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U23

28 May 2022

Marcel Camprubí wins his first race like blue rider at the summit of the Cerro de San Cristóbal after a day of fighting and battling

Vuelta a Navarra
Stage 3: Lekunberri – Berrioplano (134,5 km)

Marcel Camprubí from Barcelona triumphed at the summit of Cerro San Cristóbal, the finish line of a frenetic stage of the Vuelta a Navarra in which the change of leadership, now in the hands of Alejandro Franco (Gomur), took place and in which the EOLO-KOMETA Cycling Team put together a sensational group performance in which they had to manage adversity at some point.

A group of sixteen riders, with triple presence of the EOLO-KOMETA Cycling Team and in which the leader Knight did not ride, was the one that monopolized many of the movements in a day that in its first third had to face two climbs of entity, one for arriving in cold and another for its hardness.

Zuarrarrate outlined the combativeness of the day and was the scene, on its descent, of several falls that, among others, affected Camprubí himself. San Miguel de Aralar made the race very selective and after the passage through its ramps and the subsequent descent there was a group of around 40 cyclists in the lead.

On the ascent to Gorostieda, with a great pace from Laboral Kutxa and EOLO-KOMETA, the leading group was re-selected without Oliver Knight, until today’s leader, making it through the sieve. A phase of the race began with twenty riders involved (Arnau Gilabert, Andrea Pietrobon and Marcel Camprubí on behalf of the blue team) in which many attacks took place, including one with Gilabert’s signature.

Before the climb to Marcalan, Enekoitz Azparren and Unai Esparza broke away, and Camprubí caught up with them. The three of them managed the last kilometres, in which they had to overcome a stretch of ‘sterrato’. On the final climb, without the company of Esparza, they managed to defend the twenty-second margin to fight for the win.

Behind them, a group of illustrious riders, with Alejandro Franco and Harrison Wood standing out in their battle for the lead, now in the hands of the Spaniard. A great climb by Gilabert, who jumps to the eighth position in a general classification in which Camprubí is seventh. By teams, the EOLO-KOMETA Cycling Team won the stage and now leads this secondary classification.

“I’m very happy. I fell on some brambles and my legs are very sore”, smiles Marcel Camprubí after his victory. “The first climb was on fire and the descent was the same. I was riding in 20th place or so in the bunch when I came across five riders on the ground in a bend. I couldn’t even rectify or avoid the fall. And like me, many others. It was quite a pile-up. Then I had to row to get back to the group”.

The Catalan added: “We caught up with the bunch right at the base of San Miguel de Aralar and maybe I was a bit of a novice. As soon as I arrived, I started. I wasn’t recovered and I thought that my stage was going to be over soon, I told Arnau to save it for later. I moved, I left, I ended up being chased and I came back to stay. However, after that we got back on track and the sensations got better and better. I was able to be in the group that left Gorostieda, where the leader was not. It was a very nice phase of the race, with many attacks and counterattacks, where you had to read every move well. Afterwards, Azparren and Esparza went off. On a slope I told myself to get out, because they could go. It took me a long time, but I caught them. And then we had the wind behind us, which helped us a lot”.

This Sunday, to bring the round of Navarre to a close, comes the stage of the short climbs…

[ 📷  @Vuelta_Navarra (1, 2, 5)]

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