“In these five days we have seen a warrior formation, predisposed to encourage the race”
42nd Vuelta Ciclista a Burgos
Stage 5: Covarrubias – Lagunas de Neila (158 km)
A frenetic first hour, with a very high average of 47 km/h, condenses the difficulties that the adventurers found to manage to conform a break in the queen day, and final, of the Tour of Burgos. The Italian Alessandro Fancellu tried it out in the first fifteen kilometers riding in a quintet that at times seemed to be able to get away with it. He ended up being as unsuccessful as many others. With the race launched, after the first thirty kilometers a group of good climbers was born. The pack took it for granted and quickly took two minutes. Alejandro Ropero reacted from behind trying to join what ended up being a sextet without representation from the Kometa-Xstra Cycling Team.
After the good beating on Friday, this Saturday Ropero pedaled in a phase of the stage between two waters, with 1:40 over the head of the race and with four minutes over a bunch that took a moment of calm in front of the mountain that was coming. The Grenadian, willing, would approach until 1:15, but the collaboration of the men in front turned his efforts to reach the head of the race in an impossible mission. At the height of kilometre 50 the Andalusian lifted his foot to return to the discipline of the peloton. The escape would open the race to the skirts of the Lagunas de Neila. Eight kilometres from the finish line it was definitely neutralised by a platoon that, at the rhythm of the Bahrain-McLaren, flew in the last third of the stage. In the finish, after an attack in the last kilometer, the Colombian Ivan Ramiro Sosa would be the third consecutive winner; the general, on the other hand, was going away to the windows of the very young Belgian Remco Evenepoel.
Hungary’s Márton Dina would be the first of the Kometa-Xstra riders on the finish line, 3:51 from the winner in the 51st position. The Hungarian finished the Burgos round in 48th position, 19:15 from Enevepoel. “It was a hard one. I’m sad to today I didn’t had the legs for a good result. I came here for the nice gc result but I had to change the plan after the first stage. Tried to help to my teammates and be in the break on the days. I hope I can use this experience on the next races”, tells Dina.
Jesús Hernández, director of the Kometa-Xstra Cycling Team: “We arrived at the Tour of Burgos with a great desire to compete and we left really satisfied with the work that has been done during the five stages. In a race with a very high level of participation, with several of the most powerful teams in the world present, the Kometa-Xstra Cycling Team has raced without complexes, looking for its opportunities every day. The two awards for combativeness that Riccardo and Diego Pablo achieved, curiously in the stages of the sprinters, come to reflect the dynamics of all stages, the one of going for all, looking for the protagonism in the development of the race. It is true that some mechanical failure and some race situation have deprived us of a better classification in the general, but many times a place by itself does not say anything and instead in these five days we have seen a warlike formation, predisposed to encourage the race. This gives us a lot of encouragement to compete, in a few hours, at the Circuito de Getxo”.
? Santi Otero (1), @victor_lb_2000 (2)
(automatic translation, sorry for mistakes)
