camprubí, Sebastiano Minoia, Andrea Montoli, Fran Muñoz, Manuel Oioli, Andrea Pietrobon and Javi Serrano have been called up for this weekend in A Coruña.
IX Clásica de Pascua Rutas Xacobeas / Copa de España
Padrón – Padrón (165,5 km)
Padrón hosts the ninth round of a competition that travels to Galicia with Andoni López de Abetxuko in the lead of the overall absolute classification, with 367 points. Very close, two points closer after the Santikutz Klasika, is Fran Muñoz, leader of the overall classification in the U23 category. Fifteen points separate the two riders at the moment before a race, the Clásica de Pascua Rutas Xacobeas, which slightly modifies its route in the final part. Some changes to make it a little tougher if possible.
The race promoted by the Club Ciclista Padronés maintains a large part of last year’s route, but in its last third it introduces a very difficult climb. This is how the organisers explain it: “The last lap of the circuit, which includes the typical passage through Padrón and the Alto de Formarís, will be complicated with the hard Alto de Aguasantas climbed by the village of Bralo, a pass with three very hard kilometres that will try to select the race”.
26º Vuelta a la Comarca Brigantina / Elite and U23 Galician Championships
Betanzos-Betanzos (146.4 km)
After an intense Saturday, it will be the turn of a Sunday that will also be a hectic one, with the Vuelta a la Comarca Brigantina. A race that presents almost 2,500 metres of unevenness in its 140 kilometres of route and that returns to its dates after its dispute last August in an exceptional way.
The Vuelta a la Comarca Brigantina will celebrate its second consecutive edition after having been out of the calendar for more than three lustrums, without being organised. The Club Ciclista Betanzos, a very active club within the Galician panorama thanks to its cycling school of great tradition, has worked very hard to recover the celebration of this event.
The itinerary varies with respect to the previous year. If in 2021 a great circuit with the Alto de San Cosme as protagonist on two occasions marked the development of the race, this time the second part is varied, always with a lot of climbs, descents and complicated terrain to control, and includes the well-known Galibier climb (famous among the cyclists of the area) within the last ten kilometres.
