Eider Merino 15th at Durango-Durango

Second day in Navarra

La vizcaína encabezó a Movistar Team en una nueva demostración en solitario de Van Vleuten (MTS), tres de tres en el reinicio de la competición en España.

/ Today’s route

It was a parcours well known by all competitors from previous years, with 113km comprising an early look around the towns of Atxondo, Abadiño, Berriz + the climb of Miota (5x) and another, more demanding and decisive, over the Alto de Goiuria (2x) and the slopes of Garai / San Juan, just before that final climb.

/ Weather report

It was quite the same as in Navarra’s races few days prior, with constant temperatures around 27ºC, some clouds covering the sun and a breeze of north-northeasterly wind, which didn’t play a factor in today’s racing.

Teams’ introduction in Durango. (c) Photo Gomez Sport

/ Keys to the race

While the 2019 race saw a long break, including Alicia González, coming to fruition against the main field and serving Lucy Kennedy (MTS) as launchpad for success, the Spaniard, together with a very active Alba Teruel and the rest of her team-mates, covered every early move at the front of the bunch. The first two hours of racing, covered at over 40kph average, prevented any major attacks from sticking at the Miota circuit.

Lourdes Oyarbide and Paula Patiño, who was back with her Movistar Team-mates after ten months away from the squad. (c) Photo Gomez Sport

At the first ascent to Goiuria, García (ALE) took advantage from a previous move by team-mate Boogaard to create a gap on the main favourites, a reduced group with Eider Merino always near the front. Her adventure ended just before the top as World Champion Annemiek Van Vleuten (MTS) led the favourites’ group to chase her down, with less than 20 riders together.
At the decisive slopes of San Juan (max. 17%; 1km at 11%), Van Vleuten went away solo and kept a beautiful contest against Anna Van der Breggen (DLT, 2nd) to seal her third consecutive win this week by just eighteen seconds. Merino fought until the very end inside an elite pursuit group to finish in 15th, 1’38” back, with the same time of 5th place.

The landscapes at the top of the Miota climb. (c) Photo Gomez Sport

/ What’s next

The women’s Movistar Team looks forward to next Saturday’s (August 1st) Strade Bianche, where both the women’s and men’s rosters will wear the Charity Jersey created by its fans. A portion of the team will head, though, towards Andorra, where they will complete an altitude training camp before resuming their schedule -disrupted by the cancellations of the WWT events in Sweden and Norway- at the La Périgord race in France on Saturday 15th.

Cover picture (c): Photo Gomez Sport