Fifteenth position of Juan Pedro López on the climb of Txomintxu
73rd Circuito de Getxo
31 July: Getxo-Getxo (185 km)
The Sevillian Juan Pedro López finished fifteenth in the Circuito de Getxo 2018, the famous Biscayan event that this year celebrated its 73rd edition with the victory of the Gipuzkoan Álex Aranburu (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), the first one as a professional. The final slopes of the Txomintxu climb, as expected, were fundamental for the resolution of a race in which the great favourite from Burgos, Carlos Barbero (Movistar), two-time champion in the getxotarra event, finished second, ahead of Jon Aberasturi (Euskadi-Murias) and Jesús Ezquerra (Burgos-BH).
The festive day of Saint Ignatius Day was marked by a runaway of four riders that took place during the first lap and ended up expiring on the ninth of the ten days planned in a mainly urban itinerary. A leak where the Polartec-Kometa tried to have a presence, without success. Juan Antonio López Cózar (Euskadi Foundation), the American Justin Oien (Caja Rural-Seguros-RGA), Pablo Torres (Burgos-BH) and the Bulgarian Nicolai Mihaylov (Delko-Marseille) were the protagonists.
The work at the head of a group of around thirty units of the Movistar Team, absolute supervisor of the development of the whole race, and of the Euskadi-Murias would end up destroying the breakaway with more than 18 kilometres to go. Just a couple of people, all of them with the signature of the Caja-Rural, would arrive in a group where Lopez rolled without difficulty until the last ascent to Txomintxu. In the finish line López, second best among the neoprofessionals, would give up 45 seconds with respect to the winner.
“In one of the climbs to the hill Movistar started, started to set a faster pace and ended up cutting the group. I managed to get into that cut of about 25 or 30 riders and now I’ve made it to the finish line. We’ve been up front all day. The crashes have been a pity. Matteo didn’t have his best day either, he had several bike changes… Now, nothing, to rest and want to do well in the Vuelta a Burgos,” said Juan Pedro López. Director Jesús Hernández said: “It was a race where we were unlucky, because Gazzoli and Sevilla fell to the ground. Juanpe, very well, entered the first group. There’s always something positive to be gained and that is that the riders have shown good form for the team’s upcoming commitments”.
Indeed, in a comfortable race, the appearance of rain complicated his development and gave a less pleasant reading of the day to the Polartec-Kometa because of the falls by Michelle Gazzoli and Diego Pablo Sevilla, both without major consequences. “Yes, I went to the ground for the eighth lap. Too bad, but it was nothing. We weren’t doing badly at that point, with the breakaway rolling in the lead and us running well, together, supporting our tricks, but it started to rain a bit and there was some tension in the group. At the end, in a curve that looked like it was sliding, a cyclist from another team went to the ground and the bike left me too, I couldn’t do anything”.
(automatic translation, sorry for mistakes)
? PHOTO GOMEZ SPORT
