Martín in breakaway for 145 km, on Pogacar’s day

The first stage of the Vuelta a Andalucia, a stage that was immediately demanding and made of already important climbs, arrived in Santiago de la Espada. The sword stroke, however, came from a phenomenon named Tadej Pogacar: good at taking advantage of the work of his UAE before waving goodbye to everyone and making it 15 kilometers all alone to the finish. The Slovenian champion preceded Spaniards Landa and Rodrifuez (at 38”), already putting a serious mortgage on the overall classification of this beautiful race.

Of course, we have to talk about our riders: and something good to say, indeed, we have. The good thing about Alex Martìn, protagonist of the day’s breakaway that initially saw our Alex together with Gotzon Martin, Clement Alleno and Aaron Van Poucke, then the two Martíns were left alone before being joined by Omar Fraile. The trio held out until 25 km from the finish, when the work of Pogacar’s men removed any hope for the day’s attackers. Well done Alex, for 145 km breakaway in such a difficult stage.

Important day, for us, also because it was Fortunato’s racing debut. Lorenzo managed to stay with the strongest group until Pogacar’s decisive acceleration, and then continued with his pace and arrived with the second chase group.

Jesus Hernandez: “First day here in Andalusia with a good performance from the team, and I’m talking especially about Alex Martìn who went in the breakaway, pedaled well, showed off. It was Fortunato’s debut and we knew he wouldn’t have the pace of the race yet, his wasn’t a super day but he didn’t go bad either: he normally improves day by day, so we are waiting for him. The goal today was to go in the breakaway and show off, and we did that.”

Alex Martìn: “The team’s goal was to put someone in the breakaway, excluding Fortunato, to try to fight for the partial rankings and maybe try to get to the end. I managed to go myself, unfortunately I was hoping for a bigger breakaway because with four riders it is difficult to go far. Still, I’m glad I gave the team visibility, I felt very good, even though on the last climb the group came very strong. Tomorrow, we’ll see what happens.”