Burgos (st. 1) / Pologne (st. 3)
Spaniard 3rd at Vuelta a Burgos opener in Clunia, strongest at end of sprint as Barbero (CJR) succeeds. Crucial TTT coming up on Wednesday
The 37th Vuelta a Burgos started calm and with no incidents on Tuesday with an interesting uphill finish in the ‘Roman City’ of Clunia, where the Movistar Team -always on the front of the bunch, even driving the pace with Rory Sutherland and Javi Moreno near the end of the 149km course- tried to shine with Jesús Herrada.
The 25-year-old from Cuenca gained confidence into a finish perfectly controlled by Carlos Barbero (CJR), with Herrada progressing meter by meter to end up being the fastest into the final section, yet with no terrain left to overtake Dani Moreno (KAT, 2nd) and fight for victory against the local hero, now first leader in Spain.
Rubén Fernández, Dayer Quintana and Winner Anacona finished into a first pursuit group, 3” down, into this first test prior to Wednesday’s trascendental TTT in the streets of Burgos, almost 14km long and including the climb towards the Castillo next to the city.
In turn, calmness prevalied in the Tour de Pologne, where Ion Izagirre and Juanjo Lobato recovered well from blows and bruises suffered on yesterday's mass crash. Italian Matteo Pelucchi (IAM) took his second victory in the race at Katowice on Tuesday, in the third of four expected sprints as the race hits Nowy Sacz tomorrow. 220km are on the day's programme, starting at Jaworzno.
Picture ©: Vuelta a Burgos