Gabriele Bessega fifth on the last stage of Vuelta a Madrid

Gabriele Bessega reaffirmed his fifth position in the classification of the Vuelta a Madrid with his fifth place on the last day of the race. The Italian put in a great performance over the five days, finishing in the top 10 on the last three days.

The race started fast, all the teams were looking for a presence in the breakaway and as a result of not being represented at the front, the team pulled the group to neutralize those offensive movements. In the next breakaway the team achieved the first of the day’s objectives and Gabriele Raccagni filtered into a large group that, despite trying, would never get a big lead.

In the final kilometres, hostilities broke out in an attempt to link up with the leading group and break the hegemony of the peloton. After a great battle over the kilometres, a trio fought for the victory in a sprint with a slight advantage over a very reduced bunch that could not catch them. Gabriele Bessega was fifth in the stage and finished fifth overall.

“The stage was very hard. The team’s goal was to get into the breakaway and I had to be in the group to get to the front and save the position in the general classification and that’s what we did,” summed up Gabriele Bessega.

“The strategy was to fight for the stage win and try, if it came up, to turn the overall around. It was difficult being the last day and on a tough terrain. We had to have someone in the breakaway. Raccagni came in. On the last climb, one of the Vendé riders, who were following the same strategy as us, attacked and we couldn’t be there. They gave their best and Gerard, Dario and Gabriele arrived in a very small group. He was second in the chasing group without being a pure sprint because the one who gave time to the group had attacked before. The objective didn’t work out, but the guys worked well during the whole race”, summed up Miguel Gómez, team sports director.

Photos: Lucas Abad / Vuelta a Madrid