Tommaso Bessega finishes 10th on Memorial Momparler

The Copa de España reached its ninth date in the town of Castelló de la Ribera for the Pascual Momparler Memorial and to leave the trophy on track for the final weekend in Galicia. The team arrived at the race with a strong squad of climbers and sprinters for any of the possible resolutions of the race. Tommaso Bessega finished 10th, leading the bunch after the big group failed to bring down the day’s breakaway.

The race started with an initial breakaway of three riders who, with the consent of the peloton, quickly opened up an advantage. After the first climb to Sumacarcer (3rd) and completing the first lap of the circuit, the leading trio were joined by another 21 cyclists to form the breakaway of the day with 24 riders. The breakaway was more than three and a half minutes ahead of the big group after 60 kilometres.

After the halfway point of the Memorial Momparler, the team started working to catch the breakaway. Despite the fact that many of the riders who were in the lead were dropping off, the pack was unable to completely catch the breakaway, which continued to lose riders little by little. The team’s work managed to neutralise 13 of the escapees, but did not get the expected reward. Tommaso Bessega led the bunch in 10th position, 58 seconds behind the day’s winner.

“Today in the race the whole team made a mistake in the first part because there was a breakaway of a very big group and none of us were in it. Then in the final part of the race the team tried to close the gap by pulling as hard as possible, but they had taken too much advantage and we couldn’t catch all the escapees. I gave a bitter consolation to the whole team by winning the bunch sprint,” said T. Bessega at the end of the race.

Archive photograph: Bidasoa Itzulia / Ziklix