Seventh place for Juan Pedro López in Santa Cruz

85ª Santikutz Klasika
Legazpi-Legazpi (147 km)

In the monumental Classic of Santa Cruz de Legazpi (Gipuzkoa), Antonio Gómez from Cordoba scored his second success in this 2018 Spanish Cup after the Classic of Torredonjimeno and another Andalusian, Juan Pedro López, was the best classified of the Polartec-Kometa U23. The Sevillian finished seventh in the first group to reach the finish line, 42 seconds behind the triumphant Gomez.  The team of the Fundación Contador shows a great performance, with a lot of presence in the race, which only lacked the completion of a major success. But he leaves Legazpi with a second place in the team classification and two of his riders, Carlos García and Alejandro Regueiro, involved in the fight for the overall mountain standings.

Regueiro and García were very attentive to the first movements that took place in the Classic. Jorge Pastor took over from him to join the eight-team squad that would lead the race for a moment during the competition and would be enough to crown Atziria first. During the first pass through Eizaga climb, Regueiro and García would go on the attack and, after the second pass through Atziria, Cantoni and García would be the ones to carry out this task, integrating themselves into a breakaway of eighteen runners. The most relevant and decisive escape of the day, because it would take a good mattress of time with ease, because it had many teams represented and because of it, in the ascent to Liernia, would leave the three men (Joel Nicolau, Antonio Gómez and Óscar Linares) who will compose the escape that will catapult the Andalusian Gómez.

Already with Gomez alone at the head of the race, with a minute and a half of margin, the Polartec-Kometa will work with the Lizarte of the still leader of the Spanish Cup Antonio Soto, finally sixth in the finish line, to try to reduce the differences to the maximum.  “In the weather it was a very complicated race with almost three hours of very bad weather, which has influenced in mishaps and falls”, explains the director Rafa Díaz Justo. Carlos Garcia, without consequences, went to the ground for the last few kilometers. “We managed to get two of our guys into the eighteen-unit breakout that took almost three minutes. That leak, in order to control the race, was going well. But at the same time it benefited Lizarte and the escape itself. The Lizarte team managed to subtract a lot of points for the Cup overall. And the break, because there were several members of the Caja Rural. It was a bit of a complicated situation. When the trio formed, we were able to tell our men to wait for the pack behind them. But as far as distance is concerned, there was no material time. Juanpe and Carlos arrived in that first group and José Antonio was first in the sprint of a second group”.

Without pause, the Spanish Cup returns this Sunday in Catalonia with the celebration of its penultimate race: the Memorial Xavi Tondo of Valls.
(automatic translation, sorry for mistakes)

📸 El Pelotón