Heat, wind and nerves: welcome to Argentina

On the other side of the world, there where summer scorches the roads and the heat mercilessly hits those who were used to the temperatures of the European winter. Heat, and treacherous wind that forces you to be more careful than usual to avoid ending up on the asphalt. EOLO KOMETA’s first time out of Europe, the first stage of the Vuelta in San Juan: table set for the sprinters, and in the end it went as everyone predicted with Sam Bennett (BOH) getting the better of the San Juan city finish beating Morkov and Nizzolo. A nervous finale, with the wind that made everything more complicated and a few crashes that broke up the peloton after a stage that had seen the breakaway of Tarozzi and Velardez, caught with 20 km to go.

Among ours, of note was the 15th place of Davide Bais who managed to stay in front in the chaotic finale and contest the sprint, he who is not a pure sprinter. Today, stage two: 206.9 km from Villa san Agustin to San José de Jáchal, the longest fraction with a slightly uphill finish.

Biagio Conte: “We were good at not falling, however we had a bit of bad luck as we had three punctures: right at the end Sevilla punctured so he broke away and then managed to get to the finish, same for Raccani who all day long was very good at working for his teammates. Good Bais, Fetter, Lonardi and Bevilacqua who raced all day together: in the final we missed a bit because there were several falls and we had to close the holes that were forming. We suffered a lot from the heat; we hope to recover to do better in the next stage. Good job to Bais, who came in the end to make the sprint and Fetter who came in with the leaders keeping all the chances of making the general classification intact.”