Alba Teruel beats deluge at Navarra’s Spanish Series showdown
26 May 2018

Sixth victory for Movistar Team in 2018

Spanish youngster wins rain-soaked, shortened GP Burundesa, only 33km in length due to foul weather conditions.

A jaw-dropping deluge, even harder than the one the Movistar Team riders suffered at Friday’s Classique Morbihan -where Alicia González took 3rd-, hit the Egüés valley, home of the Movistar Team, at Saturday’s first edition of the GP La Burundesa, ending round of the Spanish National Series for 2018. At the Navarran town, Alba Teruel opened her account for the season and claimed the Blues’ sixth win since February.

The bad weather forced the organisers to shorten the route, originally planned over 80km in and around Sarriguren, and finish the elite / under-23 race after the first passage through the finish, with only 33km to be covered. As the abrupt end to the race was announced, a duo with Teruel and Lucía González (BDM) detached from the field at the non-categorized climb to Badostain. At the finish, Alba’s better speed rewarded her the win before González, with Rodríguez in 3rd place after jumping off the front shortly after Teruel.

Alba’s victory rounds off an almost perfect Spanish Series for the Jorge Sanz-led squad, having won five of the six rounds and claimed a 2nd place -at Caspe, with Alba herself-. The wins were also obtained by five different riders: García (Noja), Rodríguez (Roldán), Merino (Balmaseda) and Oyarbide (Mena) together with today’s victor Teruel, 3rd in the series’ overall classification after Ana Usabiaga (ETK) and Sandra Alonso (BDM).

REACTION / Alba Teruel:

“I’m really happy with this result, even if it was sort of a weird race. The conditions were certainly difficult, and with very few kilometers remaining we were told that the next passage through the finish was going to be the end of the race. We also knew that the Badostain climb was going to be decisive, because we already climbed it last year at a race of the Basque Cup. Alicia González and me jumped away from the field at that ascent last year and could get to the finish ahead, so I knew I had to give it a try there if I wanted not to contest the finish against stronger sprinters inside that group. I did not dare to wait for the finish. At the end, we could win this and the whole team is really content with what we’ve done in the Spanish Series, being able to show the great things we can do together. This win goes to the whole team, which really believed on what we could do, as well as my family and loved ones, always by my side.”