Haimar Etxeberria leaves his mark in Valencia: great victory on the steep San José street in Ayora

The overall was above all a question of seven riders after the evolutions of the second stage and the orographic proposal of the last day, but the partial victory on the final slope of the San José street, in front of the hermitage of the same name in the town of Ayora, was not a minor objective. There, on its slopes, Haimar Etxeberria and Gabriele Raccagni shone, first and second in a final fraction of the Volta a Valencia that crowned Frenchman Adrien Maire (Aix-en-Provence), winner of the Vuelta a Extremadura a few months ago, in the overall general classification. Etxeberria finished the Volta in ninth place.

It was a short final stage, with a nervous final route featuring the climb to the Alto de Zarra and the final, demanding wall, short but cobbled. The race, apart from a big crash that temporarily cut the peloton in the middle of the race, was again marked by constant offensive alternatives, more or less numerous, with little margin of time and less life. Edoardo Alleva, Fran Muñoz and even Haimar Etxeberria himself could be seen in this dynamic of attacks by the U23 structure of the Contador Foundation.

The cyclist from Irun ride properly at the Volta a Valencia, as he showed last year with a great performance. In a complex season, with crashes, injuries and accidents, Etxeberria has started to make a comeback since the summer. Along the way, a lot of hard work. “I would like to thank the whole team for the hard work they have done. In the end with this victory we have found a bit of justice to all the good work that has been done these days. The two previous days we would have been in a position to fight for the win, but the breakaways were the ones that won the day. These days we’ve been in good shape. Today I felt particularly good, very comfortable throughout the day, and the support of my team-mates was impressive. Raccagni has been especially attentive to me every day, he has helped me a lot”.