The toughness of the Memorial Momparler awaits an atypical Copa de España as it enters its final straight

Memorial Momparler
Villanueva de Castellón – Villanueva de Castellón (163 km)

We look back one more year, to 2019. Roger Adriá, Joel Nicolau and Alejandro Ropero were the three qualifiers of that edition. All three are now professionals. And that sums up the goodness of the Levantine stage, Valencian orography, which hosts this Saturday a new round of the Spanish Cup, Copa de España Elite Sub23.

A tough, demanding, complicated route, with slopes that will test strengths and descents that will test skills and courage. Long gone are the days when this race was a rara avis on the national scene, with its definitive commitment to cobblestones with editions in which there were up to 36 kilometres on this surface in a section near La Pobla llarga.

The Cantabrian Álvaro García, the Catalan Arnau Gilabert, the Madrid rider Alejandro Luna, the Asturians Edu Pérez-Landaluce and Yago Segovia and the Andalusians David Martín and José Luis Medina make up the team that will take part in what, due to the circumstances, has ended up being the eighth race of the Cup.