The collective strength of a team with high morale at the doyenne of the Copa de España
87º Santikutz Klasika
Legazpi – Legazpi (145,8 km)
Present in all the editions of the Copa de España since the creation of the event in 1999, the Santikutz Klasika returns to the roads after the forced postponement of the last edition due to the health situation generated by the coronavirus pandemic. The race in Gipuzkoa proposes a different route to that of the 2019 edition. Aztiria, 5.7 kilometres at 6.1%, will be the last of the eleven qualifying climbs proposed by the race this year. It will be crowned with less than seven kilometres to go.
The U23 team of the Contador Foundation travels to the Basque Country with a team formed by Vicente Hernaiz, Álvaro García, Arnau Gilabert, Álex Martín, David Martín, Fernando Tercero and the Italian Davide Piganzoli. The Lombard rider will make his debut with his new colours in a Spanish race and arrives after an outstanding participation in the Giro di Romagna with an Italian team that also included his teammates Alessio Acco and Andrea Montoli.
“The Giro di Romagna has been a great experience, I felt very good from the first to the last day. On the first day I was able to attack and ride in the breakaway, but they caught us near the finish line. I worked hard for my team-mates, I learned a lot and I’m very happy with my performance”, he says about his last race. And with a view to his debut on the routes of the Basque Country, he adds: “I’m looking forward to this race. It’s an honour for me to have been chosen. It’s a tough race. I personally like races like this, with hard climbs, not so long, and where the battle for the victory can be in a reduced group of twenty or thirty riders. We are looking forward to helping the team as much as possible”.
Another cyclist who will also make his debut in Legazpi is Álex Martín: “I have never raced in Legazpi. It’s a very tough race, but it’s not for pure climbers. It is a technical race with strong climbs where I will win if I am a smart rider who knows how to manage the final part very well. It’s not a race for pure climbers, but personally it suits me well: I think I can handle this kind of shorter and explosive climbs. We are going with the confidence of what we did in Valladolid, and also with a very strong team. The profile is very good for Vicente, who is in great shape and climbs a lot when he is in form”.
“The truth is that we were very happy with the way the Memorial Ángel Lozano turned out, because David’s victory did justice to the way we had been racing lately”, says Martín about the last weekend. “The whole team was where they had to be to give David all the peace of mind he needed so that he could focus only on tackling the final volley. In the last part of the race we tried to be even more active with the aim of making the race harder, as it wasn’t too hard and in the sprint a lot of people could enter who otherwise wouldn’t be racing. In short, it could be a crazier sprint. David has also been able to position himself in the Cup and is in the fight for the general classification, for which there is still a long way to go”.
“I was very happy for David, he is a wonderful guy, and of course for the team. We shared some very good days a few weeks ago in the Trofeo Piva and the Giro del Belvedere. It’s a great reward for the work the team is doing,” concludes Piganzoli.
