López has a great climb to the Grand Colombier; at l´Ain, fourteenth
31st Tour of l´Ain
Stage 3: Parc des Oiseaux – Grand Colombier (118.9 km)
He arrived with gallons to make a good final classification in a test with numerous sets ‘WorldTour’ and ‘professional continental’ and the objective can be considered consummate to few days of facing one of the great objectives of the course: the Tour of Hungary. The Andalusian Juan Pedro López ascended to the fourteenth place in the general classification of a demanding Tour of l´Ain that concluded this Sunday in the summit of the Grand Colombier with a double, partial and absolute victory, for the French Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ). The second best youngster of the race.
Beyond the break of six cyclists who starred in a good part of this short final stage, less than 119 kilometers of official route, the ascent to the Grand Colombier emerged as the fundamental enclave of a day in which, with a fairly tight overall, was going to say the final classification. López showed again his climbing skills to finish 18th, 3:12 from a superlative Pinot.
The French rider attacked within the last thirteen kilometers and blew up a climb to the heart of the Jura Massif that ended up becoming a survival exercise. At his own pace, from less to more, Lopez ended up with a formidable climb. “Yes, I’m happy. We went ahead until at the end I opted for regular, because if it had not been so I would have burst. But I’m happy. I draw a very good conclusion, because in this race there was a lot of level and I could be there,” explains the rider from Lebrija.
If Lopez was the first of the Kometa Cycling Team riders to reach the finish line, the Portuguese Daniel Viegas was the last of the boys of the Madrid team, at 19:14, at 83rd place, after another day of hard work in the race. “I liked this race very much, because it was a very high level race. It is in these races where you can gain more experience. The climb up to the Grand Colombier seemed very hard to me, it’s one of those passes where the kilometres don’t seem to pass. You don’t seem to be advancing. But in the end I’ll keep the race, which I liked very much. To be a good cyclist you have to do everything. And not just flat races”, jokes the Algarve cyclist.
Jesús Hernández, director of the Kometa Cycling Team: “The start was not the best because of Isaac Cantón’s last minute sick leave. Going out with a lesser rider is always noticeable. But the boys were very attentive to all the circumstances of the race, fighting even for escapes that have been very expensive in this race. I would highlight above all that they have had very clear ideas and that they have always run very close together. Stefano Oldani always kept in mind on the first day that the most important thing was to enter the last corner very well and there he was fighting. And in the two high finals Juan Pedro, who has just come out of an injury, has shown his great climbing skills in front of WorldTour riders”.
? E. Haumesser / Tour de l´Ain
