Pablo García wins in Padrón
The Rutas Xacobeas opened the weekend of competition in Galicia. After a great work by the whole team Pablo García achieved the victory. The rider from Madrid wins his second race of the season and his first in the Copa de España.
The race began with a great control by the bunch that did not allow any rider to open advantage at the head of the race. Attacks followed one after the other trying to break the hegemony of the group. In this situation the race reached the first intermediate sprint of the day with Gabriele Raccagni crossing second. Raccagni himself crossed the Alto de Bexo in third place and managed to escape with two other riders kilometres later. He reached the Alto de Agrela Lampal top on first place, but was neutralized at kilometre 50. After the winding terrain on the start, in the intermediate zone of the race a breakaway managed to open distance over a peloton that would neutralize the movement at kilometre 100 of the race before starting the ascent to the Alto do Martelo.
The race reached its decisive phase with all the riders of the team well placed in the peloton. Luca Bagnara, Martín Barrero, Antonio Gónzalez, Dario Giuliano and Pablo García himself were at the head of the bunch. Gerard Cano was the first rider to reach the top of the Alto da Pereira, trying to make an offensive move. The group was not permissive and climbed compactly to the Alto da Pereira with Antonio Gonzalez crowning in second place. The team continued their involvement in the race and imposed a great pace on the bunch with Raccagni, Cano and Bagnara.
Pablo García followed up the work of his team-mates and started on the first ramps of the Alto de Aguasantas breaking the bunch and forming a group of three riders together with the leader of the Copa de España. He attacked again and soloed to the top of the climb. He managed his gap over a chasing group of 12 riders and only one rider managed to catch him 7 kilometres from the finish line. Together they reached the final meters and Pablo García took the victory.
García also won the mountains classification ahead of his teammate Cano. The squad, after the victory and the result of Dario Giuliano (16th) and Martín Barrero (17th), who was very active in the final zone drying up attacks in the chasing group, achieved the team victory
“I went off in the hardest part of the race, which is what we had talked about. It was a bit of a strange situation in which I went with the Copa de España leader and his team-mate. I thought it was to my advantage, but we didn’t have much of a gap, so I decided to ride alone. It was a bit long because I wasn’t getting any references. It was difficult to manage the situation and when Hugo came in behind me I knew I had to try to make him nervous and in the end I was very happy”, explained Pablo García to the microphones after the race. “I was a bit desperate because I made quite a big effort for a while. I wanted to regulate myself because I’ve come from a difficult month with good feelings, but with bad luck in terms of cramps and mechanical problems and I think I deserved a finish like this”, he added.
Rafael Diaz Justo was in charge of the team in the Galician race and was able to celebrate a very important victory: “The race was complicated due to the weather, but we didn’t suffer any crashes because today we rode at the front. We started without a clear leader and the race has been putting everyone in their place. Where I did insist was in the final sprint so that Pablo had the necessary cold blood. We were lucky, but the experience was useful. The victory gives us a lot of energy and tomorrow we face another very hard day”.
Photos: Ciclismo El Pelotón and Caja Rural Alea
