Joan Martí Bennassar, Spanish champion of Individual Pursuit
Joan Martí Bennassar managed to be proclaimed for the second year in a row champion of Spain of individual pursuit with an excellent time, 3:28, after having been also in his first junior year and after having started on the track being champion of Spain Cadet by teams. The Majorcan once again proved his excellent conditions as a rouleur and timetrialist, and despite not having specially prepared the track. “I had not trained this championship, I only adapted the last two workouts to the track and nothing more. The rest has been thanks to the work for the road and the good shape in which I am at the moment”, explains the rider of Polartec Team. His next challenge will be the Federation Trophy, which runs Sunday in Gipuzkoa. “I’m very motivated to run it. We have been told that the route has a couple of climbs of the Classic Premundial and that will be hard, but I feel very well and very strong”.
Bennassar began as a child at the Inca Cyclist Club, where the director was his godfather, and since then he has continued to engage his vocation. “I wanted to join the Alberto Contador Foundation because is one of the best teams in Spain and I wanted to take advantage of the possibilities they offered me to move to Under-23, because here it has more impact what you do and is a high level team, which means you have more chances to become professional, that is my goal”.
His relationship with the track begins thanks to the Center of High Performance of the Balearics Islands and to the possibilities offered to its riders to train in the Palma Arena, one of the best tracks in Europe. “I’ve been on the track for three years and this is the third year I’ve won the Pursuit. In cadets I only ran the quatrain and we won the gold medal, and these last two years I have won the Individual Pursuit, “says Joan Martí, who defines himself, of course, as “a good rouleur who loves the time trial, because it’s a very personal discipline, where you depend on yourself and where you are the only one who marks the time”.
But apart from this result, his dreams continue to pass by the road. “I am a rider who rolls well and pass the middle mountain in front. Now what I would like is to improve in that area and get ahead in the long climbs, which for now cost me a lot more”. All this to fulfill a good season, the second and last as a junior. “This year I would like to win a race, because last year it could not be. This year I will give everything for that and to move to Under-23, which is the next step for many of us at the Contador Foundation and dream of reaching professionals”.
And if that happens, Joan Martí Bennassar confesses that all races “will be special for me, but getting to ride classics like Paris-Roubaix, Flanders, Fleche or Liège will be for me an unforgettable experience in my life”.
