Tour de Pologne (st. 6) / Burgos (st. 3)
Ecuadorian from Movistar Team resists against GC contenders after great support from Quintana, Pedrero, Carretero: ends up just 4" behind main group, sits now twenty seconds off race podium with one tough stage to go.
A committed, orderly performance from the whole group of youngsters from the Movistar Team saw their leader Richard Carapaz shining at the first of two 2018 Tour de Pologne stages in the Tatr mountains. The short (129km), demanding route from Zakopane to Bukovina, featuring up to twelve short categorized hills, brought the Ecuadorian back to the fore in his maiden stagerace appearance after the Giro d’Italia.
#TDP2018 @RichardCarapazM, @pedrero_antonio y @h_carretero continúan con los favoritos tras ser cazada la fuga. Pelotón tirado con fuerza por BMC camino de la antepenúltima subida, Lapsze (3ª). Últimos 19 km. pic.twitter.com/OaKUQWQzjs
— Movistar Team (@Movistar_Team) August 9, 2018
Carapaz, well supported by the whole group directed by José Luis Jaimerena and Pablo Lastras -with honourable mentions to Dayer Quintana, Antonio Pedrero and Héctor Carretero, who covered the Carchí native through the entire last two laps-, responded up to the limit of his energies to the favourites’ moves on the last climb, finishing just 4″ behind a selected main group including stage winner Georg Preidler (GFC).
Richard, 10th over the line, now ranks 15th overall – he’s 47″ behind yellow jersey holder Michal Kwiatkowski (SKY), 23″ off the podium and just 5″ behind the top-ten, before Friday’s mountain showdown in Bukowina. 136km over two laps, containing the hardest gradients of the week -even over 20%-, will decide the event’s outcome.
Burgos: Fernández impetuous at Picón Blanco
Over at the first big mountain stage of the Vuelta a Burgos -149km from Sedano to the brutal Picón Blanco (9km at 9%)-, Winner Anacona and Rubén Fernández were the top Movistar Team performers, part of an early selection of riders halfway through the climb which the Spaniard tried to spice up even further with a move 4km from the line. The subsequent attack from day’s winner Miguel Ángel López (AST), new race leader, got him a decisive advantage which only Iván Sosa (ANS, 2nd) was able to neutralize.
Anacona finished in 18th spot (+1’50”), with Rubén just behind, and remains as top Blue overall, 14th, with two days to go. Friday will see riders take on a slightly uphill finish in Clunia -where Barbero came on top in 2017- before the mountain showdown to the Lagunas de Neila on Saturday.