Miguel Moreira 10th in the first stage of Vuelta al Besaya
The Vuelta al Besaya did not start in the best way for the junior team. A fall of Eleazar Jiménez in the middle of the sprint denied the rider from fighting for the privileged positions in the first stage. José Miguel Moreira, who was with him in the leading group, was 10th after spending most of the day in the breakaway.
After some first kilometres with different attacks, a breakaway of 10 riders was consolidated where Miguel Moreira rode and was protagonist during most of the day. The gap between the escapees and the bunch was almost 3 minutes, but the Belgian team Acrog, which despite having representation in the front movement, started the chase. This caused some confusion in the breakaway where the collaboration disappeared. The gap decreased little by little and finally was not closed, as the Belgian team itself did not keep up with the chasing. In the breakaway, the lack of understanding between the riders meant that Miguel Moreira attacked alone. He began the climb to the Collado de Cieza (2nd) in the lead of the race, ahead of a compact bunch at high speed.
The climb was very fast and the Portuguese rider was neutralized at the very top of the climb by a group of nine riders with Eleazar Jiménez in it. The group grew in size on the descent and the riders in the group fought for the victory of the stage. One of the riders of the Belgian team took advantage of the numerical superiority to attack and take the victory. Miguel Moreira was tenth in a very complicated sprint and with the bad luck that affected Jiménez as he crashed 500 meters from the finish line.
José Miguel Moreira was combative during the first stage of the Vuelta al Besaya, riding in the breakaway and being the best rider of the squad at the finish: “It has been a good day, hard, but good. I was lucky enough to get into a good breakaway in the first kilometres, and as the stage progressed quickly it worked as well as badly afterwards. A few kilometres from the mountain pass the breakaway group broke and when I went to the front no one followed my wheel, dropping my pace. I attacked and went on alone, being caught at the end of the mountain pass and from there I was in the group until the finish. Good feelings, good day and now to continue giving everything to represent the team as best as possible and honouring the sponsors who make all this possible”.
“There was a breakaway with ten riders ahead with Moreira, while the rest were in the bunch with some mechanical issues that we were able to solve without a problem. When they were about to neutralize the breakaway I sent Miguel into the attack to make way ahead and they just caught him at the top. Team Acrog had the majority and it worked out well for them. As a team, they have ridden well, with Moreira in an offensive group and his teammates riding at the front behind him. Besides, strenghts were not powerful enough. Eleazar has a few scratches, but he’s fine. In the stage races, you don’t win on the first day, but you can lose, and with everything that has happened, we have saved the day. Tomorrow more and better”, were the words of Isaac Cantón at the end of the first day in Cantabria.
Photo: The North Photo and Avituallamiento con Roque
