The under-23 faces the Copa de España challenge

After starting the season last weekend at the Sanroma Memorial, the under-23 team faces the start of the Copa de España with the 58th Circuito del Guadiana in Don Benito. The town will host in the same weekend the races for the junior and under-23 categories, in which the Polti Kometa development teams will be present. In the case of the under-23s, the race will start at 10am on Sunday from the Avenida Alonso Martín.

The race represents the debut of the team in the Copa de España 2024, being Circuito del Guadiana the first of 11 races during the months of February until May. The race will consist of 4 laps on the same circuit as the rest of the categories. In total, 171.4 kilometres with Magacela as the only mountainous difficulty. The famous ‘wall’ of 1 kilometre at an average gradient of 11.7% will break the bunch on each of the four climbs that count towards the mountain classification. In addition, the race will have three intermediate sprints on the finish line before the arrive. The winner will be the first leader of the Copa de España.

Quotes

Rafael Diaz Justo: “We are bringing a different team compared to other years and we have focused on lining up riders who have the specific profile for this race; cyclist who can get over the steep slopes without any problems and with top speed. The weather forecast is quite adverse with rain and wind, which is totally different from other years. That will make the race different. We are expecting to compete in the race with Tommasso and to study Novak’s (Samuel) progress in this type of race because of his youth”.

Samuel Novak: “So this will be my first race in the u23 category and my first race in Spain. I am looking forward and I am curious how we will work as a team and I will try to help as much as possible”.

Line-up: Gerard Cano, Gabriele Raccagni, Gabriele Bessega, Tommasso Bessega, Manuel Sanroma, Martín Barrero and Samuel Novak.

Don Benito – Don Benito 171,4km