Return to a long awaited Vuelta a Burgos, always special for the Fundación Contador
43ª Vuelta a Burgos
From 3 to 7 August
How could we not look forward to each edition of the Vuelta a Burgos with impatience, if on its roads a nascent project achieved one of its great victories? The Monte Zoncolan of the Giro 2021 will always be impregnated in the memory of the EOLO-KOMETA Cycling Team and in the same way the sprint of Castrojeriz on August 8, 2018 where the Italian Matteo Moschetti was faster than anyone else. A peculiar race, in a certain artisanal sense, with a very careful organisation and characteristic routes that have turned the winding Castilian routes of broken asphalt and small villages, the Roman city of Clunia, the natural bridge of the river Nela in Puentedey, the orography of Las Merindades or the lake complex of Neila, a paradise in the Spanish Iberian System, into icons. The Vuelta a Burgos is an incentive, a motivation, and also a longing.
The British Mark Christian, the Hungarian Márton Dina, the Italians Vincenzo Albanese and Francesco Gavazzi and the Spaniards Sergio García, Alejandro Ropero and Diego Pablo Sevilla form the seven with which the EOLO-KOMETA Cycling Team starts. A seven in which there are riders with more than enough experience in the race, where they have fought for the breakaways or where even they have obtained some partial victory.
Special mention goes to Francesco Gavazzi. The EOLO-KOMETA captain feels great appreciation for this race, in which he won the first stage of this 2018 edition so special for the Foundation, also with a finish in the surroundings of the castle of the capital of Burgos. The cyclist from Valtellina was the fastest in a battle between Astana and Sky, and wore the first purple leader’s jersey. Special also for Márton Dina, who in Burgos faced his first big stage race with the then continental structure two seasons ago, and year after year has taken steps forward despite the adversities of crashes.
“I’ve always enjoyed the Vuelta a Burgos, of which I have fond memories of a stage victory. This year will again be a race with a high level, with several WorldTour teams that will make achieving results always more difficult. We’re going with a young team that will undoubtedly try to assert itself and get a good result, although it won’t be easy. Personally, I’m in a good condition to fight for it. Or at least try it. In the Settimana Ciclistica Italiana I have achieved a good pedal stroke after a period of work and I arrive well to a race that has days that suit me well and in which I am usually strong”, says Gavazzi.
“For me, the Vuelta a Burgos is a very special and tough race in which the heat is also very important. Last year I expected a bit more from myself, but with time the final result didn’t displease me so much. On the first day I crashed, I lost time and I told myself that I had to improve my first day’s management. It was a great memory to be able to ride in the breakaway on the Picón Blanco stage. The climb is really hard and I lost all my energy there. This year it’s uphill and downhill. I don’t know what the descent is like, and no doubt the climb will be very selective, but the race situation I think will be a totally different story”, says Dina for her part. “It would be nice to be in the breakaways or to be able to fight for one of the secondary classifications. And of course we have two riders like Gavazzi or Albanese who are in a position to fight for the sprints, because the Burgos stages are not the typical sprint stages and the stages that are supposed to be flat are never really flat and there is always the option of the wind”.
The stages.
3rd August: Burgos (cathedral) – Burgos (castle) (161 km).
4th August: Tardajos – Briviesca (175 km).
5th August: Busto de Bureba – Espinosa de los Monteros (173 km).
6th August: Roa de Duero – Aranda de Duero (149 km).
7th August: Comuneros de Revenga – Lagunas de Neila (146 km).
