Madrazo confident within very best
14 March 2011

The young hopefuls from Movistar Team keep showing the enormous future in front of them at Tirreno-Adriatico. While Andrey Amador was the one about to snatch the stage victory yesterday with a 240km exhibition on front, it was the turn today for Ángel Madrazo to confirm the hopes on him after becoming arguably the best Spanish rider in his generation on the amateur scene.

The 22-year-old Spaniard contested the victory amongst the very best riders in the world in the demanding finish of the Italian tour’s sixth stage, with four laps being covered in a circuit in Macerata which featured a very hard 2km climb in the finale. The head of the race, which only had some thirty riders after the first two ascents -Madrazo and Arroyo within those-, broke into pieces in the final rush after an attack by Cunego, who left him on front along with Evans, Nibali, Basso, Scarponi and Gilbert. The next to come into the group was Madrazo, who was far from getting scared about such quality into the field and made a strong move just before the ‘flamme rouge’, keeping himself on the front until the last 600 meters of the stage.

“I thought: it’s now or never,” explained Madrazo minutes after his arrival in 17th place, 16 seconds behind race leader Evans. “I don’t know if I’ve fallen short of experience, but it was the time to try it. I had attacked from way too far from the finish the gays before, because I thought I had nothing to say against them in the finish. However, my DS Jaimerena made me clear I was good and that I had to wait for the finish, because he wasn’t going to leave me attacking before. That’s how we did it, and we almost made it. This is my third season and, just like Amador yesterday, we’ve spent a lot of time in service of the squad in the last two years. We’ve built some good experience and this is the moment to start showing our quality. I have realized today that, if legs are responding, I can contest a win against everyone.”